Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to increase statutory sick pay in line with the living wage.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has already increased the rate of SSP this year, in April the rate of SSP was increased by 6.7% to £116.75. This represents a £20 per week increase in the rate of SSP since 2021.
SSP is just one part of our welfare safety net and our wider Government offer to support people in times of need. Anybody who is on a low level of income during the period that they are sick and who requires further financial support may be able to claim Universal Credit, depending on their personal circumstances.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to increase statutory sick pay for people unable to work while living with cancer.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has already increased the rate of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) this year, in April the rate of SSP was increased by the September 2023 CPI of 6.7% to £116.75. This represents a £20 per week increase in the rate of SSP since 2021.
SSP is just one part of our welfare safety net and our wider Government offer to support people in times of need. Anybody who is on a low level of income during the period that they are sick and who requires further financial support may be able to claim Universal Credit, depending on their personal circumstances.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to remove the earnings threshold for statutory sick pay.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since 2019 over 500,000 more people now earn above the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) and can therefore benefit from Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). However, now is not the right time for structural reform of SSP, which includes removing the LEL.
SSP is just one part of our welfare safety net and our wider Government offer to support people in times of need, many of those with earnings below the LEL are already in receipt of benefits, such as Universal Credit.
Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of adjusting the minimum income floor for Universal Credit for (a) farmers and (b) other people whose income and expenditure varies during the year.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not intend to assess the potential merits of adjusting the Minimum Income Floor (MIF). Relaxing or removing the MIF risks trapping customers indefinitely in very low-earning self-employment and dependency on the welfare system - a situation that is unfair to the taxpayer, and unhelpful for customers and their families.
We are working with the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) to ensure a smooth transition from the old legacy benefits to Universal Credit, as well as providing transitional protection when applicable.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he has taken to inform recipients of the (a) limited capability for work-related activity element of Universal Credit and (b) Employment and Support Allowance support group of their potential entitlement to Personal Independence Payment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP Work Coaches and Disability Advisers can signpost and support claimants who may be eligible for other benefits. Signposting is also performed by Citizens Advice Bureau, Disability Groups, healthcare professionals and Welfare Rights organisations.
Information for those who want to know more about DWP benefits is also available on GOV.UK and via social media.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps the Government has taken to ensure that families living in poverty in the UK have sufficient (a) food (b) energy and (c) basic household goods.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling poverty and supporting people on lower incomes. We will spend around £276bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2023/24 including around £124bn on people of working age and children.
Working age benefits will increase by 6.7% from April 2024. We are also raising the Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents in April 2024, benefiting 1.6 million low-income households.
With over 900,000 vacancies across the UK, our focus remains firmly on supporting parents to move into and progress in work, an approach which is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risk of child poverty. The latest statistics show that, in 2021/22, children living in workless households were around 5 times more likely to be in absolute poverty after housing costs than those where all adults work.
Our core Jobcentre offer provides a range of options to help people into work, including face-to-face time with Work Coaches and targeted employment support. We will also increase the National Living Wage by 9.8% to £11.44 for workers aged 21 years and over from this April - an annual increase in gross earnings of over £1800 for someone working full-time on the National Living Wage.
To further help parents on Universal Credit who are moving into work or increasing their hours, the Government is providing additional support with upfront childcare costs. We have also increased the childcare costs that parents on Universal Credit can claim back by nearly 50%, up to £951 a month for one child and £1,630 for two or more children.
As announced in Spring Budget, £500m of additional funding also enables 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.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Cities Outlook 2024, published on 22 January 2024 by the Centre for Cities, what steps his Department is taking to reduce child poverty in Birmingham.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to reducing poverty, including child poverty, and supporting low-income families. We will spend around £276bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2023/24 including around £124bn on people of working age and children.
Working age benefits will increase by 6.7% from April 2024, subject to Parliamentary approval, following a 10.1% increase in 2023/24. To further support low-income households, we are also raising the Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents in April 2024, benefiting 1.6 million low-income households.
With over 900,000 vacancies across the UK, our focus remains firmly on supporting parents to move into and progress in work. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risk of child poverty. The latest statistics show that children living in workless households were around 5 times more likely to be in absolute poverty after housing costs than those where all adults work.
To further support parents into work, we increased the Universal Credit childcare costs cap to £951 a month for one child and £1630 a month for two or more children in June 2023. We will also increase the National Living Wage by 9.8% to £11.44 for workers aged 21 years and over from this April - an annual increase in gross earnings of over £1800 for someone working full-time on the National Living Wage.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on how many occasions Ministers from his Department have attended the Universal Credit Programme Board in each year since 1 January 2018.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In line with best practice in Government Projects, Ministers are not normally members of Project Boards for projects in the GMPP. This is because under the Ministerial Code, SROs have direct accountability for the delivery of their projects progress to Parliament. The Minister for Welfare Delivery attended the UC Programme Board once in 2020 and twice in 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 the Government is taking to help ensure the mental well-being of people affected by welfare sanctions.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Under Universal Credit, sanctions do not apply to all customers. Those with a health condition, illness or disability who are found to have ‘limited capability for work and work-related requirements’, are not subject to work-related conditions and will therefore not be sanctioned.
Those on work-related benefits are expected to take responsibility for meeting the conditionality requirements they have agreed with their work coach. Where a customer on a work-related benefit has a health condition, illness or a disability, work coaches have the discretion to tailor their requirements to what is reasonable and achievable taking into account the individual's condition. In some circumstances a customer’s work-related requirements maybe be lifted for a period if their ability to carry them out is disrupted due to their personal circumstances.
A sanction is only applied where an individual has failed to meet their agreed conditionality requirements without demonstrating good reason for doing so and in cases where vulnerabilities are known or suspected, a pre-referral quality check is undertaken prior to any sanction referral to ensure that it is appropriate in the circumstances. For customers who demonstrate that they cannot meet their immediate and most essential needs as a result of a sanction, we have a well-established system of hardship payments. These needs can include heating, food and hygiene.
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, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of sanctions for (a) minor infringements of welfare rules and (b) being late for jobcentre meetings on the mental health of people sanctioned.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made of the potential mental health impact of sanctions for (a) minor infringements of welfare rules and (b) being late for jobcentre meetings.
Under Universal Credit, sanctions do not apply to all customers. Those with a health condition, illness or disability who are found to have ‘limited capability for work and work-related requirements’, are not subject to work-related conditions and will therefore not be sanctioned. Those on work-related benefits are expected to take responsibility for meeting the conditionality requirements they have agreed with their work coach to do so. Where a customer on a work-related benefit has a health condition, illness or a disability, work coaches have the discretion to tailor their requirements to what is reasonable and achievable taking into account the individual's condition. Additionally, in some circumstances a customer’s work-related requirements maybe be lifted for a period if their ability to carry them out is disrupted due to their personal circumstances.
A sanction is only applied where an individual has failed to meet their agreed conditionality requirements without demonstrating good reason for doing so and in the cases where vulnerabilities are known or suspected, a pre-referral quality check is undertaken prior to any sanction referral to ensure that it is appropriate in the circumstances. For minor conditionality failures, including failing to attend a mandatory appointment with a work coach an open-ended sanction is applied. Open-ended sanctions can be ended at any time by the customer simply re-engaging with their work coach and complying with the failed conditionality requirement.