Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to remove the escalation to a decision maker when awarding the allowance for the carer's element within universal credit, once a claimant has declared that they receive carer's allowance, in order to avoid the delay in the award of that payment.

For the majority of cases a referral to a Decision Maker is not required once a claimant has declared that they have relevant caring responsibility. However, if more than one claimant is receiving Carer’s Allowance or Carer Element for the same person, the carers should decide between them who will receive the additional amount for caring. If they cannot decide, the decision is referred to a Decision Maker.