Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 extending funding settlements for the Household Support Fund beyond one year.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We recognise that certainty helps Local Authorities to design and deliver sustainable plans for local welfare assistance. Committing to funding the Household Support Fund until 31 March 2026 will allow them to plan their approach with greater certainty.
No decision has been made at this stage on funding beyond the end of March 2026. As with all other government programmes, any such funding will be considered in the round at Phase 2 of the Spending Review.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 potential impact of lifting the two-child benefit cap on funding for local authorities.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 potential impact of preventing Job Centres from distributing food vouchers on levels of access to foodbanks.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Under the previous administration, the Government introduced a new food charity signposting slip to replace the one previously used, removing personal data to better comply with our departmental obligations, including our GDPR responsibilities, and to improve our signposting process. The new slip does not change our DWP policy, and our Jobcentres continue to provide customers with guidance to find additional support, including signposting to emergency food support when appropriate.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance her Department provides to parents on Universal Credit on using the Flexible Support Fund to cover upfront childcare costs.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Flexible Support Fund can be used to pay 100% of the upfront costs of up to one month of childcare. This is designed to ensure that any costs that the Universal Credit customer incurs in relation to childcare when starting work or increasing their hours is not a barrier to taking up this work.
The Government website ‘Childcare Choices’ is a key source of childcare information for parents. It advises that UC customers might be eligible for upfront childcare costs, and to speak to their work coach. We also issue guidance to Jobcentre Plus work coaches on the eligibility and awarding criteria for the Flexible Support Fund and upfront childcare costs.
Customers who have received an upfront childcare award can make a Universal Credit childcare claim for up to 85% of their childcare costs thereafter. The Universal Credit childcare claim is paid to the customer through their UC award, which they can use to pay for the next month's costs, thereby easing UC customers into the UC childcare costs payment cycle.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 potential impact of the claim career allowance eligibility rules on individuals already receiving existing benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Carer’s Allowance cannot normally be paid with another income replacement benefit. It has been a long-held feature of the GB benefit system, under successive Governments, that where someone is entitled to two benefits for the same contingency, then whilst there may be entitlement to both benefits, only one will be paid to avoid duplication for the same need. This includes Carer’s Allowance and State Pension.
Carer’s Allowance replaces income where the carer has given up the opportunity of full-time employment to care for a severely disabled person and is unable to undertake full time employment due to their caring responsibilities, while State Pension for example replaces income in retirement. For this reason, social security rules operate to prevent them being paid together, to avoid duplicate provision for the same need.
Where Carer’s Allowance cannot be paid, the person will keep underlying entitlement to the benefit. In addition to Carer’s Allowance, carers on low incomes can claim income-related benefits, such as Universal Credit and Pension Credit. These benefits can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities through the carer element and the additional amount for carers respectively. Currently, the Universal Credit carer element is £198.31 per monthly assessment period. The additional amount for carers in Pension Credit is £45.60 a week.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 implications for her policies of changes in the number of 18-24 year olds claiming jobseeker’s allowance in Newbury constituency; and what steps she plans to take to help young people find job opportunities.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)