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Written Question
Food Banks
Thursday 9th March 2023

Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish their evidence review on the drivers of food bank usage; and whether they have considered the potential merits of including the need to use a food bank, alongside undue hardship, in the criteria which may exempt claimants from having deductions taken from their universal credit claim.

Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department reallocated resources to prioritise work to help the COVID-19 effort. This caused delays to some work, including this literature review. The department has subsequently decided not to restart the review, as it summarises publicly available information and does not contain any new research carried out by the Department. However, we continue to monitor new research and evidence produced by external organisations.

The Department has recently published new data from the Family Resources Survey on household food security, giving us a better understanding of who is most at risk. We have also included new questions in the family resources survey for 2021/2 which will be published in March 2023 and further expand our evidence in this area. This underlines how seriously we take the issue of food insecurity.

The Government recognises the importance of supporting claimants to manage their liabilities. Under Universal Credit, there is a co-ordinated approach to deductions from benefit, which supports claimants to manage their financial obligations. The primary aim of deductions in Universal Credit is to protect vulnerable claimants by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of essential services. We continue to aim to strike the right balance between ensuring those protections are in place and allowing claimants to retain as much of their award as possible for day-to-day needs.

There has been no specific consideration around the merits of including food bank usage when considering claimants for an exception from deductions. However, if a claimant is struggling financially, they can ask for the amount of the following deductions to be reconsidered:

  • Repaying benefit overpayments,
  • Social Fund loan; and
  • rent arrears.

For benefit overpayments and Social Fund loans, deductions can be reduced or deferred for a period. DWP will always try to ensure that Government debt is recovered effectively without causing undue hardship.

For rent arrears, claimants can ask Universal Credit staff to exercise their discretion to fix rent arrears deductions at the lowest rate in legislation – 10% of the Standard Allowance. This can be done using the Journal or by phone. However, staff would not agree to remove a rent arrears deduction entirely in order to ensure a claimant is protected from eviction.

For those repaying a New Claim Advance, a deferral of up to 3 months is available, in exceptional circumstances, which allow those claimants to temporarily receive their Universal Credit awards without advance repayments being deducted.

We encourage anyone unable to afford the proposed rate of repayment to contact DWP Debt Management at the earliest opportunity - all DWP notifications advise how to get in touch. We seek to do as much as we are able to support claimants through the recovery of their overpayments.


Written Question
Students: Finance
Tuesday 15th February 2022

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of the timescale of student maintenance payments on the financial security of students.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

Loans for living costs are paid to students in three equal instalments at the start of each term to help students manage their money throughout the academic year. A student finance calculator is available to help individual students estimate the amount of support they will be entitled to for an academic year. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator. Further advice is available from providers and other sources online to help students manage their money while they are attending their courses.

Maximum loans have been increased by 3.1% for the current academic year, 2021/22, with a further 2.3% increase announced for the 2022/23 academic year.

Many providers have hardship funds that students can apply to for assistance should they get into financial difficulty. Our grant funding to the Office for Students for the current financial year includes an allocation of £5 million to higher education providers in England in order to provide additional support for student hardship. This is to mitigate hardship due to the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market which particularly affect, for example, students relying on work to fund their studies.


Written Question
Students: Rented Housing
Thursday 20th January 2022

Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what fiscal steps he is taking to support Welsh students who are attending university in England with costs of renting student accommodation in England.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

Devolution means that there are a range of policies and approaches to higher education (HE) which differ between the four administrations who deal with higher education policy in the United Kingdom. It is for each administration to decide how they deploy their resources and develop their HE system. Devolution allows for the different treatment of UK students in respect of student support within different parts of the UK.

The government plays no role in the provision of student residential accommodation. Universities and private accommodation providers are autonomous and are responsible for setting their own rent agreements. We encourage universities and private landlords to review their accommodation policies to ensure they are fair, clear and have the interests of students at heart.

If a student thinks their accommodation provider is treating them unfairly, they can raise a complaint under the accommodation codes of practice as long as the provider is a code member. The codes can be found at: https://www.thesac.org.uk/, https://www.unipol.org.uk/the-code/how-to-complain and https://www.nrla.org.uk/about-us/code-of-practice.

