Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
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 impact of the rate of clawback on Universal Credit on people employed with (a) irregular and (b) low incomes.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to drive up opportunity and drive down poverty across the UK. As announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn Budget, a new Fair Repayment Rate has now been introduced from 30 April 2025, reducing the Universal Credit (UC) overall deductions cap from 25% to 15% of a customer’s UC standard allowance. This measure will help approximately 1.2 million of the poorest households benefit by an average of £420 a year.
The Department has also committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty.
A key part of UC’s core design is that it supports customers with their finances. As part of our work to review UC, we are working with expert stakeholders to understand the impacts and causes as well as considering the ways in which we can better support customers who experience irregular or fluctuating household income.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department plans to (a) report on the consultation entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18th March 2025, and (b) publish recommendations on changes to the Access to Work Scheme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Once the Pathways to Work Green Paper Consultation closes on 30 June 2025, a White Paper will follow later this year with final proposals ahead of future, further legislation required.
The consultation and subsequent White Paper will also inform the chosen future direction of Access to Work. Once this is established, we will consider implementation timelines and work closely with stakeholders to ensure an appropriate transition.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
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 impact of ownership of illiquid assets on Universal Credit eligibility.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made.
Universal Credit broadly follows the capital rules from legacy means-tested benefits, e.g. income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance.
The treatment of capital in any benefit that assists with living expenses is not a straightforward matter. Whilst it is important to encourage saving, it has never been thought right for substantial amounts of capital to be ignored.
Departmental guidance is available to assist our decision makers to determine the value of capital assets at the point of review. Disregards are in place for some illiquid assets that customers hold, such as personal possessions and their main home.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure (a) people in farming and (b) other people who are unable to demonstrate consistent monthly income figures are able to apply for Universal Credit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universal Credit is available to eligible people who are out of work or on a low income. This includes people who are self-employed.
We recognise that some self-employed customers, including those in the farming industry, are likely to report large monthly fluctuations in their earnings. Steps have been taken to account for this, such as allowing self-employed losses to be carried forward into future assessment periods.
Wherever possible, employed earnings are received through the Real Time Information (RTI) system used by employers to report Pay As You Earn (PAYE) data to His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). RTI enables a customer’s Universal Credit award to be automatically adjusted to reflect their fluctuating earnings, which eases the reporting burden on customers.
If earnings are not reported through RTI for any reason, the customer will need to self-report their earnings and provide evidence of these.
We are committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty. The review will include consideration of the support in Universal Credit for customers with fluctuating incomes.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what changes her Department plans to make to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) reassessments for claimants suffering from longer-term degenerative conditions.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Award reviews are an important feature of Personal Independence Payment to ensure people receive the correct level of benefit, both for those whose needs will increase and those whose needs may decrease. People who receive the highest level of PIP and whose needs will not improve, receive a PIP award for a continuous period with a light touch review at the 10-year point.
In the Green Paper Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working published on 18 March we outline plans to consider changes to improve the experience for people who receive these ongoing awards in PIP. These include improving the information we provide when we write to people about ongoing PIP award decisions, what support is offered between ‘light touch’ reviews and reviewing the length of time between ‘light touch’ reviews.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her planned timetable is for restarting mandatory reassessments of incapacity benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We will turn on WCA reassessments at scale as we build up capacity to do so.
We will initially prioritise reassessments for people who are most likely to have had a change in their circumstances including those who have short-term prognoses, for which we can reasonably anticipate a change in health condition has occurred (e.g., those with risks from pregnancy complications or those who have recovered following cancer treatment).
Over time, we will then prioritise available reassessment capacity for other cohorts who are likely to change award.