Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 effect of the roll-out of universal credit in Sheffield on (a) the number of people borrowing from loan sharks and (b) the amount of money being borrowed (i) by claimants and (ii) non-claimants.
Answered by Will Quince
The latest caseload data shows Universal Credit is supporting 2.8 million claimants, including those in Sheffield, to more easily start work and access smoother incentives, such as the work allowance and taper, to increase hours. We have scrapped the cliff edges and complicated hours’ rules of the legacy benefit system to ensure claimants have flexibility to access the opportunities offered in the labour market. It will provide an extra £2.1bn a year once full rolled out, compared to the legacy benefits it replaces.
During a claimant’s first interview, Work Coaches identify those who require immediate financial assistance and will offer access to a New Claim Advance. Around 60% of new claims take up an advance, which are repayable, interest free, over a 12-month period. From October 2021, the repayment period on advances will be further extended to 16 months.
For claimants who require additional support, Work Coaches and Case Managers can signpost individuals to specialist support for personal budgeting, money guidance and debt advice if required, including through the Money and Pensions Service.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield 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 potential merits of amending her Department's requirements on the use of audio recording equipment to make it easier for claimants to record benefits assessment interviews.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
DWP remains committed to improving the assessment process, especially around trust and transparency. We are currently developing an approach to provide consistency for claimants across audio recording of Work Capability Assessments and PIP assessments.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has departmental responsibility for local welfare assistance schemes.
Answered by Will Quince
Local welfare assistance is an umbrella term used describe local authority provision for people who are in need of urgent help. Local authorities’ abilities to act in this area are provided under various powers, for example, section 2 of the Local Government Act 2000 enables local authorities to provide financial assistance to any individual.
Since the reforms to the Social Fund in 2013 which abolished Crisis Loans and Community Care Grants, the Local Government Financial Settlement has included a notional amount relating to local welfare provision in each upper-tier and unitary authority’s general grant. The settlement for 2015-16 set this amount at £129.6 million for England in each year until 2019/20.
The Department for Work and Pension's (DWP) 2014 review found that local authorities delivered support more effectively than the previous provision and that councils are best placed to decide how to target flexible help to support local welfare needs. The Government has no further plans to review provision.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield 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 (a) affordability and (b) adequacy of provision of childcare for parents subject to the benefit cap.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions has not undertaken a specific assessment of the affordability and adequacy of provision of childcare for parents subject to the benefit cap. As part of its evaluation of the benefit cap policy, we have commissioned the National Centre for Social Research to conduct a survey of capped households to assess the effects of the cap on claimants’ behaviours toward employment and the drivers behind different responses to the cap, which will include childcare availability and costs. We anticipate publishing the findings in the Autumn.
The department recognises that high childcare costs can be a real barrier to parents taking up employment or increasing their working hours. To help overcome this, Universal Credit is more generous than legacy benefits in the support it provides towards childcare costs, with an increased level of support for childcare costs from 70% in legacy to up to 85% in Universal Credit.
In addition, significant work has been undertaken within the department to raise awareness and understanding of the UC Childcare Offer amongst work coaches and work continues across Government to support take up of the different childcare offers, ensuring information is readily accessible for parents, providers and employers, including via digital channels. The Government now provides more support than ever before to help parents with the costs of childcare and will be spending a record amount of around £6 billion on childcare support in 2019-20.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield 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 benefit cap on the income of families with more than two children.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In May 2019, 49,700 households had their Housing Benefit claim capped in Great Britain, of which 44,800 households had 2 or more dependent children. Claimants are exempt from the cap in Housing Benefit if they are entitled to Working Tax Credits. UC households are exempt if they have earnings of at least £569 per month. There are also exemptions for the most vulnerable groups such as severely disabled claimants and carers. In addition, households are exempt from the cap for 9 months (the grace period) if there is a previous consistent work history.
The average weekly cap amount for households with 2 or more dependent children deducted from the Housing Benefit award was £56 in May 2019, compared to an average cap amount of £55 for all capped households.
(Source: DWP Stat Xplore portal, ‘Benefit cap average amount by family type’ table)
In May 2019, 25,700 households had their Universal Credit claim capped in Great Britain, of which 89% (23,000) had dependent children. Statistics on the Universal Credit capped caseload, by number of dependent children in the household, will be published for the first time on the DWP Stat-Xplore portal during the w/c 9th September.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions she has had with the Social Security Advisory Committee on the requirement for national advice organisations to receive explicit consent from a claimant to assist with their universal credit claims.
Answered by Will Quince
The most recent discussions with SSAC took place on 12th July 2019 and 21st August 2019.
The Department is continuing to work with SSAC and third party organisations to understand how Universal Credit can support organisations who help our claimants.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what comparative assessment she has made of the rate of sanctions in areas where universal credit (a) has been and (b) has not been rolled out.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No comparative assessment has been made between Universal Credit (UC) sanction rates and sanction rates for legacy benefits.
There are differences between sanctions policy in UC and other benefits (such as Job Seekers Allowance (JSA)) which means that sanction rates across benefits are not directly comparable. For example, a JSA claimant would have their claim closed (rather than be sanctioned) if they failed to attend a meeting with their Work Coach, and did not make contact within five days. In UC, the same claimant would remain on the benefit and be referred for a sanction. If a sanction was applied, they would continue to receive the UC elements to which they remained entitled, such as those for housing or child costs. UC is designed to provide continuous support to claimants, ensuring that all payment does not cease while we investigate the reasons for loss of contact with a claimant.
The Department publishes sanction rates quarterly for UC, JSA and Employment & Support Allowance, the latest statistics can be found at the link below.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-sanctions-statistics-to-april-2019
The roll out of Universal Credit is now complete and is available in every Jobcentre across the country. By 2023, all existing legacy claimants will be moved to Universal Credit.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield 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 ability of universal credit claimants to access passported benefits.
Answered by Will Quince
Claimants may currently be entitled to a number of other benefits because they are in receipt of Universal Credit. These are known as passported benefits, which include free school meals and free prescriptions. The eligibility criteria for each passported benefit remain the responsibility of the Departments and Devolved Administrations that own them.
Government Departments and Devolved Administrations continue to work closely together to look at how to reduce the complexity of the current passported benefits system and put in place arrangements for Universal Credit, as it expands, that will continue to target available support at those who need it most.
The Department currently signposts Universal Credit households to other financial support via their online account/payment statement, as well as on the GOV.UK website at: https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/other-financial-support
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield 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 restriction on earned income for eligibility for support for mortgage interest under universal credit on the incentive to work.
Answered by Will Quince
The earned income rule for help with mortgage interest on Universal Credit ensures that owner occupier claimants have the right incentives to move into work and increase their hours of work over time where possible.
Universal Credit’s income taper, along with work allowances for qualifying claimants, ensure a strong work incentive is maintained. For certain owner occupiers, the withdrawal of support for mortgage interest means they qualify for the higher work allowance, and so they could earn up to £503 before there is any effect on their Universal Credit award.
My Department has made no formal assessment of the effect of the rule on work incentives.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of universal credit were (a) employed and (b) unemployed as at 15 August 2019.
Answered by Will Quince
The latest available information as at July 2019 on the number of people on Universal Credit by Employment Indicator is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html