We recognise that in the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak, some students may face financial hardship. Our grant funding to the Office for Students (OfS) for the current financial year includes an allocation of £5 million to HE providers in England in order to provide additional support for student hardship. This is to mitigate hardship due to COVID-19 impacts on the labour market which particularly affect, for example, students relying on work to fund their studies. In our guidance to the OfS on funding for the 2021/22 financial year we made clear that the OfS should protect the £256 million allocation for the student premiums to support disadvantaged students and those that need additional help.

Many providers have hardship funds that students can apply to for assistance should the COVID-19 outbreak affect individuals’ finances in academic year 2021/22.


Written Question
Students: Rented Housing
Thursday 20th January 2022

Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to support Welsh students who are attending university in England with the costs of renting student accommodation in England.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

Devolution means that there are a range of policies and approaches to higher education (HE) which differ between the four administrations who deal with higher education policy in the United Kingdom. It is for each administration to decide how they deploy their resources and develop their HE system. Devolution allows for the different treatment of UK students in respect of student support within different parts of the UK.

The government plays no role in the provision of student residential accommodation. Universities and private accommodation providers are autonomous and are responsible for setting their own rent agreements. We encourage universities and private landlords to review their accommodation policies to ensure they are fair, clear and have the interests of students at heart.

If a student thinks their accommodation provider is treating them unfairly, they can raise a complaint under the accommodation codes of practice as long as the provider is a code member. The codes can be found at: https://www.thesac.org.uk/, https://www.unipol.org.uk/the-code/how-to-complain and https://www.nrla.org.uk/about-us/code-of-practice.

We recognise that in the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak, some students may face financial hardship. Our grant funding to the Office for Students (OfS) for the current financial year includes an allocation of £5 million to HE providers in England in order to provide additional support for student hardship. This is to mitigate hardship due to COVID-19 impacts on the labour market which particularly affect, for example, students relying on work to fund their studies. In our guidance to the OfS on funding for the 2021/22 financial year we made clear that the OfS should protect the £256 million allocation for the student premiums to support disadvantaged students and those that need additional help.

Many providers have hardship funds that students can apply to for assistance should the COVID-19 outbreak affect individuals’ finances in academic year 2021/22.


Written Question
Tenants: Loans
Tuesday 26th October 2021

Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to establish interest free, government-guaranteed hardship loans to support housing tenants with debts incurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Answered by Lord Greenhalgh

The UK Government has provided an unprecedented package of financial support which is available to tenants.

We have targeted our interventions as non-repayable forms of support, which offer a sustainable form of support for vulnerable renters, and do not encourage more debt.

As emergency measures are lifted, support continues to be in place for renters through the welfare system. Local housing allowance rates have been maintained at their increased level in cash terms in 2021/22, meaning claimants renting in the private rented sector continue to benefit from the significant increase in the local housing allowance rates applied in April 2020. For those who require additional support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available. For 2021-22 the Government has made £140 million available in DHP funding, building on the £180m provided last year.

The Government has also introduced a new £500 million Household Support Fund which will support millions of households in England who need it most, including for example to meet daily needs such as food, clothing and utilities. Households will continue to benefit from the energy price cap and increases in the National Living Wage.

As our recovery gathers pace, the government is continuing to help people into work and increase their earning potential – the most sustainable route to financial security. We’re investing billions through our Plan for Jobs and the Lifetime Skills Guarantee.

We continue to monitor the effectiveness of other examples of support, such as those from the devolved administrations in the UK, and note that uptake for loan support has been relatively low in Scotland and Wales.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Overpayments
Wednesday 21st July 2021

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the support available to those required to repay overpayments of universal credit.

Answered by Will Quince

DWP recognises that stopping fraud and error before is happens and preventing debt is the best approach, both for Government and claimants alike, and it should be noted that, during a period when we have faced the unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19, fraud and error in the benefits system remains low, with 95% of benefits, worth more than £200 billion, paid correctly in 2020/21.

We continue to invest in fraud and error prevention, with the Chancellor announcing £44m at the Spring Budget to support the expansion of both our Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service and our new Enhanced Checking Service and the development of Transaction Risking as a means of identifying high risk claims.

