Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment has she made of the (a) adequacy of the rate of legacy benefits and (b) benefits of extending the £20 uplift in Universal Credit to legacy benefits.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
No assessment has been made. There is no objective way of deciding what an adequate level of benefit should be as everyone has different requirements. Income related benefit rates are not made up of separate amounts for specific items of expenditure.
The Government has always been clear that the £20 increase was a temporary measure to support households affected by the economic shock of Covid-19. It has always been the case that claimants on legacy benefits can make a claim for Universal Credit if they believe that they will be better off.
Working age benefits, which include legacy benefits, were increased by £1bn (1.7 per cent) from April 2020 and received a further £500m (0.5 per cent) increase from April 2021 as part of the Government’s annual up-rating exercise (both figures in cash terms).
Claimants on legacy benefits can make a claim for Universal Credit if they believe they will be better off. The Government encourages anybody to go on GOV.UK and use one of the independent benefit calculators to check carefully their eligibility, because on applying for Universal Credit their entitlement to legacy benefits will cease and they will not be able to return to them in the future. Neither DWP nor HMRC can advise individual claimants whether they would be better off moving to Universal Credit or remaining on legacy benefits. They can get help through the government funded Help to Claim scheme as well as the Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland.
Since July 2020, a two-week run-on of housing benefit, income support and income-related employment and support allowance and income-based jobseeker’s allowance is paid to eligible claimants to provide additional support to move to Universal Credit.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of claimants granted pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme who will lose access to benefits; and what support her Department is putting in place in those cases.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Home Office’s EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) allows EU citizens to apply for an immigration status and ensure that they have the right to live, work and access income based benefits. EU citizens may be granted settled or pre-settled status, depending on whether they have been resident in the UK for a continuous period of more than five years.
EU citizens with pre-settled status have the same access to benefits as they did prior to the introduction of the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). They will satisfy the right to reside element of the Habitual Residence Test and can access benefits if they are exercising a qualifying right to reside, such as a worker or self-employed person, and are habitually resident in the UK.
As long as an individual continues to exercise a treaty right, those with pre-settled status can continue to access benefits. Moving from pre-settled status to settled status will not result in losing benefits if the application is made in time.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 May 2021 to Question 815 on Universal Credit, when the managed migration pilot in Harrogate will resume.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the Honourable Member to the Answer of 17 May 2021 to Question 815. A date for the resumption of Move to UC will be determined in due course.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 May 2021 to Question 815 on universal credit, what plans she has to bring forward further regulations to enable the migration of the remaining legacy benefit caseload to universal credit.
Answered by Will Quince
This is currently under review.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 May 2021 to Question 815 on Universal Credit, whether her Department plans to transfer up to 10,000 people from legacy benefits to universal credit as part of the migration pilot as announced on 11 March 2019.
Answered by Will Quince
This is currently under review.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish a timeline for publication of the Green Paper on Disability Benefits.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Given the necessary focus on the departmental response to Covid-19, we are working to a longer timescale than previously anticipated. We are continuing engagement with disabled people and their representatives and plan to publish the formal consultation document in the coming months.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what employment support her Department is providing to people with learning disabilities during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
DWP is providing a range of support to help people with learning disabilities secure and keep employment during the Covid period:
The increased number of work coaches will enable us to continue supporting those with complex needs, and to work with partners to ensure they get the help they need.
People in particular disadvantaged groups will continue to benefit from local support via the increased Flexible Support Fund and priority early access to the Work and Health Programme.
The Intensive Personalised Employment Support Programme (IPES) provides highly personalised packages of employment support for disabled people who want to work but have complex needs or barriers and require specialist support to achieve sustained employment.
Access to Work funds tailored support to disabled people who are in work, including apprenticeships, or participating in DfE Traineeships or Supported Internships. AtW has recently introduced a new flexible offer to support disabled people to return to, move into and retain employment. This enables disabled people to receive in-work support to work in the workplace, at home or a combination of both.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of providing a £20 per week uplift to legacy benefits.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no plans to extend the temporary Universal Credit uplift to legacy benefits, and Parliament has voted to bring an end to legacy benefits in Great Britain. Natural migration to Universal Credit (UC) is required when a person needs to claim new support because of a change of circumstances.
Claimants on legacy benefits can voluntarily make a claim for UC if they believe that they will be better off. Claimants considering making a claim should check carefully their eligibility and entitlements under UC before applying, as legacy benefits will end when claimants submit their UC claim and they will not be able to return to them in the future. For this reason, prospective claimants are signposted to independent benefits calculators on GOV.UK. They can also get help through the government funded Help to Claim scheme as well as the Citizens Advice Bureau and Citizens Advice Scotland.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the progress of the managed migration pilot for universal credit.
Answered by Will Quince
The Pilot remains suspended as the Department continues to focus on delivering its part of the Government’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 allow the Department to pilot moving claimants to Universal Credit from legacy benefits. Prior to its suspension, the emphasis of the pilot was not to focus on the number of people moved, but to assist with developing the design of the Move to UC service and its processes, to provide the best possible support for claimants who are moved to Universal Credit.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting time for a response to be issued to a Freedom of Information request made to her Department was in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Departmental Freedom Of Information (FOI) performance is based on compliance against the statutory 20 working day time limit and these stats are captured for all Government departments on a quarterly and annual basis.
These statistics are accessible through the following link https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics
The next update to these statistics will be 28 April 2021 when Q4 2020 and 2020 annual statistics will be published.