Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the impact of changes in the level of social security benefits on people living in unsuitable housing.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions spends around £30bn a year on housing support for renters in both the private and social rented sectors. Benefit rates and the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) are reviewed annually.
From April this year the Government is investing £1.2 billion increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This significant investment ensures 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit gain on average, nearly £800 in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024/25.
LHA provides a reasonable level of housing support towards rental costs in the private rented sector. LHA rates are not intended to cover all rents in all areas.
The Department works closely with other government departments, stakeholders, jobcentres, and local authorities to understand the impact of its policies.
For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and need further support Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7 billion in DHP funding to local authorities.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it remains his Department's policy for benefits to continue to be increased in line with inflation.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is required by law to undertake an annual review of State Pensions and benefits.
The Secretary of State will commence his 2025/26 up-rating review in the Autumn.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has received recent representations from the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers on safety risks in the offshore helicopter supply chain.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The responsibility for safety risks in the offshore helicopter supply chain lies with the Civil Aviation Authority. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is not aware that the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has received recent representations from the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers on this matter.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when Ministers in his Department last requested information from officials on the (a) number, (b) age and (c) disabilities of children living in households subject to a Universal Credit sanction.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Ministers frequently ask officials for data and information on a wide range of subjects both informally and formally.
Statistics are published regularly showing the number of Universal Credit full-service customers with a payment that has been reduced due to a sanction. These can be found in the Universal Credit sanction rates dataset on Stat-Xplore (https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/jsf/login.xhtml). Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, they can also access guidance (https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html) on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 16 October 2023 to Question 199738 on Universal Credit: Disqualification, for what reason information on the number of children living in households subject to a Universal Credit sanction is not readily available.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department records information on the number of children living in Universal Credit households and these are published every three months as part of the official Universal Credit statistics (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics). The Department also records information on the number of people who have received a sanction on Universal Credit, and these are published every three months as part of the official Benefit Sanctions Statistics (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions). These statistics are produced using different methodologies and it is not possible to provide appropriately quality assured statistics within the disproportionate cost limit.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of (a) tax credits only, (b) income-based jobseekers allowance, (c) employment support allowance and tax credits, (d) income support, (e) housing benefit only, other than people in supported accommodation or temporary accommodation and (f) housing benefit and tax credits only his Department plans to send a migration notice to in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Move to UC Notifications (household) Aut-2023 | 24/25 |
JSA income based | 20,000 |
ESA income based (and Child Tax Credits) | 90,000 |
Income Support | 110,000 |
Tax Credit & Housing Benefit | 120,000 |
Tax Credit only | 10,000 |
Housing Benefit only | 100,000 |
Total | 440,000 |
Notes:
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether jobcentres collect data on the (a) number, (b) age and (c) disabilities of children in households subject to Universal Credit sanctions.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department collects information on UC households which includes the number of children by age group and the age of the youngest child. The Department also collects data on UC households with entitlement to the Disabled Child element which is payable where a child is entitled to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Personal Independence Payment (PIP). All this information is published as part of the quarterly Universal Credit statistics (see https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics), with further breakdowns available in the Households on Universal Credit dataset on Stat-Xplore (see https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/jsf/tableView/tableView.xhtml).
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department’s publication entitled Universal Credit claimants eligible for and receiving the childcare element between March 2021 to February 2022, published on 29 June 2022, whether he plans to publish an update to these statistics.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We intend to publish proposals on the future release of these statistics in due course at: UC Research and Statistics Announcements
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department provides to (a) work coaches and (b) decision makers on, (i) referring for sanctions and (ii) imposing sanctions on, Universal Credit claimants with dependent children.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Comprehensive Universal Credit guidance is provided to Work Coaches when referring cases for a decision, which may lead to a sanction. For example, before referring for or applying a sanction, staff must consider if the claimant is a care leaver, has complex needs, is vulnerable, has a health condition or if there have been previous sanctions recorded in the last 12 months.
For sanctions imposed on Universal Credit claimants with dependent children; all claimants will have their conditionality tailored to their individual circumstances.
Relevant guidance for Decision Makers is available on GOV.uk. Specific relevant chapters can be found here:
K1: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/644a43f8faf4aa0012e12f52/admk1.pdf
K2: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/61e13d648fa8f5058667834d/adm-k2.pdf
K3: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64b6afc961adff000d01b2f9/admk3.pdf
K4: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5c92307840f0b633f71989d7/admk4.pdf
K5: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64ca5b6421df0f000dab4be6/admk5.pdf
K6: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d0b94a3e5274a0694afe5c3/admk6.pdf
K8: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5aa2811de5274a3e391e37a6/admk8.pdf
K9: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64b6afd60ea2cb000d15e546/admk9.pdf
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of (a) single and (b) couple parent households receiving universal credit (i) were eligible for and (ii) received the childcare element in each region in the latest month for which data is available.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Statistics on the number of households in receipt of Universal Credit are published every three months. The latest statistics, to August 2023, are available by family type and if they receive the childcare element, and by region on Stat-Xplore.
Statistics on the number of households who are eligible for the childcare element are not routinely published, but we are looking to develop the official UC household statistics to include these statistics. Further details will be published here in due course.