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Written Question
Universal Credit: Payments
Monday 9th September 2019

Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to recalculate universal credit payments to take account of recipients who are required to make 53 rent payments in a year.

Answered by Will Quince

Neither tenants or landlords lose a week’s rent in a 53 weekly rent payment year as has been alleged; no year contains 53 weeks. The problem is alignment between weekly and monthly cycles. Each month the UC housing element is a constant figure but claimants with weekly tenancy agreements will be required to make either four or five rent payments within this period. If the claimant always pays their rent on time, in five payment months they are effectively making payment for part of the following month. That month will always be a four rent payment month, so the combination of the advance payment and the ‘overpayment’ of housing support during that month will get the claimant back on track.

Where a landlord charges rent weekly on a Monday, because of the way the calendar falls every 5 or 6 years, they will seek 53 rent payments in a year, with the 53rd payment in part covering the tenancy for the first few days of the following year. The effect of this is that, over the course of the next housing association rental year, a tenant’s UC payments will accurately reflect their liability, irrespective of the 53 payment weeks.

There is a separate issue with respect to the way the calculation in the Universal Credit regulations converts a weekly liability into a monthly allowance. The conversion is achieved by multiplying the weekly rent by 52 and then dividing by 12. This effectively means one day’s rent a year (two days in a leap years) are not covered by UC. We are currently considering whether this formulation around weekly rents, and potentially other weekly amounts in the UC calculation, should be amended.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Housing
Thursday 5th September 2019

Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people under 21 years old have claimed housing support entitlement as part of universal credit since the ending of means testing for that component in March 2018.

Answered by Will Quince

The housing costs element, in line with all other elements in Universal Credit, has always been subject to means testing for all Universal Credit claimants.

Numbers of people under 21 years claiming housing support entitlement as part of Universal Credit since March 2018 is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Food Banks
Monday 19th November 2018

Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to maintain a central record of the number of people who use foodbanks in the UK.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson

We have no current plans to develop official national statistics on food bank use. However, the Office for National Statistics is leading a project to improve statistics on household food insecurity by reviewing all existing official and non-official sources of data and looking at options to fill data gaps in partnership with government departments, including the Department for Work and Pensions.


Written Question
Bereavement Support Payment
Monday 4th June 2018

Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the value of the new bereavement support payment to affected families.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

We intend to assess the impact of Bereavement Support Payment once sufficient evidence is available to assess all aspects of the policy.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Lancashire
Monday 26th February 2018

Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department holds on the number of (a) universal credit claimants who have lost benefit income as a result of benefit migration and (b) single parents who have lost benefit income as a result of universal credit in areas of Lancashire where its roll-out has not yet been made compulsory.

Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)

Data is not available that distinguishes these cases from other new claims to Universal Credit.

Currently, claimants moving from existing benefits to Universal Credit will only do so because they will have had a change in their circumstances that would previously, under the legacy system, have triggered a new claim to benefits or tax credits. Entitlement would have been calculated based on the rules of their new benefit, taking in to account their new circumstances.


Written Question
Universal Credit
Monday 26th February 2018

Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will place her Department’s guidance to JobCentre Plus staff on advising benefit claimants whether to claim for universal credit in areas where its roll-out has not yet been made compulsory in the Library.

Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)

There is no legal basis for moving people onto Universal Credit in areas where roll out is yet to take place, and so there is no guidance to staff on giving advice to claimants in these circumstances.


Written Question
Jobcentres: Location
Thursday 22nd February 2018

Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will place in the House of Commons Library a lookup file of every (a) postcode and (b) postcode sector in the UK to its nearest JobCentre Plus office.

Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)

There are currently no plans to put this information in the House of Commons Library as the information is in the public domain. A search facility is available on gov.uk which enables the public to find the nearest Jobcentre Plus office for the specific post code entered in to the search tool.


Written Question
Jobcentres: Location
Monday 15th January 2018

Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will place a set of electronic shapefiles showing in full the boundaries of all the areas of the UK covered by each different JobCentre Plus office in the Library.

Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)

This information is not currently held by the Department in the format required. However, our systems are configured to map postcodes against offices.

There is a local office search page on GOV.UK, where the allocated Jobcentre Plus office and any relevant contact information can be obtained by entering a postcode

This is available at http://los.direct.gov.uk/


Written Question
Housing Benefit: Young People
Tuesday 20th December 2016

Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of future changes to housing benefit for claimants under 21 years of age on (a) claimants' labour mobility and (b) the wider economy.

Answered by Caroline Nokes

This policy will not affect Housing Benefit claimants; rather it will affect new claims to Universal Credit Full Service from 1 April 2017. This policy will also be implemented alongside the Youth Obligation – a new and intensive package of labour market support for 18-21 year-olds looking to get back into work.


Written Question
Housing Benefit: Young People
Thursday 8th December 2016

Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether savings to the public purse over the current Parliament, which his Department estimated will accrue from changes in housing benefit for people under 21 years of age includes the costs of evictions and temporary accommodation potentially resulting from those changes; and whether he has made an assessment of the effect of those changes on young peoples' labour mobility.

Answered by Caroline Nokes

It is important to make clear that the changes referred to will only affect claimants on Universal Credit Full service – they will not affect those on Housing Benefit. Since the policy was initially announced, we have worked in collaboration with key housing stakeholders such as Crisis and Shelter to make sure the policy includes the right exemptions to protect the most vulnerable people; we are therefore confident about the robustness of the policy.