Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the correspondence from the Chair of the Social Security Advisory Committee entitled The Social Fund Winter Fuel Payments Regulations 2024: letter to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, published on 17 October 2024, whether she plans to publish an updated impact assessment of the Social Fund Winter Fuel Payments Regulations 2024.

Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

In line with the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty, an equality analysis was produced as part of the ministerial decision-making process. The Department will continue to monitor and review the impact of the policy, using this to inform any future decisions.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department provides information to local authorities on local residents who are (a) above State Pension age and (b) (i) eligible for and (ii) claiming Pension Credit.

Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Department already shares extensive data with local authorities for a variety of purposes. Local authorities have access to DWP data about households in receipt of DWP benefits, including people over State Pension age which includes those receiving Pension Credit. Furthermore, as part of the Pension Credit claim process, if claimants state they want to claim Housing Benefit, DWP gathers the claim information required for this and passes it onto the relevant local authority to assess.

Local authorities are allowed to re-use DWP data under the terms of a data sharing Memorandum of Understanding, subject to them seeking their own legal advice, and subject to them notifying the Department of their intent. This process can be used to include re-using data originating from DWP to help identify people eligible for Pension Credit. Many local authorities already undertake their own initiatives to identify eligible households and promote take-up and over 160 local authorities have responded positively to our ‘call for action’ following the Secretary of State and the Deputy Prime Minister’s letter to all local authorities in August.

The Department will also be writing directly to 120,000 pensioner households in receipt of Housing Benefit who may also be eligible for, but not currently claiming, Pension Credit. We will be inviting these pensioners to claim Pension Credit by the 21 December, which is the latest date for making a successful backdated Pension Credit claim and still qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department holds on the local government (a) area and (b) ward of individual pensioners who (i) are and (ii) are not in receipt of Pension Credit.

Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The department holds information on individual pensioners who do claim Pension Credit broken down geographically by ward, Local Authority, region, country, and also Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies 2010 and 2024. The department does not hold information on individual pensioners who do not claim Pension Credit.

The department publishes data on households in receipt of Pension Credit on Stat Xplore. This is broken down geographically by ward, Local Authority, region, country, and also Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies 2010 and 2024.

The department also publishes data on individuals receiving State Pension on Stat Xplore. However, these statistics are currently suspended due to issues with internal processing of State Pension data.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral answer of 7 October 2024 from the Minister for Employment, Official Report, column 6, what changes have been made to the Access to Work Scheme since the beginning of this Parliament; how many additional staff have been assigned to processing Access to Work claims since the beginning of this Parliament; and from which other area these staff have been diverted.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Since the beginning of this Parliament the Department for Work and Pensions has taken steps to improve operational guidance and process to ensure Access to Work grants are awarded consistently and as quickly as possible.

Since July 2024, twenty-three additional staff have been deployed to support Access to Work. Of these, twenty-two were new recruits and one was redeployed from the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) team.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she made a request to the Social Security Advisory Committee to expedite their consideration of the Social Fund Winter Fuel Payments Regulations 2024 before she invoked the urgency provision.

Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The urgency procedure was invoked as a means of making the necessary Exchequer savings in the current financial year, as the Regulations needed to come into force on 16 September 2024 (in time for the qualifying week for Winter Fuel Payments this winter).

DWP officials met the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) in August to discuss the Regulations, and the Committee had the opportunity to raise matters of interest to them, prior to formal scrutiny. The regulations were formally considered by SSAC on 11 September.

We welcome the observations and recommendations in the letter from the SSAC chair, and the decision not to take the Regulations on formal reference. The Secretary of State replied to the SSAC letter and recommendations which can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-social-fund-winter-fuel-payments-regulations-2024/the-social-fund-winter-fuel-payments-regulations-2024-secretary-of-state-for-work-and-pensions-reply-to-ssac

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to respond to the letter from the Chair of the Social Security Advisory Committee entitled The Social Fund Winter Fuel Payments Regulations 2024: letter to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, published on 17 October 2024.

Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

We welcome the observations and recommendations in the letter from the chair of the Social Security Advisory Committee, and the decision not to take the Regulations on formal reference. The Secretary of State replied to the SSAC letter and recommendations which can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-social-fund-winter-fuel-payments-regulations-2024/the-social-fund-winter-fuel-payments-regulations-2024-secretary-of-state-for-work-and-pensions-reply-to-ssac