Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing parents who do not wish to use the 30 hours of free childcare with grants to pay for relatives and friends to look after their children.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
In the Spring Budget 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children and the economy. By 2027/28, the government will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.
As set out in the Childcare Act 2006, the definition of ‘childcare’ excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative. The government has no current plans to extend the definition of childcare to include relatives. Friends or acquaintances known to the parent can receive government funding, but they must be registered childcare providers.
Parents who are eligible for Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) or Universal Credit (UC) Childcare can use it to pay for any childcare provision registered with Ofsted or a childminder agency. If a relative registers as a childminder and cares for a related child outside the child’s own home, or registers as a nanny and cares for a related child inside the child's own home, that childminder or nanny can qualify for TFC or UC.
As part of the government’s biggest ever expansion to childcare provision, low-income families will be able to access increased childcare support worth a total of £900 million from 28 June 2023.
Later this month, the Department for Work and Pensions will raise the amount that parents in Great Britain can claim back monthly for their childcare costs on Universal Credit, up to £951 for one child and £1,630 for two or more children. This is a rise of 47% from the previous limits of £646 for one child or £1,108 for two or more children.
At the same time, the government will help eligible parents to cover the costs of the first month of childcare when they enter work or significantly increase their hours, removing one of the most significant barriers to parents working and helping to grow the economy.
Those parents will also receive up to 85% of their childcare costs back before their next month’s bills are due. This means they should have money to pay for childcare one month in advance going forward.
The government is also supporting families by providing additional cost of living payments of up to £900 for households on eligible means-tested benefits. Over 6 million people across the UK on eligible ‘extra-costs’ disability benefits will receive a further £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment during summer 2023/24, to help with the additional costs they face.
UC improves incentives for parents to enter work. Claimants with children are entitled to a work allowance which is an amount they can earn before their benefit is affected. Once earnings are above their work allowance, a single taper is applied. This ensures their UC reduces gradually as their earnings increase.
The government has consistently said that the best way to support people’s living standards is through good work, better skills and higher wages. To that end, the UC taper rate was reduced from 24 November 2021 from 63% to 55%, meaning that claimants can keep more of their earnings. At the same time, we also increased the work allowance by £500 a year, in addition to the normal benefits uprating.
State Pensions, benefits, and statutory payments have been increased in line with the Consumer Prices Index for the year to September 2022, which was 10.1%. These increases took effect from April 2023.
The government is committed to protecting vulnerable claimants by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of essential services. The government recognises the importance of safeguarding the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of giving stay at home parents the same level of funding as that provided to working parents of all children over the age of nine months to access 30 hours of free childcare.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
In the Spring Budget 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children and the economy. By 2027/28, the government will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.
As set out in the Childcare Act 2006, the definition of ‘childcare’ excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative. The government has no current plans to extend the definition of childcare to include relatives. Friends or acquaintances known to the parent can receive government funding, but they must be registered childcare providers.
As part of the government’s biggest ever expansion to childcare provision, low-income families will be able to access increased childcare support worth a total of £900 million from 28 June 2023.
Later this month, the Department for Work and Pensions will raise the amount that parents in Great Britain can claim back monthly for their childcare costs on Universal Credit, up to £951 for one child and £1,630 for two or more children. This is a rise of 47% from the previous limits of £646 for one child or £1,108 for two or more children.
At the same time, the government will help eligible parents to cover the costs of the first month of childcare when they enter work or significantly increase their hours, removing one of the most significant barriers to parents working and helping to grow the economy.
Those parents will also receive up to 85% of their childcare costs back before their next month’s bills are due. This means they should have money to pay for childcare one month in advance going forward.
The government is also supporting families by providing additional cost of living payments of up to £900 for households on eligible means-tested benefits. Over 6 million people across the UK on eligible ‘extra-costs’ disability benefits will receive a further £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment during summer 2023/24, to help with the additional costs they face.
Universal Credit (UC) improves incentives for parents to enter work. Claimants with children are entitled to a work allowance which is an amount they can earn before their benefit is affected. Once earnings are above their work allowance, a single taper is applied. This ensures their UC reduces gradually as their earnings increase.
The government has consistently said that the best way to support people’s living standards is through good work, better skills and higher wages. To that end, the UC taper rate was reduced from 24 November 2021 from 63% to 55%, meaning that claimants can keep more of their earnings. At the same time, we also increased the work allowance by £500 a year, in addition to the normal benefits uprating.
State Pensions, benefits, and statutory payments have been increased in line with the Consumer Prices Index for the year to September 2022, which was 10.1%. These increases took effect from April 2023.