Our Annual Report and Accounts published 15 July 2021 provides more information on what we are doing to prevent overpayments occurring – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-annual-report-and-accounts-2020-to-2021

Where an overpayment does occur, the Department has a responsibility to recover the money without creating undue financial hardship. In Universal Credit, all overpayments are recoverable. Where recovery is made by deduction from Universal Credit, there is a limit placed on the overall amount that can be deducted. Formerly 40% of the Universal Credit Standard Allowance, this was reduced from 30% to 25% in April 2021.

Where requested deductions exceed the 25% maximum, or there is insufficient Universal Credit in payment for all deductions to be made, a priority order is applied, which determines the order in which items should be deducted. ‘Last resort’ deductions, such as rent or fuel costs, are at the top of the priority order, ensuring that claimant welfare is prioritised, followed by social obligation deductions, such as fines and child maintenance, and finally benefit debt, such as Social Fund loans and benefit overpayments.

Anyone with overpayment deductions who does experience financial hardship is encouraged to contact the Department’s Debt Management unit. Where a person cannot afford the proposed rate of these deductions repayment a lower amount can be negotiated.

DWP is also committed to HM Treasury’s Breathing Space policy, which provides citizens with problem debt the right to legal protections from creditor action for a period of time in order to enable them to receive debt advice and enter into an appropriate debt solution.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Overpayments
Wednesday 21st July 2021

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to prevent (a) universal credit overpayments and (b) the subsequent debt caused by those overpayments.

Answered by Will Quince

DWP recognises that stopping fraud and error before is happens and preventing debt is the best approach, both for Government and claimants alike, and it should be noted that, during a period when we have faced the unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19, fraud and error in the benefits system remains low, with 95% of benefits, worth more than £200 billion, paid correctly in 2020/21.

We continue to invest in fraud and error prevention, with the Chancellor announcing £44m at the Spring Budget to support the expansion of both our Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service and our new Enhanced Checking Service and the development of Transaction Risking as a means of identifying high risk claims.

Our Annual Report and Accounts published 15 July 2021 provides more information on what we are doing to prevent overpayments occurring – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-annual-report-and-accounts-2020-to-2021

Where an overpayment does occur, the Department has a responsibility to recover the money without creating undue financial hardship. In Universal Credit, all overpayments are recoverable. Where recovery is made by deduction from Universal Credit, there is a limit placed on the overall amount that can be deducted. Formerly 40% of the Universal Credit Standard Allowance, this was reduced from 30% to 25% in April 2021.

Where requested deductions exceed the 25% maximum, or there is insufficient Universal Credit in payment for all deductions to be made, a priority order is applied, which determines the order in which items should be deducted. ‘Last resort’ deductions, such as rent or fuel costs, are at the top of the priority order, ensuring that claimant welfare is prioritised, followed by social obligation deductions, such as fines and child maintenance, and finally benefit debt, such as Social Fund loans and benefit overpayments.

Anyone with overpayment deductions who does experience financial hardship is encouraged to contact the Department’s Debt Management unit. Where a person cannot afford the proposed rate of these deductions repayment a lower amount can be negotiated.

DWP is also committed to HM Treasury’s Breathing Space policy, which provides citizens with problem debt the right to legal protections from creditor action for a period of time in order to enable them to receive debt advice and enter into an appropriate debt solution.


Written Question
Postgraduate Education: Coronavirus
Monday 24th May 2021

Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to ensure that PhD researchers whose research has been affected by the covid-19 outbreak will receive the funding extensions needed to finish their research.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

This is a difficult and uncertain time for students. We are working with the sector to make sure all reasonable efforts are being made to enable students to continue their studies.

English students eligible for the doctoral degree loan can access one loan up to the maximum amount that was available when they started their course. There is no discretion within the regulations to increase the entitlement where a student extends their study, but those who have not accessed the maximum amount can apply for an additional amount of loan. If a student has withdrawn from their PhD due to compelling personal reasons, they may nonetheless be eligible for a further loan for a second full course. Withdrawal as a result of reasons connected to COVID-19 is usually considered a compelling personal reason.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) fund around 25% of the total PhD population in the UK. They have made several interventions to support PhD students who have been disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent national restrictions.

