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.

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