The government is committed to protecting vulnerable claimants by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of essential services. The government recognises the importance of safeguarding the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether carers approaching state pension age who will lose their entitlement to Carer's Allowance are automatically directed to claim Pension Credit..
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Carer’s Allowance aims to provide a measure of financial support and recognition for people who give up the opportunity of full-time employment, in order to provide regular and substantial care for a severely disabled person.
For those over the age of retirement, the State Pension is intended to replace income when work ceases. It has been a long-held feature of the UK’s benefit system under successive governments that, where someone is entitled to two benefits for the same contingency, then whilst there may be entitlement to both benefits, only one will be paid to prevent duplicate financial provision for the same need. We have no plans to change these arrangements.
Where underlying entitlement of Carer’s Allowance occurs (all entitlement conditions are met, but the overlapping benefit rule prevents payment), additional financial support may already be available through Pension Credit, notably including the additional amount payable to carers in Pension Credit. This additional amount is currently £42.75 a week and 108,000 people are receiving it. It is paid to recognise the additional contribution and responsibilities associated with caring and means that lower income pensioners with caring responsibilities can receive more than other lower income recipients of Pension Credit. If a pensioner’s income is above the limit for Pension Credit, he or she may still be able to receive Housing Benefit.
Since April 2022, the Government has undertaken a substantial and sustained communications campaign to raise awareness of Pension Credit and promote its take-up, including extensive advertising in regional and national newspapers, on social media, on the radio and on TV. The department also includes information in the leaflet that accompanies the annual uprating letters to pensioners drawing attention to the availability of Pension Credit and encouraging them to check their eligibility and make a claim.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of providing additional financial support to carers in receipt of the State Pension.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Carer’s Allowance aims to provide a measure of financial support and recognition for people who give up the opportunity of full-time employment, in order to provide regular and substantial care for a severely disabled person.
For those over the age of retirement, the State Pension is intended to replace income when work ceases. It has been a long-held feature of the UK’s benefit system under successive governments that, where someone is entitled to two benefits for the same contingency, then whilst there may be entitlement to both benefits, only one will be paid to prevent duplicate financial provision for the same need. We have no plans to change these arrangements.
Where underlying entitlement of Carer’s Allowance occurs (all entitlement conditions are met, but the overlapping benefit rule prevents payment), additional financial support may already be available through Pension Credit, notably including the additional amount payable to carers in Pension Credit. This additional amount is currently £42.75 a week and 108,000 people are receiving it. It is paid to recognise the additional contribution and responsibilities associated with caring and means that lower income pensioners with caring responsibilities can receive more than other lower income recipients of Pension Credit. If a pensioner’s income is above the limit for Pension Credit, he or she may still be able to receive Housing Benefit.
Since April 2022, the Government has undertaken a substantial and sustained communications campaign to raise awareness of Pension Credit and promote its take-up, including extensive advertising in regional and national newspapers, on social media, on the radio and on TV. The department also includes information in the leaflet that accompanies the annual uprating letters to pensioners drawing attention to the availability of Pension Credit and encouraging them to check their eligibility and make a claim.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether there is a saving to the public purse when State Pension replaces Carer's Allowance.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Carer’s Allowance aims to provide a measure of financial support and recognition for people who give up the opportunity of full-time employment, in order to provide regular and substantial care for a severely disabled person.
For those over the age of retirement, the State Pension is intended to replace income when work ceases. It has been a long-held feature of the UK’s benefit system under successive governments that, where someone is entitled to two benefits for the same contingency, then whilst there may be entitlement to both benefits, only one will be paid to prevent duplicate financial provision for the same need. We have no plans to change these arrangements.
Where underlying entitlement of Carer’s Allowance occurs (all entitlement conditions are met, but the overlapping benefit rule prevents payment), additional financial support may already be available through Pension Credit, notably including the additional amount payable to carers in Pension Credit. This additional amount is currently £42.75 a week and 108,000 people are receiving it. It is paid to recognise the additional contribution and responsibilities associated with caring and means that lower income pensioners with caring responsibilities can receive more than other lower income recipients of Pension Credit. If a pensioner’s income is above the limit for Pension Credit, he or she may still be able to receive Housing Benefit.
Since April 2022, the Government has undertaken a substantial and sustained communications campaign to raise awareness of Pension Credit and promote its take-up, including extensive advertising in regional and national newspapers, on social media, on the radio and on TV. The department also includes information in the leaflet that accompanies the annual uprating letters to pensioners drawing attention to the availability of Pension Credit and encouraging them to check their eligibility and make a claim.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken through advertisements to help ensure that all pensioners who are eligible for Pension Credit are aware of their eligibility.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
To raise awareness of Pension Credit and increase take-up, the Department made a multimillion pound investment in a marketing campaign in the last year. The campaign included advertising on national TV, regional and national newspapers and local and national broadcast radio. We used ‘Out of Home’ channels, which included advertising on the sides of buses and interior bus panels as well as digital street displays and digital information screens in Post Offices and GP surgeries across GB.
