Asked by: Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 9 September 2020 to Question 85078, if she will disregard compensation payments for Historical Institutional Abuse in Northern Ireland for the purposes of establishing eligibility for (a) housing benefit, (b) universal credit and (c) pension credit in Great Britain.
Answered by Will Quince
Northern Ireland, Great Britain and Treasury government officials are working together on how payments from the scheme should be treated in Northern Ireland. Once that situation is clarified, then treatment of the payments in Great Britain can be decided upon.
Asked by: Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether compensation payments for Historical Institutional Abuse in Northern Ireland are taken into account in establishing eligibility to claim (a) housing benefit, (b) universal credit and (c) pension credit in (i) Northern Ireland and (ii) England.
Answered by Will Quince
The Housing Benefit, Pension Credit and Universal Credit schemes in Northern Ireland are matters for the Northern Ireland Assembly.
With regard to Great Britain, currently, payments made from the scheme would be treated as capital sums, with those sums taken into account in the calculation of all of the benefits mentioned above.
Northern Ireland, Great Britain and Treasury officials are working together on how payments from the scheme should be treated in Northern Ireland.