Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households there are in the private rented sector in receipt of universal credit with the housing element in payment; of those households, how many and what proportion have rents which exceed the local housing allowance (LHA); and what the median gap is between the rent and the LHA, for each broad rental market area in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales, for the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The requested information is in the provided attachment. Government spends around £30bn annually on housing support. In addition, Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates will be increased from April 2024 to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This will mean 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit (UC) will gain on average around £800 a year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024-25. This is at a cost of £7bn over five years.
The Secretary of State has committed to review LHA rates annually. That review includes consideration of current rents, as well as the broader fiscal context. LHA rates are not intended to meet all rents in all areas: instead it ensures that claimants in similar circumstances and area are treated the same.
For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and require additional support Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7 billion to local authorities for households who need additional support with their housing costs.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in the private rented sector are in receipt of the housing element of Universal Credit; of those households, how many have rents which exceed the local housing allowance rate; and what is the median gap between the rent and the local housing allowance broken down by the number of children in the household in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales, for the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are unable to provide a breakdown of estimates as providing this information will take us over the resource requirement for this PQ due to data quality issues.
Government spends around £30bn annually on housing support. In addition, Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates will be increased from April 2024 to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This will mean 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit (UC) will gain on average around £800 a year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024-25. This is at a cost of £7bn over five years.
The Secretary of State has committed to review LHA rates annually. That review includes consideration of current rents, as well as the broader fiscal context. LHA rates are not intended to meet all rents in all areas: instead it ensures that claimants in similar circumstances and area are treated the same.
For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and require additional support Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7 billion to local authorities for households who need additional support with their housing costs.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in receipt of universal credit in the private rented sector with the housing element in payment have one or more members with limited capability for work and/or for work-related activity; of those households, how many and what proportion have rents that exceed the local housing allowance (LHA) rate; and what the median gap is between the rent and the LHA in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales, in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The requested information is in the provided attachment. Government spends around £30bn annually on housing support. In addition, Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates will be increased from April 2024 to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This will mean 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit (UC) will gain on average around £800 a year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024-25. This is at a cost of £7bn over five years.
The Secretary of State has committed to review LHA rates annually. That review includes consideration of current rents, as well as the broader fiscal context. LHA rates are not intended to meet all rents in all areas: instead it ensures that claimants in similar circumstances and area are treated the same.
For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and require additional support Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7 billion to local authorities for households who need additional support with their housing costs.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in the private rented sector there are in receipt of housing benefit in payment; of those households, how many and what proportion have rents which exceed the local housing allowance (LHA) rate; and what the median gap is between the rent and the LHA rate, for each broad rental market area in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales, in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The requested information is in the provided attachment. Government spends around £30bn annually on housing support. In addition, Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates will be increased from April 2024 to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This will mean 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit (UC) will gain on average around £800 a year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024-25. This is at a cost of £7bn over five years.
The Secretary of State has committed to review LHA rates annually. That review includes consideration of current rents, as well as the broader fiscal context. LHA rates are not intended to meet all rents in all areas: instead it ensures that claimants in similar circumstances and area are treated the same.
For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and require additional support Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7 billion to local authorities for households who need additional support with their housing costs.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 9806 on Fraud, for what reason his Department forecasts that fraudulent behaviour will rise by five per cent per year.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The 5% forecast assumption is an Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) figure based on a range of evidence, most notably the Home Office statistics that show that fraud has been consistently rising across the economy over recent years.
This is further supported by the recent British Social Attitudes survey - British Social Attitudes: Fraud and Error in Welfare Benefits, 2016 to 2022 (publishing.service.gov.uk) which shows that public tolerance of benefit fraud has increased over the last few years.
Further detail of all factors considered can be found at Q98 of the Public Accounts Committee from September 2023 - committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/13676/pdf/
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
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 DWP's ministerial meetings, July to September 2023, published on 14 December 2023, if he will list the (a) organisations and (b) individuals who attended the departmental roundtable on 25 September 2023.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There was no departmental roundtable on the 25th September 2023.
The previous Minister for Disabled People, Health & Work met with a number of stakeholders separately on the 25th September 2023 to discuss the Disability Perceptions Campaign Launch.
These organisations are listed here under ‘DWP's ministerial meetings, July to September 2023’.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 January 2024 to Question 7902 on Social Security Benefits: Disability, if she will provide a breakdown of those figures by age; and how many and what proportion of people who left the group in that time period did so as a result of reaching state pension age.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The age breakdown of the 65,900 claimants who were in the Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity group in November 2022 but had left that group by November 2023 is below. Currently we do not report aggregate information that directly identifies if the reason for leaving the group is as a result of reaching state pension age and to collate and quality assure this information would incur disproportionate costs. However, 15,700 of these claimants were aged 65 in November 2022, so would have turned 66 during the year.
Age Group | UC claimants who were in the LCWRA group in November 2022 but not in the LCWRA group in November 2023 | Percentage |
Missing - no match to age information | 700 | 1.0% |
Under 20 | 400 | 0.5% |
20 - 24 | 3,000 | 4.5% |
25 - 29 | 3,600 | 5.5% |
30 - 34 | 4,400 | 6.6% |
35 - 39 | 4,400 | 6.7% |
40 - 44 | 4,600 | 6.9% |
45 - 49 | 4,500 | 6.9% |
50 - 54 | 5,700 | 8.7% |
55 - 59 | 6,800 | 10.3% |
60 - 64 | 7,700 | 11.6% |
65 - 69 | 19,800 | 30.0% |
70 and over | 400 | 0.7% |
Total | 65,900 |
|
Notes:
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, who determines whether a paper presented to the Universal Credit Programme Board is a below the line item and therefore not automatically deposited in the Library after two years.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Senior Responsible Owner for Universal Credit determines whether papers go to the Programme Board as agenda items. However, all papers, including those below the line, are covered by our publication strategy. All Universal Credit Programme Board papers are automatically published in twice yearly batches (April and October) covering a 6-month period, 2 years after the date of the last meeting in the appropriate batch.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Fourth Report of the Public Accounts Committee of 2023–24 on The Department for Work & Pensions Annual Report and Accounts 2022–23, HC 290, published on 16 November 2023, for what reason his Department assumes that fraud will rise by five per cent each year.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We do not forecast that fraud will rise by 5% per year. We forecast that fraudulent behaviour (or the propensity to commit fraud) will rise by 5% per year.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the 18% of Universal Credit claims which contain an element of fraud.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The 18% figure shown in Table 12 of the estimates on Fraud and Error in the benefit system during the financial year 2022 to 2023 is based on a randomly selected sample of UC claims. More detail on the causes of fraud and error in Universal Credit can also be found in Tables 3 and 4 of those statistics.
The full estimates for fraud and error in the benefit system for 2022/2023, including the relevant tables, can be found here: Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2022 to 2023 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)