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1132054

registered interest
date	13/06/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Universal Credit
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that universal credit claimants paying rent weekly do not face a one-week shortfall in their universal credit housing element in 2020.
tabling member constituency	Ogmore
tabling member printed	Chris Elmore
uin	264450
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/06/2019 answer text <p>No-one will face a one-week shortfall in their Universal Credit (UC) housing element in 2020 as no year contains 53 weeks. This perceived issue of there being a one-week shortfall due to there being 53 weeks in a year arises where a landlord charges rent weekly on a Monday and, because of the way the calendar falls every 5 or 6 years, requiring 53 rent payments in a year, with the 53<sup>rd</sup> payment in part covering the tenancy for the first few days of the following year.</p><p> </p><p>Where a tenant makes a 53<sup>rd</sup> rent payment in a given year, this payment will cover some days in the subsequent year. This will mean the following month only has four payment dates and, as such, the claimant will be ‘overpaid’ for their housing and their shortfall will be recovered.</p><p> </p><p>Universal Credit payments are designed to mirror the world of work, with monthly payments reflecting the way many working people are paid. This model of monthly payments allows claimants to take responsibility for budgeting their own income and helps prepare them for getting back to work.</p><p> </p><p>We are aware of a separate issue with respect to the way the calculation in the Universal Credit regulations converts a weekly liability into a monthly allowance. The conversion is achieved by multiplying the weekly rent by 52 and then dividing by 12. This effectively means one day’s rent a year (two days in a leap years) are not covered by UC. We are currently considering whether this formulation around weekly rents, and potentially other weekly amounts in the UC calculation, should be amended.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 21/06/2019 11:44:35 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4572 label Biography information for Chris Elmore

1125584

registered interest
date	09/05/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Food Banks
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department holds on the number of benefit claimants of who travel out of area to access a food bank.
tabling member constituency	Ogmore
tabling member printed	Chris Elmore
uin	252588
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/05/2019 answer text <p>The Department doesn’t maintain records on the number of food bank users. People can be referred to a food bank through a range of local referral partners. Although Jobcentre staff can also signpost claimants in writing to a food bank in line with national guidance, they are not required to maintain records on whether a customer has been issued with a signposting slip. As part of their wider community outreach work, Jobcentre managers can work with food banks in their area if they are invited to do so, to ensure that people are receiving all the support they are entitled to.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 17/05/2019 13:33:04 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4572 label Biography information for Chris Elmore

1124250

registered interest
date	01/05/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Universal Credit: Wales
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of a potential link between the rollout of universal credit and use of foodbanks in (a) Wales and (b) Ogmore.
tabling member constituency	Ogmore
tabling member printed	Chris Elmore
uin	249986
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/05/2019 answer text <p>There are many reasons people use foodbanks and agreement that growth in the use of foodbanks cannot be attributed solely to Universal Credit.</p><p>Under Universal Credit no claimant has to wait for their money: advances of up to 100 per cent of their award are available to all claimants from day one of their claim. Advances are paid back over a period of 12 months and in the Autumn Budget 2018, we announced that from October 2021, the payback period for these advances will be extended further, up to 16 months. This is just one of a number of measures the Department has put in place to support claimants, such as paying those claimants moving from Housing Benefit onto Universal Credit a two week ‘transitional housing payment’. We are also introducing a two-week run on for eligible claimants of Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance from July 2020.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 08/05/2019 14:11:25 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4572 label Biography information for Chris Elmore

1124251

registered interest
date	01/05/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Food Banks: Ogmore
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data her Department collects on the use of food banks in Ogmore.
tabling member constituency	Ogmore
tabling member printed	Chris Elmore
uin	249987
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/05/2019 answer text <p>The Government does not collect official data on the use of food banks. We have worked with the Scottish Government, food insecurity experts, and the Office for National Statistics to introduce a new set of food security questions in the Family Resources Survey starting from April 2019. This means that we will in future be able to able to monitor the prevalence and severity of household food insecurity across the UK and for specific groups, to better understand the drivers of food insecurity and identify which groups are most at risk.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 10/05/2019 14:26:50 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4572 label Biography information for Chris Elmore