In terms of financial support, UKRI will have provided over £60 million of financial support to UKRI-funded students most impacted by COVID-19. This support was announced over two phases in April and November 2020. UKRI continued to monitor the situation and, in February 2021, any unspent funds were reallocated to support those students who needed it most. This included, but was not limited to, students with projects where adaptations may not be possible, and students with a disability, long-term illness, who are neurodivergent, or have caring responsibilities.

On 24 March 2021, UKRI announced that training grant holders will now be given further flexibility to support extensions for UKRI-funded PhD students most in need. Training grant holders can now support extensions by using their training and cohort development funding and by reducing investment in recruitment by up to 10% of the new studentships committed to in 2021/22. This reduction can be implemented over 2021/22 and 2022/23 starts.

Research England will also be delivering around £11 million of block grant funding to English universities as a contribution to their support for their postgraduate research communities, including to students not funded by UKRI.

We also recognise that in these exceptional circumstances some students may face financial hardship. The department has worked with the Office for Students to clarify that providers are able to use existing funds, worth around £256 million for academic year 2020/21, towards hardship support.  The government is making a further £15 million of additional student hardship funding available for academic year 2020/21. In total, we have made an additional £85 million of funding available for student hardship.

Providers have flexibility in how they distribute the funding to students, in a way that best prioritises those in greatest need. The funding could be distributed to a wide population of students, including postgraduates (whether taught or research-based) and international students.


Written Question
Young People: Coronavirus
Wednesday 28th April 2021

Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the briefing paper by the UCL Institute of Education The darkest hour? New evidence of the learning experiences, well-being and expectations of youth during the third national lockdown in the UK, published on 2 April; and what steps they are taking to increase the acquisition of work skills through education.

Answered by Baroness Berridge

Education Recovery

Many young people have lost a significant amount of learning during the COVID-19 outbreak. We recognise the importance of supporting this group of young people to help them catch up. This is especially critical for those young people moving from school into further education. We introduced catch-up funding to support those disadvantaged 16-19 students whose studies have been disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak, allocating up to £96 million to provide small group tutoring activity. We have extended this with further investment of £102 million into the 2021/22 academic year.

We are investing a further £102 million to continue the 16-19 Tuition Fund in the 2021/22 academic year. As a result, hundreds of thousands of young people will be eligible for valuable tuition to help them recover lost learning caused by COVID-19-related disruption. Within the eligible cohort, providers will have discretion to target those students who need support most. As further evidence emerges, we will consider if refinements to eligibility for future funding are needed to maximise its value and impact in providing catch-up support for 16-19 students.

Wellbeing & Disadvantage

Further education (FE) providers provide mental health support to students in their wrap around, pastoral offer. This includes a number of initiatives supported by the Department for Education, including the ‘Wellbeing for Education Return’ - an £8 million scheme funding expert advisers and training in every local authority area to support wellbeing recovery as children and young people returned to school and FE from September 2020 and the £5.4million College Collaboration Fund helping colleges to develop new ways to support student and staff mental health and wellbeing, details of which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/college-collaboration-fund-ccf-projects/resources-college-collaboration-fund-ccf.

As part of the £350 million tutoring support funding announced in June 2020, we made available a one-off, ring-fenced 16-19 Tuition Fund of up to £96 million for the academic year 2020/21.  The 16-19 Tuition Fund is specifically for FE and sixth form colleges, school sixth forms and other providers of 16-19 education, to support disadvantaged students.

Skills

The ‘Skills for Jobs’ White Paper, published in January 2021, sets out our blueprint to reform post-16 education and training. It is focused on giving people the skills they need, in a way that suits them, so they can get great jobs in sectors the economy needs and boost this country’s productivity.

A range of provision is already available for young people aged 16 to 24 to equip them with the skills and experience they need to progress, including Traineeships, which provide unemployed young people with employability training, work experience and English and Maths.

We have also launched T Levels, which are a high-quality technical alternative to A levels. With longer teaching hours and a meaningful industry placement of minimum 45 days, employer-designed T Levels will be excellent preparation for skilled work or further training.

We recognise the vital role that further education plays in supporting our labour market and productivity, as well preparing young people for higher education.