Our online marketing activity included promotion of Pension Credit on social media, via internet search engines and sponsored advertising on targeted websites that pensioners, their friends and family are likely to visit.
Within our network of jobcentres, we provided customers with leaflets and arranged for Jobcentres to display Pension Credit posters. We engaged with Local Authorities nationwide through the Government Communication Service local network and provided them with promotional materials to enable them to support the campaign. Our digital toolkit was also updated with information and resources that any stakeholder can use to help promote Pension Credit.
I very recently held an event with MPs to encourage their further support and promotion of Pension Credit.
In June 2022, we held a Pension Credit awareness media ‘day of action’ working in close collaboration with broadcasters, newspapers and other partners such as Age UK, Independent Age and the private sector to reach out to pensioners to promote Pension Credit through their channels. This led to Pension Credit news bulletins on ITV, mentions by financial influencer Martin Lewis and also led to Pension Credit trending in the top 20 on Twitter.
In June, we will again encourage media outlets and partners to join us in promoting Pension Credit.
A key message of the campaign has been to highlight that receiving even a small amount of Pension Credit can act as a passport to a range of other benefits including help with rent, heating and a free TV licence for the over 75s. We also heavily publicised the additional cost of living payments, which Pension Credit claimants are entitled to
As part of the annual uprating of State Pension, we once again wrote to over 11 million pensioners promoting Pension Credit in the accompanying materials.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Scope report entitled Disability Price Tag 2023: the extra cost of disability, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of that report's findings on additional costs for disabled households.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
There have been many studies estimating the costs of disability, including the Scope report. The findings vary due to the definitions of disability and the method being used.
The Government understands the pressures people, including those who are disabled, are facing with the cost of living and has taken further, decisive action to support people with their energy bills. We are providing extensive support to disabled people, and those with a long term health condition, to help them live independent lives. In 2023/24, we will spend around £78.6bn on benefits to support disabled people and people with health conditions in Great Britain.
In April, we uprated benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1%. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions, the benefit cap levels are also increasing by the same amount.
In addition, for 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments. This will be split into three payments across the 2023/24 financial year, with the first payment of £301 being made between 25 April and 17 May. A separate £150 payment will be made to individuals in receipt of eligible disability benefits in the summer. Further to this, the Energy Price Guarantee will be extended from April 2023 until the end of March 2024, meaning a typical household bill will be around £2,500 per year in Great Britain.
The Household Support Fund will continue until March 2024. This year long extension allows local authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need with the significantly rising cost of living. The guidance for local authorities for this next iteration has now been published and can be found here: 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024: Household Support Fund guidance for county councils and unitary authorities in England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The devolved administrations will receive consequential funding as usual to spend at their discretion.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to take steps to increase state pension rates for (a) men born before 6th April 1951 and (b) women born before 6 April 1953.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In April, the full basic State Pension, for people reaching State Pension age before 6 April 2016, was increased by 10.1% to £156.20 per week. This is the highest ever increase in the State Pension and means that the basic State Pension has increased by over £3,000 in cash terms since 2010.
In addition to the basic State Pension, most people reaching State Pension age before 6 April 2016 will also either receive an amount of additional State Pension or have benefitted from membership of a contracted-out private pension. Rates of additional State Pension also increased by 10.1% in April 2023.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on providing a cost of living update for the value of Access to Work grant payments.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
As all Access to Work grants are tailored to the individual need, there is no automatic uprating. Instead, all increases in support costs are considered and where appropriate awards are increased, up to an upper limit per individual per annum.
To provide support for those at the upper limit of Access to Work, the upper limit is normally increased on an annual basis. It was increased to £66,000 from April 2023.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of (a) the cost to the public purse of increasing the State Pension paid to UK pensioners resident overseas to the level it would have been had it increased in line with inflation in each year since 2010 and (b) the cost to the public purse of continuing to increase the State Pension paid to UK pensioners resident overseas in line with inflation in each year between 2023 and 2030, starting from that value.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
UK State Pensions are payable worldwide and up-rated overseas where there is a legal requirement to do so. The policy on up-rating UK State Pensions overseas is long-standing and has been supported by successive post-war Governments for over 70 years.
In response to (a): No recent assessment has been made of the annual cost of uprating the UK State Pension to UK pensioners living abroad.
In response to (b): The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.