Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
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 making people with less than 12 months to live to automatically eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
This Government remains completely committed to supporting pensioners and giving them the dignity and security they deserve in retirement.
Linking Winter Fuel eligibility to Pension Credit and other means tested benefits for pensioners, ensures the least well-off pensioners still receive the help they need; this includes people with a terminal illness who are eligible. There are no plans to change the eligibility criteria.
To ensure that Winter Fuel Payments are received by those on the lowest incomes, the Government is determined to do everything it can to maximise take-up of Pension Credit which provides a safety net for the pensioners on the lowest incomes and opens the door to other benefits including the Winter Fuel Payment.
For disabled pensioners or those with long-term health conditions, the “extra costs” disability benefits, including those provided for by the Scottish Government, provide a tax free, non-income-related contribution towards the extra costs people with a long-term health condition can face, such as additional heating costs. They are paid in addition to any other benefits received.
The Department supports people nearing the end of life through the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). These enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment and without serving waiting periods – and, in most cases, they receive the highest rate of benefit. For many years, the Special Rules have applied to people who have 6 months or less to live and have now been changed so they apply to people who have 12 months or less to live.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what criteria her Department uses to determine which Personal Independence Payment recipients need to have a regular work capability assessment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Personal Independence Payment is available to people with a long-term health condition or disability regardless of whether they are in work, training or education or not. As such, the PIP assessment looks at an individual’s ability to carry out a series of key everyday activities which are fundamental to living an independent life, such as their ability to prepare, cook and eat food, dress and undress, make budgeting decisions, manage and monitor their health condition, engage with other people, and plan and follow journeys.
The PIP assessment does not look at an individual’s capacity to undertake work or work-related activity. This is the purpose of the Work Capability Assessment which determines eligibility for Employment and Support Allowance and the additional health-related amount of Universal Credit.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to ensure that people with incomes (a) that fluctuate and (b) from multiple sources are accurately assessed for Universal Credit; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing (i) savings and (ii) earnings thresholds for Universal Credit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Wherever possible, employed earnings are received through the Real Time Information (RTI) system used by employers to report Pay As You Earn (PAYE) data to HMRC (His Majesty s Revenue and Customs). RTI enables a customer’s Universal Credit award to be automatically adjusted to reflect their earnings each month, which eases the reporting burden on customers.
If earnings are not reported through RTI for any reason, the customer needs to self-report their earnings.
Unearned income such as pension payments and certain benefits, including new style Jobseeker’s Allowance or new style Employment and Support Allowance are taken into account when calculating Universal Credit entitlement. Where these are not paid monthly they are calculated as a monthly equivalent. This is to reflect the Universal Credit monthly assessment period and to ‘smooth’ the calculation of award.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is required by law to undertake an annual review of benefits and State Pensions. The outcome of the Secretary of State’s review will be announced in the usual way.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with the reference to the UN Inquiry into the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the UK, published in October 2016, what steps she is taking to help protect the human rights of disabled people.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government is committed to boosting opportunity and protecting the rights of disabled people. We will work closely with disabled people and their representative organisations to ensure that their needs and voices are at the heart of everything we do.
As a first step, our Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will enshrine in law the full right to equal pay for disabled people and disability pay gap reporting for large employers.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
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 number of people in receipt of both Child Maintenance payments and Universal Credit.
Answered by Paul Maynard
At the end of the quarter ending September 2023, 353,000 Receiving Parents were also claiming Universal Credit.
Please note that Child Maintenance payments are not considered during the calculation of Universal Credit and Figures have been rounded to the nearest 1,000.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that universal credit payments are not affected by child maintenance.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Child Maintenance payments are not taken into account in the calculation of Universal Credit.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Child Maintenance Service enforces the collection of child maintenance payments from parents who are not living with their children.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has a range of enforcement powers at its disposal to ensure parents meet their financial obligations to their children.
These include deductions directly from earnings and bank accounts, using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving licence or UK passport or even commitment to prison.
In 2023, The Government supported The Child Support (Enforcement) Act. This will allow the Child Maintenance Service to streamline the enforcement process by removing the requirement to obtain a court issued liability order and instead allow the Secretary of State to issue an administrative liability order. This will replace the court-based system and speed up the enforcement process.
In October 2023, The Government consulted on "Accelerating Enforcement" to inform proposed regulations to support the introduction of administrative liability orders. We will be publishing the Government response shortly.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
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 people who will not meet the 35 qualifying years in order to receive the full new State Pension due to prolonged periods of low-income work.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The Government has made no such assessment.
The Government has ensured that people with earnings below the Primary Threshold continue to have their entitlement to State Pension protected. Although the Primary Threshold, when people start making National Insurance Contributions, has increased from £190 to £242 per week in 2022/23, the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) remains at £123 per week in 2022/23 (£6396 per annum). The LEL is the level of earnings above which people are treated as having paid National Insurance, even though they have not paid Contributions.
People with earnings from a single employer above the LEL, receive a Qualifying Year of National Insurance, which counts towards their State Pension eligibility. For people on low incomes, there is a wide range of National Insurance credits available, including people in receipt of Universal Credit, ensuring they can achieve the best possible State Pension outcome when they reach State Pension age. Information about these can be found on www.gov.uk/national-insurance-credits/eligibility.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure low-paid workers do not miss out on receiving the full new State Pension due to zero rate National insurance Contributions.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The Government have ensured that people with earnings below the Primary Threshold continue to have their entitlement to State Pension protected. Although the Primary Threshold, when people start making National Insurance Contributions, has increased from £190 to £242 per week in 2022/23, the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) remains at £123 per week in 2022/23 (£6396 per annum). The LEL is the level of earnings above which people are treated as having paid National Insurance, even though they have not paid Contributions.
People with earnings from a single employer above the LEL, receive a Qualifying Year of National Insurance, which counts towards their State Pension eligibility. For people on low incomes, there is a wide range of National Insurance credits available, including people in receipt of Universal Credit, ensuring they can achieve the best possible State Pension outcome when they reach State Pension age. Information about these can be found on www.gov.uk/national-insurance-credits/eligibility.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in receipt of Universal Credit (a) are economically inactive as of 28 November 2022 and (b) were subject to monthly deductions in the (i) 2019-20, (ii) 2021-22 and (iii) 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The number of people on Universal Credit, broken down by conditionality group, are published every month on Stat-Xplore, with the latest statistics currently available to 13 October 2022.
If needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required from Stat-Xplore.