Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure homeless people can access benefits.

I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave to question HL9238 on 17 July.

The Government has committed to a cross-government strategy to get the country back on track to ending homelessness. We have already taken the first steps, making a £1 billion investment in homelessness and rough sleeping services in 2025/26, a £233 million increase on the previous year, to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and to help prevent rough sleeping

My department is committed to ensuring people experiencing homelessness receive the benefits and support they need. Support is in place to help people experiencing homelessness claim and receive benefits, including:

• The DWP funded ‘Help to Claim’ service delivered by Citizen’s Advice
• The use of a 'care of' address, such as a local jobcentre
• Payment through the Payment Exception Service, enabling cash withdrawal from a PayPoint outlet, where the customer does not have a bank account

Jobcentres provide outreach in community and homelessness settings in areas with high levels of homelessness and organise referrals to local authority housing teams under ‘Duty to Refer’ legislation. There are single points of contact in every jobcentre to support work coaches with complex homelessness cases, along with training to better understand and support vulnerable customers. Our advanced customer support senior leaders and vulnerable customer champions review our processes to ensure we are effectively safeguarding such customers

The Government’s plans to get Britain working include the new Jobs and Careers Service, which will provide individualised support to those with the greatest barriers to work, while Connect to Work will provide support to people with disabilities, health conditions and complex barriers, including those experiencing homelessness.