Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of whether universal credit claimants paid weekly, fortnightly or on a four-weekly basis for part-time work may receive a lower annual benefit than those who are paid on a last day of the month-basis for the same number of hours worked.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Universal Credit awards are assessed and paid on a monthly basis. There is, therefore, no annual entitlement, as many claimants’ circumstances change from month to month.
Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the universal credit payment system so that claimants paid on a four-weekly basis for part-time or casual work do not have their benefit payment substantially reduced as a result of receiving two work payments four weeks apart in one calendar month.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Universal Credit payments reflect, as closely as possible, the actual circumstances of a household during each monthly assessment period. Assessment periods allow for Universal Credit awards to be adjusted on a monthly basis, ensuring that if a claimant’s income falls, they do not have to wait several months for a rise in their Universal Credit award.
Some claimants receive earnings from work multiple times within an assessment period if they are paid via four-weekly, fortnightly, or weekly patterns. This in turn may reduce, or in some cases, nil the Universal Credit award the claimant receives that month. We have produced guidance to help ensure claimants, staff and representatives are aware and it is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-different-earning-patterns-and-your-payments/universal-credit-different-earning-patterns-and-your-payments-payment-cycles
Claimants can always discuss the implications of this with their case managers and work coaches and can be referred to Personal Budgeting Support to help them manage their budgeting.
The Government is working with employers to ensure that they use the most appropriate payment practices and comply with RTI guidelines in order to minimise the incidence of erroneous or late reporting by employers, and HMRC have recently updated guidance to reiterate to employers the importance of reporting accurate dates and the impact on payment cycles.
Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
What recent changes the Government has made to universal credit to protect the incomes of the most vulnerable claimants.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We have already spent £1.5 billion on improvements during the first assessment period. We have already committed more money to protect the most vulnerable, including the 500,000 people currently receiving the Severe Disability Premium. A million disabled people will be better off.
Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has carried out an impact assessment on the effect of the change to the state pension age for women born in the 1950s on their families and dependents.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Successive Governments have taken care to give proper consideration to the impact of the proposals made in the Pensions Acts of 1995, 2007 and 2011, which each made changes to the State Pension age that affected women born in the 1950s. The exact form of the assessments has changed over time as the requirements on Government to carry out standardised impact assessments have changed.
The Pensions Act 1995 legislated to equalise men and women’s SPa at 65, over a 10 year period between 2010 and 2020. Standardised impact assessments had not been introduced at the time, but an overview of the options and evidence considered when developing the policy is provided in the 1993 white paper ‘Equality in State Pension age’. (See attached)
The Pensions Act 2007 legislated to introduce a timetable for the increase of SPa to 66, 67 and 68, so that these rises took place by 2026, 2036 and 2046.
The impact assessment for the Pensions Act 2007 can be found here: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121204130650/http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/pensions-bill-ria.pdf
The Pensions Act 2011 brought forward the equalisation of the male and female State Pension age at 65 by 18 months, so that it takes place by November 2018 rather than April 2020. It also brought forward the increase from 65 to 66 by five and a half years, so that it takes place by October 2020 rather than March 2026.
The impact assessment for the Pensions Act 2011 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181462/pensions-bill-2011-ia-annexa.pdf
Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claimants there are in the Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock constituency.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The latest available information on the number of people on Universal Credit by parliamentary constituency and local authority is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html