Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the date of completion is of the most recent equality impact assessment carried out on the changes to universal credit entitlement for mixed-aged couples.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
An Equality Impact Assessment for the introduction of Universal Credit was published on 9 November 2011. It contains an assessment of the effect of Universal Credit by age groups, including people aged over 50 and mixed age couples. In line with the DWP’s legal duties, equality impacts have been further considered in developing our plans for implementation.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the effect on mixed-age couples of the changes to eligibility for pensions credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This change means that the same work incentives apply to the younger partner as apply to other people of the same age, and that taxpayer support is directed where it is needed most. The difference between the levels of financial support in Universal Credit as compared to Pension Credit and pension-age Housing Benefit, will depend on individual circumstances. The differences reflect the role of Universal Credit in ensuring that work always pays, and of Pension Credit in providing long-term support to those who have permanently left the labour market because of retirement on top of the support also provided by the State Pension. It is for the same reason that the treatment of earned income in Universal Credit is more generous than in Pension Credit. The younger partner in a mixed-age couple receiving Universal Credit will have access to the tailored support provided by work coaches to help them find work or progress in work. No work-related requirements will be applied to the older partner.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to assess the number of eligible applicants who do not complete their application for universal credit.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Based on our internal data for March 2018, in total 28 per cent of claims do not complete the process.
Of this figure around 8 per cent of claims were closed due to non-entitlement, for example because of capital or not passing the Habitual Residence Test. The remainder (around 19 per cent*) were closed due to non-compliance with the process, for example failure to sign a Claimant Commitment and failing to provide evidence to support their claim.
* percentages do not add up to 28 per cent due to rounding
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October to Question 182843 on Universal Credit, if she will publish he Department's review of research carried out by organisations including the Trussell Trust on food bank use.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The evidence that we have reviewed to date is already published and examples can be accessed through the following links :-
The Trussell Trust (2018) ‘Left Behind: Is Universal Credit Truly Universal?’
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/trusselltrust-documents/Trussell-Trust-Left-Behind-2018.pdf
The Trussell Trust (2018) ‘The next stage of Universal Credit: Moving onto the new benefit system and foodbank use’
Loopstra, R., and Lalor, D. (2017) ‘Financial insecurity, food insecurity, and disability: the profile of people receiving emergency food assistance from the Trussell Trust Foodbank Network in Britain’
https://trusselltrust.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/06/OU_Report_final_01_08_online.pdf
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of disabled people who previously received a disability premium that have been migrated onto universal credit without transitional protections.
Answered by Sarah Newton
We are not currently migrating any claimants from legacy benefits to Universal Credit. Claimants only move from existing benefits to Universal Credit through natural migration when they experience a significant change in their circumstances that triggers a new claim to benefit. Their entitlement is then calculated on the rules of their new benefit. This is a long-established principle which we maintain for Universal Credit.
Subject to Parliamentary approval of the Managed Migration regulations, we will be spending £3.1 billion on transitional protections to ensure that no one loses out at the point of transition. This includes those currently receiving Severe Disability Premium (SDP). These regulations will prevent these claimants from moving over before the managed migration process, and provide financial protection for those who have already moved over.
We do not hold data on all disabled people receiving all disability premiums that have moved onto Universal Credit; however, published data shows that of the 42,000 people who were on Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and started a claim on Universal Credit Full Service within one month of closing their claim between May 2015 and February 2018, 15,000 were on ESA (Income Related) with Enhanced Disability Premium (EDP) and/or SDP. Of those, 1,000 were in receipt of SDP only, 11,000 in receipt of EDP only and 3,000 in receipt of EDP and SDP.
This is published here:
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of claimants of (a) disabled social security payments and (b) pensions who have payments made into a Post Office Account.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Work and Pensions is committed to maintain Post Office card accounts until 2021, to ensure that customers can continue to access their benefits and pensions in this way.
At October 2018 there were just under 1.2m active Post Office card accounts. In line with our wider policy on financial inclusion, we have always made it clear that payment into a bank, building society or credit union is the preferred way for all benefits to be paid.
The information requested about the number of disabled social security and pension recipients is not available.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2018 to Question 182841 on Social Security Benefits: Mental Health, what the safeguards are that were referred to in that Answer.
Answered by Sarah Newton
All colleagues within DWP are required to understand, comply with and take appropriate action when dealing with individuals who may need additional support to enable them to access DWP Benefits and use our services. Guidance is clearly signposted within Cross Benefit Operational Instructions and is also available to front line operational colleagues through training programmes, Mental Health First Aiders (within ESA product lines) and within Customer Service A-Z instructions that are available to Telephony officers and staff within front line operational processing centres within the Working age Directorate. In addition, where an officer of the DWP is concerned that a customer has declared or may declare an intention to harm or kill themselves, the DWP has a specific action plan in place across the Working Age Directorate that supports the member of staff to understand their role in dealing with such threats.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2018 to Question 182841 on Social Security Benefits: Mental Health, what metrics her Department is using to measure the success of those safeguards.
Answered by Sarah Newton
There are specific markers used within DWP Working Age Directorate systems that identify where a customer has declared a mental health condition or requires additional support. The marker information will help to target support where it is most needed, keep all staff informed in transferring information and reduce the need to obtain this information again. These markers are tracked through the customer’s journey to ensure safeguarding procedures are followed, but we do not record and report data on these cases against any measurable success criteria. This is currently being reviewed by the Department.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
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 effect of the roll-out of full service universal credit on (a) the number of food parcels distributed by local food banks (b) the number of evictions from private rented accommodation, (c) the number of evictions from local authority rented accommodation and (d) the academic attainment of children eligible for free school meals.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
People use food banks for many reasons, and it would be misleading to link them to any single cause. We are constantly reviewing research carried out by organisations including the Trussell Trust, to add to our understanding of food bank use. Work offers people the best opportunity to get out of poverty and Universal Credit gets people into work faster and staying in work longer than the outdated legacy benefits system. UC claimants are 4 percentage points more likely to be in work within 6 months than JSA claimants.
Evictions are not a new feature of the rental market. These are matters between tenants and landlords and not directly related to the provision of benefits. This is not something the Department collects data on.
As a safeguard for people needing more support, we have a well-established system of hardship payments, benefit advances and budgeting loans. The Autumn Budget 2017, introduced a further package of measures, these include: making advances of up to 100 per cent of the indicative award available and increasing the repayment period to 12 months; removing the 7 day waiting period; providing an additional payment of 2 weeks of Housing Benefit to support claimants when they transition to UC.
The government’s new criteria for free school meals eligibility are forecast to increase the number of children eligible for this vital benefit by 2022, compared to the previous benefits system. In addition, our transitional protections will mean that all children currently receiving a free meal will continue to do so.
In the government’s response to its consultation on the new free school meals criteria, published in February 2018, we indicated that the impact of the new free school meals threshold and the roll out of Universal Credit, on data, showing the performance of disadvantaged pupils is likely to be relatively minor, in the context of the normal levels of change schools see in their free school meals cohorts year on year.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has (a) made an assessment and (b) commissioned any reviews of the effect on people's mental health of participation in the social security system.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Department recognises that many of those claiming benefits are particularly vulnerable and we continue to explore ways to improve the customer journey, especially for those with mental health conditions, and have safeguards in place to ensure that people are supported throughout the process.