Through the Plan for Jobs, we are investing £1.6 billion to scale up employment support schemes and training to ensure young people have the skills and training to go on to high quality, secure and fulfilling employment. This funding is delivering real change on the ground, including through the new Kickstart scheme providing six-month jobs for young people furthest from the labour market, incentive payments for employers taking on new apprentices; the largest ever expansion in Traineeships; and considerable growth in the number of sector-based work academy programme placements to enable unemployed individuals to acquire the skills needed for local jobs.

My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has announced £375 million for the National Skills Fund at Spending Review in November 2020. This includes £95 million funding for a new level 3 adult offer and £43 million for Skills Bootcamps, as part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee. Currently, adults between the ages of 19 to 23 are eligible for full funding for their first full level 3, which is equivalent to an advanced technical certificate or diploma, or two full A levels. From April 2021 any adult aged 24 and over who is looking to achieve their first full level 3 will be able to access a fully funded course which will give them new skills and greater prospects in the labour market.

We have also introduced Skills Bootcamps, which are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with a local employer. Skills Bootcamps have the potential to transform the skills landscape for adults and employers. Skills Bootcamps are open to all adults aged 19 or over, who are either in work or recently unemployed.

Higher Education

For students in higher education (HE), following the review announced in the Roadmap of when all higher education students can return to in-person teaching, the government confirms that remaining students on non-practical courses should return to in-person teaching alongside step 3 of the Roadmap which will be no earlier than 17 May.

We understand the difficulty that this further delay will create for students and their families, as well as providers and staff both financially and in terms of mental wellbeing. The government is making a further £15 million of additional student hardship funding available for this academic year 2020/21.

In total we have made an additional £85 million of funding available for student hardship. This is on top of the £256 million of government funded student premium funding already available to HE providers to draw on towards student hardship funds for this academic year 2020/21. Alongside this, we have worked with the Office for Students to launch the online mental health platform Student Space, worth up to £3 million, in addition to the £15 million we have asked them to allocate to student mental health initiatives next year.

Education and skills lie at the heart of our national mission as we recover from the disruption caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. It is critical, not only for this generation of young people, but also for the economic and social health of the nation.


Written Question
Migrants: Finance
Friday 26th March 2021

Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans the Government has to suspend the No Recourse to Public Funds conditions on public health grounds for the duration of the covid-19 outbreak, as recommended by the Work and Pensions Select Committee in its first report of Session 2019-21, DWP’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, published 22 June 2020.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government remains committed to protecting vulnerable people and has acted decisively to ensure that we support everyone through this pandemic.

Healthcare is not classified as a public fund, and testing and treatment for COVID-19 is free of charge to all regardless of immigration status. Also, NHS Trusts have been advised that no immigration checks are required for these patients. The guidance can be viewed here:https://www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-entitlements-migrant-health-guide.

Many of the wide-ranging COVID-19 measures the Government has put in place are available to migrants with NRPF. These range from assistance being given under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-employed Income Support Scheme, statutory sick pay and discretionary hardship payments for those who have to self-isolate.

Migrants who have been granted leave on the basis of their family life / human rights can apply to have the NRPF condition on their stay lifted by making a ‘change of conditions’ application.

Since the onset of the pandemic, we have continued to prioritise NRPF ‘change of conditions’ applications and deal with them compassionately. Data published in February 2021 for quarter 4 of 2020 shows the average time taken to make a decision on cases is 18 days. Of the decisions taken in the same period, 86% were granted.

Local authorities may also provide basic safety net support, regardless of immigration status, if it is established that there is a genuine care need that does not arise solely from destitution, for example, where there are community care needs, migrants with serious health problems or family cases where the wellbeing of a child is in question.

The Government has provided unprecedented support of over £8 billion of funding to local authorities in England to help councils manage the impacts of COVID-19 and respond to the spending pressures they are facing, including £4.6 billion which is not ringfenced. Additional funding of nearly £19 billion has also been provided for the devolved administrations under the Barnett formula as part of the wider government response.

In light of the support that is available to those with NRPF, we do not believe it is necessary to suspend the NRPF condition for the duration of the COVID-19 outbreak.