Social Security Benefits: Wales

(asked on 8th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimates her Department has made of the number of people who have had welfare payments stopped due to being in receipt of the Welsh Government’s special payment scheme for social care staff.


Answered by
Justin Tomlinson Portrait
Justin Tomlinson
This question was answered on 13th January 2021

For DWP purposes the payments made under the Welsh Government’s special payments scheme for social care staff are treated as earnings and are included in welfare benefit calculations. The impact on an individual claimant will depend on their household circumstances and the amount and type of welfare payments they are receiving. For income related benefits their award is calculated on the basis of the set benefit rate against money coming in to ensure fairness of treatment for all claimants against the money they have available. This means that as earnings increase the welfare payment reduces or stops. This is a long-standing principle of means-tested benefits.

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