Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps the Child Maintenance Service has taken to help recover arrears in child maintenance payments.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to take rigorous action to collect maintenance, combining robust negotiation activity with the highly effective use of its extensive range of Enforcement Powers. This approach is driven by the Payment Compliance strategy increasing CMS compliance influencing activities to tackle non-paying cases and challenge non-compliant behaviours. CMS applies a Continuous Improvement focus to Enforcement strategy and processes.
In the quarter ending September 2023, of 180,000 Paying Parents due to pay via the Collect and Pay service:
Depending on a Paying Parent’s employment status we use Deduction from Earnings orders or deductions from bank accounts. We have collected in excess of £16m via deduction orders in 2023. We move cases swiftly to Legal Enforcement. Securing a Liability Order (LO) for 11k cases in the courts, cases are referred to Enforcement Agents (Bailiffs) who have collected almost £5m in 2023. Where house ownership is established, charging orders and orders for sale are instigated. CMS will quickly move to taking court action for the removal of driving licence, committal to prison or removal of passport. £4.5m collected from cases at this stage.
As a result of this intense effort to increase enforcement activity £36m collected from arrears.
The planned introduction of the Administrative Liability Order in 2024 will remove the need to apply to the courts and will reduce the current average time of 20 weeks to secure an LO to 6 weeks.
The published statistics below provides data to September 2023 Section 9 Enforcement and the National tables 7.1 and 7.2.
Child Maintenance Service statistics: data to September 2023 - GOV.UK(www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to Question 5041 on Pensions, with reference to the Pension Schemes Act 2015 (Transitional Provisions and Appropriate Independent Advice) 2015 Post Implementation Review, published on 4 April 2023, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the disproportionate response to low-risk pension transfers noted in the last paragraph of that Review.
Answered by Paul Maynard
Whilst conducting the statutory review of the requirement DWP determined the original intention, ensuring members are aware of the benefits they may be giving up by transferring their pension assets to schemes with flexible benefits still applies.
DWP continues to engage with His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Pensions Regulator (TPR) to determine if there are alternative ways to deliver the protections that smooth the process.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
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 implications for his policies of the report entitled Emergency food parcel distribution in the UK: April– September 2023 published by the Trussell Trust on 8 November 2023 which noted that 46% of all food parcels provided by the Trust’s food banks are for families with three or more children.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Government is committed to reducing poverty, including child poverty, and supporting low-income families. We will spend around £276bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2023/24 including around £124bn on people of working age and children. From April 2023, we uprated benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1% and, subject to Parliamentary approval, working-age benefits will rise by 6.7% from April 2024, in line with inflation.
With over 900 thousand job vacancies across the UK, our focus remains firmly on supporting parents to move into and progress in work. This approach which is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. In 2021/22 children living in workless households were 5 times more likely to be in absolute poverty, after housing costs, than those where all adults work.
To help people into work, our core Jobcentre offer provides a range of options, including face-to-face time with work coaches and interview assistance. In addition, there is specific support targeted towards young people, people aged 50 plus and job seekers with disabilities or health issues.
To further support parents into work, on 28th June 2023, the maximum monthly amounts that a parent can be reimbursed for their childcare increased by 47%, from £646.35 for one child and £1,108.04 for two or more children to £950.92 and £1,630.15 respectively. Importantly, we can now also provide even more help with upfront childcare costs when parents move into work or increase their hours. In addition, on 1 April 2024, the Government will increase the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 years and over by 9.8% to £11.44 representing an increase of over £1,800 to the gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage.
This government understands the pressures people, including parents, are facing with the cost of living which is why we are providing total support of £104bn over 2022-25 to help households and individuals.
In the financial year 2023/24, this has included Cost of Living payments totalling up to £900 for households on eligible means-tested benefits, a further £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment for people on eligible ‘extra cost’ disability benefits; and, for pensioner households, an additional £300 Cost of Living payment paid as a top up to the winter fuel payment.
The Household Support Fund is running throughout the financial year 2023/24. This enables Local Authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need with the cost of essentials.
Further, from April 2024, to support low-income households with increasing rent costs, the government will raise Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents for private renters. This will benefit 1.6m low-income households by on average £800 a year in 24/25.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, by what metrics his Department assesses the effectiveness of the two-child limit in meeting its policy objectives.
Answered by Jo Churchill
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential barriers to work faced by people who are (a) affected by the two-child limit and (b) not in employment.
Answered by Jo Churchill
No such assessment has been made.
However, we are aware that many claimants have barriers that prevent them from taking up employment. For this reason, our Work Coaches are available to give tailored support for claimants to help them to access skills and training opportunities, and career advice.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of (a) households and (b) children in those households that will be affected by the two-child limit in each of the next five years.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The information requested is not available. The Government publishes annual statistics related to the operation of the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children. Statistics related to the period up to April 2023 were published in July 2023 and can be accessed at Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit claimants: statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of 2 children, April 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Pension Schemes Act 2015 (Transitional Provisions and Appropriate Independent Advice) 2015 Post Implementation Review, published on 4 April 2023, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department's policies of the conclusions of that review.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The underpinning policy intent behind these regulations and objectives was to ensure members with safeguarded benefits understood the level of security in retirement provided by such benefits and what the member would lose if they were to exchange them for benefits that can be accessed flexibly.
The Post Implementation Review highlighted that the existing measures remain appropriate and effective. We have however identified that there may be issues with the structure and application of the regulations.
We are currently conducting further work with the Pensions Regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, and His Majesty’s Treasury to consider if there are possible changes that maintain protection for members and continue to ensure that the intent of the policy is not undermined.
We will be sharing the outcome of this work in due course.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department holds information on the number of households that (a) are affected by the two-child limit and (b) have accessed support from the Household Support Fund since that fund was established.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Government publishes annual statistics releases related to the operation of the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children. Statistics related to the period up to April 2023 were published in July 2023 and can be accessed at Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit claimants: statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of 2 children, April 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Household Support Fund management information has been published and can be found here:
Household Support Fund 2 management information: 1 April to 30 September 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Household Support Fund management information: 6 October 2021 to 31 March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department’s publication entitled Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit claimants: statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of 2 children, April 2023, published on 13 July 2023, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the finding that 59% of the households impacted by the two-child limit are in work.
Answered by Jo Churchill
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential correlation between the (a) proportion of children living in households affected by the two-child limit and (b) levels of child poverty.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Government is committed to reducing poverty, including child poverty, and supporting low-income families. We will spend around £276bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2023/24 including around £124bn on people of working age and children.
From April 2023, we uprated benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1% and, subject to Parliamentary approval, working-age benefits will rise by 6.7% from April 2024, in line with inflation.
Our approach to tackling poverty is based on clear evidence that parents in work, particularly where its full time, reduces the risk of poverty. In the financial year 2021 to 2022, children living in households where all adults work were around five times less likely to be in absolute poverty after housing costs than those living in workless households.
In 2021/22 there were 1.7 million fewer people in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10, including 400,000 fewer children.
No such assessment of the potential correlation between the proportion of children living in households affected by the two-child limit and levels of child poverty has been made.