Universal Credit

(asked on 2nd February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to section 1.5.4 of the Levelling Up the United Kingdom White Paper, what steps she is taking to ensure that workers living in areas with lower access to jobs as a result of the local transport infrastructure are not disproportionately affected by universal credit sanctions through her Way to Work policy.


Answered by
Mims Davies Portrait
Mims Davies
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 7th February 2022

Way to Work is a concerted drive across the UK to help half a million people currently out of work into jobs in the next five months. While we have more people on company payrolls than before the pandemic, latest figures show there are around 1.2 million vacancies across the economy, including many in key sectors.

For new claimants, we are reducing the “permitted period” where a claimant has previously carried out work of a particular nature, or at a particular level of remuneration from a maximum of 3 months to a maximum of 4 weeks. A claimant must normally be willing to travel 90 minutes each way to work. This has not changed with the introduction of Way to Work.

Flexible Support Fund is available to help with the cost of attending interviews and can support travel costs for up to 3 months of the claimant starting work.

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