Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will temporarily increase the qualification period for the Severe Disability Premium Gateway to assist qualifying persons who have been made redundant as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
People who are made redundant as a result of Covid-19, or in any other circumstances, are able to make a claim to Universal Credit.
The Severe Disability Premium (SDP) Gateway is currently in place to prevent existing claimants who have been, within the past month, entitled to an award of an existing benefit (Employment and Support Allowance (income related), Jobseekers Allowance (income based), Income Support or Housing Benefit) that includes a SDP, from moving to Universal Credit if they have a relevant change in their circumstances. In cases where the benefit award ended during that month, they must have continued to satisfy the eligibility conditions for a SDP within the relevant benefit.
When the SDP Gateway is removed from 27 January 2021, existing benefit claimants who are entitled to the SDP will need to claim Universal Credit if they have a relevant change of circumstances and they will be considered for a transitional SDP element to be included in their Universal Credit award.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what reports he has received on the Child Maintenance Service not contacting parents who miss child maintenance payments during the covid-19 outbreak; and what assessment she has made of the effect on the financial security of the recipients of any such missed payments.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Paying parents are still expected to pay child maintenance throughout this period. Our priority is to maintain the flow of maintenance that is currently being paid, by ensuring that we transfer the payments as quickly as possible to receiving parents.
We know the vast majority of parents take their responsibilities extremely seriously and will do whatever is needed to ensure their children are supported.
Where payments have been missed we have asked parents to report the changes via the self-service portal.
In order to ensure that receiving parents do not lose out in the long run, we will update cases with notified changes as soon as possible. Where payments have been missed the Service will take action to re-establish compliance and collect any unpaid amounts that may have accrued. There is insufficient data to estimate the precise economic impact of missed payments on different groups.
The Government has been clear in its commitment to support those, including both paying and receiving parents, whose income drops as a result of the public health emergency and we have made a number changes to the welfare system to ensure people are receiving the support they need. Taken together, these measures represent an injection of over £6.5 billion into the welfare system and, along with the other job and business support programmes announced by the Chancellor, represent one of the most comprehensive packages of support introduced by an advanced economy in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of the two child limit in universal credit on the financial wellbeing of people affected by that limit.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has committed to annual statistics releases related to the operation of this policy. Statistics for 2018/19 can be found on GOV.UK. Statistics related to 2019/20 will be published in the summer.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
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 trends in the number of universal credit applications during the covid-19 outbreak on the ability of her Department to process applications in a timely manner.
Answered by Will Quince
In response to unprecedented numbers of new claims, the Department has taken steps to ensure that people get the support they need quickly. The latest payment time statistics show over 90% of new eligible claimants are paid in full and on time. Data on payment timeliness up to April 2020 will be available on Stat-Xplore from 11th August
The latest available information on Universal Credit payment timeliness 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
Notes:
Payment timeliness is published with a further month between the publication date and the latest period being published for other UC household official statistics. This is because the data is subject to a lot of retrospection. Publishing data earlier would lead to relatively large revisions and to a loss of confidence in the earlier figures. This is the earliest payment timeliness can be published when balancing the needs of quality and timeliness of the statistics.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has she made of the potential merits of removing the benefits cap for the duration of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are currently no plans to change the Benefit Cap. The Benefit Cap ensures fairness between those receiving out-of-work benefits and taxpayers.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that legacy benefits are increased in line with increases to universal credit.
Answered by Will Quince
DWP have no plans to increase Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Income Support. These benefits were increased by 1.7% in April 2020 as part of the annual up-rating exercise.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
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 five-week wait for the first payment of universal credit on the financial wellbeing of applicants who applied during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Will Quince
Claimants in need of support do not have to wait 5 weeks for their first payment. New Claim Advances of up to 100% of a claimant’s indicative award are available if claimants need support during their first assessment period, and budgeting support is available for anyone who needs extra help.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
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 universal credit on the wellbeing of claimants who are also in receipt of maternity allowance, during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made of the effect of Universal Credit on the wellbeing of claimants who are also in receipt of maternity allowance, during the covid-19 outbreak.
Universal Credit is replacing a complex system of six legacy benefits with a single monthly payment and through a simple taper system ensures claimants are better off in work, keeping more of what they earn compared to the legacy benefit system. It is a longstanding principle of the welfare system that benefits are not paid to claimants with income available from other sources to support themselves.
Where claimants have income available to meet their everyday living costs, their entitlement to Universal Credit is adjusted accordingly. This includes other benefits such as new style Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance and Maternity Allowance.
Maternity Allowance is a health and safety measure to enable women to stop work in the later stages of pregnancy and after childbirth in the interest of their own, and their baby’s, health and wellbeing.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that reasonable adjustments are made for people who require assistance in (a) question comprehension and (b) support from a nominated adult or carer in the assessment of people for personal independence payment during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The department is committed to providing a quality, sensitive and respectful service to everyone. Individuals are encouraged to alert their assessment provider of any additional requirements they may have and providers will endeavour to meet any such reasonable requests.
Individuals can access additional support at any point in the claim or assessment process, for example help filling in the form or questionnaire. Companions are also able to join the telephony assessment, as they would have done for the face-to-face assessment. This is confirmed to the individual in the initial invitation to assessment letter for all phone assessments. If choosing to request a companion, they will be added to the call by the Health Professional at the start of the assessment.
To further enhance the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) telephony service, PIP providers have begun implementing a video relay service for deaf / British Sign Language-user claimants with an interpreter to allow these individuals to participate in the assessment process.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that parents paying towards child maintenance comply with payment timelines during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Paying Parents have a regular schedule of payments to make and all parents are expected to make payments according to the schedule during their claim. Child Maintenance payments are routinely made via an automated method direct from the Paying Parents bank account or wages.
Paying parents are still expected to pay child maintenance throughout this period. Our priority is to maintain the flow of maintenance by easing the financial pressure on parents and ensuring that we transfer the payments as quickly as possible to receiving parents, and resources are focussed on ensuring payments are made where Child Maintenance Service has received them.