Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants subject to benefit overpayment recovery have been contacted by his Department to establish whether they are experiencing hardship as a result of the cost of living crisis since February 2022.

Deductions are made under legislation and cover a broad range of contingencies, like the recovery of fines to prevent incarceration, the continuation of supply of electricity or gas, payment of rent arrears to prevent homelessness, child maintenance liabilities to their children, and provision for one-off items of expenditure through advances and the repayment of debts. Given this broad range of circumstances, there is no requirement to undertake an assessment of a benefit customer’s ability to make these payments. Instead, the amounts that can be deducted are capped in legislation; in effect, Parliament has made an affordability assessment through the exercise of this cap.

DWP remains committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their deductions and encourages customers to contact DWP to discuss any concerns.

The department has a well-established process for working with individuals to support them to manage repayment of Government debt to DWP. Our agents will always look to negotiate affordable and sustainable repayment plans. For overpayment deductions specifically, where a person feels they cannot afford the proposed rate of deduction for an overpayment recovery, they are encouraged to contact the department’s Debt Management to discuss a temporary reduction in their rate of repayment or cessation of the deduction. This message is included in all Debt Management notifications to customers.

There is no minimum amount that a customer has to pay, and we have recently extended the time period for any reduced payment to remain in place.

Customers who do contact Debt Management are routinely referred to the Money Advisor Network, who work in partnership with DWP, to offer free independent and impartial money and debt advice. We also remain committed to His Majesty’s Treasury’s Breathing Space policy, which provides those with problem debt the right to legal protections from creditor action for a period of 60 days to enable them to receive debt advice and enter into an appropriate debt solution.

The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living this winter and is taking action to support people with their energy bills. The Government's Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical household around £900 this winter, based on what energy prices would have been under the current price cap - reducing bills by roughly a third. This is in addition to the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.

We have also made Cost of Living Payments worth up to £650 (paid in two lump sums of £326 and £324) providing targeted support for around eight million low-income households on means-tested benefits. In addition, six million eligible disabled people have received a one-off Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 and pensioner households will have received a one-off payment of £300 alongside the Winter Fuel Payment.