Mentions:
1: Todd, Maree (SNP - Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) ensuring their continued safety, minimising any distress and supporting them and their families and carers - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Baroness Wheeler (Lab - Life peer) else we need to do and have to deal with”.The latter is a familiar sentiment from patients and their carers - Speech Link
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department takes to ensure that single household payments of Universal Credit are paid into the main caregiver’s account.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A prompt on the online Universal Credit application form, suggests that the customer uses the bank, building society or credit union account details for the carer who spends the most time looking after the children.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many alerts from the Verified Earnings and Pensions service informing his Department of carers’ earnings information were (a) passed and (b) not passed on to carers in each of the last five years; and whether he has made an assessment of the effectiveness of VEPs in preventing large value overpayments for Carer's Allowance.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Rounded | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
The number of CA cases identified through the VEP system | 91,000 | 73,000 | 96,000 | 107,000 | 67,000 |
The number of cases reviewed by CA | 35,000 | 38,000 | 46,000 | 50,000 | 35,000 |
Overpayments are recoverable from the Carer where there is evidence that the Carer failed to timeously inform the Department of changes in circumstances. The annual benefit uprating letter issued highlights the need to report changes such and changes in earnings. The Department also uses data from HMRC to indicate where the customer may have had a change in income and failed to inform us.
The Department also takes steps to avoid large scale overpayments that are not recoverable. This includes managing workloads at appropriate levels so changes in circumstance are processed timeously.
Caveats
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many overpayments his Department is seeking to recover for Carer’s Allowance due to (a) breaches to the earnings limit, (b) exceeding the limit for breaks from caring role in a given period, (c) not caring for 35 hours per week ,(d) other, (e) a combination of reasons and (f) overall.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We recognise the significant contribution of carers to supporting those most in need, which is why we have increased Carer's Allowance by almost £1,500 since 2010.
Claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award.
Where overpayments do occur, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. We remain committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans.
The information requested has been provided in the table below.
Carer’s Allowance overpayment reason | Volume of overpayments as at 25 April 2024 |
Earnings over CA Limit | 107.6k |
Break in care | 3.6k |
Ceased to care/ Not Caring from Outset | 23.2k |
Other | 18.9k |
Total | 153.3k |
Note that the overpayment reasons for which you have requested breakdowns do not directly align with our Debt Manager system’s overpayment categories. We have provided the reasons which most closely reflect those requested. We are unable to provide data for overpayments caused by “a combination of reasons”, as this is not a category available/ recorded by DWP. Overpayments with values of £0.00 have been excluded. Data is taken as a snapshot as at 25 April 2024 and the figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred.
The data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending the eligibility criteria for Carer’s Allowance to a larger number of unpaid carers; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of unpaid care work on the (a) physical and (b) mental health of women.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government keeps Carer’s Allowance under review to see whether it is meeting its objectives. It has no current plans to extend the eligibility criteria.
Questions on the impact of unpaid care work on individuals are matters for the Department of Health and Social Care in England and for the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Carer’s Allowance is a devolved benefit in Scotland.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending the eligibility criteria for Carers Allowance for carers with overpayments of National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Entitlement to Carer’s Allowance is not based on having paid, or been credited with, National Insurance contributions, or on passing a means test. Rather, the basic entitlement conditions largely relate to the care being provided; whether the carer is in gainful employment or studying full-time; and residency tests.
Carer’s Allowance is a devolved benefit in Scotland.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has of the potential merits of extending the eligibility criteria for Carers Allowance for carers with overlapping benefits.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer to question UIN 21151 given on 22 April 2024.
Carer’s Allowance is a devolved benefit in Scotland.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is providing additional support to carers to help with rising costs of living.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The current rate of Carer’s Allowance is £81.90. Since 2010 it has increased from £53.90 to £81.90 a week, providing just under an additional £1500 a year for carers through Carer’s Allowance.
In addition to Carer’s Allowance, carers on low incomes can claim income-related benefits, such as Universal Credit and Pension Credit. These benefits can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities through the carer element and the additional amount for carers respectively. Currently, the Universal Credit carer element is £198.31 per monthly assessment period. The additional amount for carers in Pension Credit is £45.60 a week.
Since 2022, the Government has demonstrated its commitment to supporting the most vulnerable by providing one of the largest support packages in Europe. The Government has provided support from 2022-23 to 2024-2025 to help households with the cost of living totalling £108 billion.
This includes up-rating working age benefits by 6.7% and raising the Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents, benefiting 1.6 million low-income households.
Since October 2022, CPI has already more than halved. This is stabilising the financial situation for many families, and the OBR expects that by Quarter 4 2024 (October-December) CPI will have fallen to 1.4%.
In the meantime, some people will need further, targeted help to get back to a stable financial position.
The Government is providing an additional £500m to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund, including funding for the Devolved Administrations through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion. This means that Local Authorities in England will receive an additional £421m to support those in need locally through the Household Support Fund. The funding will be available to Local Authorities in England from 1 April 2024 and will run until 30 September 2024.
Carer’s Allowance is a devolved benefit in Scotland.
May. 01 2024
Source Page: Improvement notice issued to London Borough of Bexley: May 2024Found: the timeliness and quality of E HC plans and engagement with children, young people, families and carers