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1135427

registered interest
date	27/06/2019
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	Pension Credit and Television Licences
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that those who are entitled to claim (1) pension credit, and (2) a TV licence from June 2020, but currently do not, take up those benefits.
tabling member printed	Baroness Jolly
uin	HL16748
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/07/2019 answer text <p>In the 2015 funding settlement, the Government agreed with the BBC that responsibility for the concession would transfer to the BBC. The implementation of the licence fee and the concession from June 2020 is a matter for the BBC and TV Licensing, which are independent of Government.</p><p> </p><p>However, we expect the BBC to put in place robust plans to support those who might be affected. The BBC has said it will write to all over 75 TV licence holders advising them of how the new policy will work and when they need to act.</p><p> </p><p>Irrespective of this, the Government is committed to ensuring that older people receive the support they are entitled to and the DWP targets activity on engaging with people who may be eligible to benefits at pivotal stages, such as when they claim State Pension or report a change in their circumstances. The DWP uses a wide range of channels to communicate information about benefits to potential claimants; including information on gov.uk, in leaflets and by telephone. DWP staff in Pension Centres and Jobcentres including visiting officers are able to provide help and advice about entitlement to benefits, as are staff in Local Authorities who administer Housing Benefit.</p><p> </p><p>Potential claimants can use the Pension Credit calculator to check if they are likely to be eligible and get an estimate of what they may receive. People wishing to claim Pension Credit can do so by calling 0800 99 1234.</p><p> </p><p>One of the best ways to reach eligible claimants is through trusted stakeholder working in the community and we have developed the Pension Credit toolkit, as an on-line tool for agencies and welfare rights organisations to use in order to encourage Pension Credit take-up.</p><p> </p><p>The toolkit contains resources for anyone working with pensioners and includes guides to Pension Credit. It also contains publicity material and guidance designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit and help organisations support someone applying for Pension Credit as well as ideas for encouraging take-up. The toolkit also provides links to information about disability and carers benefits.</p><p> </p><p>Most recently we have provided to relevant stakeholders a fact sheet about Pension Credit and the changes introduced on 15 May for mixed age couples to ensure that accurate information is available in the places where people are most likely to seek information.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 11/07/2019 15:00:49 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4203 label Biography information for Baroness Jolly

1135078

registered interest
date	26/06/2019
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 (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Buscombe on 25 June (HL16417), why the draft Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019, which were laid on 14 January, have not yet been tabled for debate and affirmative resolution in the House of Lords.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL16705
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/07/2019 answer text <p>On 3 May 2019, the High Court handed down a judgment in relation to Universal Credit and the Severe Disability Premium (SDP). The judgment quashed the SDP related parts of the draft Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019. The Department is currently considering the options open to us and will respond in due course.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 09/07/2019 15:01:08 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1135081

registered interest
date	26/06/2019
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	Poverty: Children
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Baroness Buscombe on 17 June (HL Deb, col 653), how many children living in absolute poverty in a household where the adult is (1) self-employed, and (2) in part-time employment, will benefit from the “£1.7 billion a year cash boost to our welfare system”; and by how much the family income will increase per annum in those households.
tabling member printed	Baroness Primarolo
uin	HL16708
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/07/2019 answer text <p>The change announced in the Budget will enable working parents and people with disabilities on Universal Credit to keep £630 extra income each year or around £12 per week.</p><p> </p><p>HM Treasury’s distributional analysis, published alongside Budget 2018, shows the cumulative effect on household incomes of policies on welfare, tax, and public service spending measures. Because different measures often interact with each other, this cumulative assessment provides the best representation of the overall intended policy effect. This shows that the Government’s decisions have benefited households throughout the income distribution, with the poorest households gaining the most as a percentage of net income.</p><p> </p><p>DWP has not conducted research into the impact of Universal Credit on household poverty. Estimates of the number and proportion of individuals in relative low income are published in the National Statistics Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series, available on gov.uk.</p><p> </p><p>The latest annual publication was on 2017/18 data and we will continue to monitor relative low income rates in future publications. We are committed to building a country that works for everyone – not just the privileged few. We know that work is the best route out of poverty and Universal Credit is designed to strengthen incentives for parents to move into and progress in work. The impact of Universal Credit cannot be considered in isolation; it is a key component of a broader strategy to move Britain to a higher wage, lower welfare, lower tax society.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe grouped question UIN HL16710 question first answered 09/07/2019 15:25:45 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	217 label Biography information for Baroness Primarolo

1135082

registered interest
date	26/06/2019
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	Poverty: Children
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Baroness Buscombe on 17 June (HL Deb, col 653), how many children live in the “2.4 million households” who will “keep more of what they earn”.
tabling member printed	Baroness Primarolo
uin	HL16709
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department estimates there will be around 4.1m children in households in Great Britain that will gain from the change in work allowances by 2023/24.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 09/07/2019 15:26:14 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	217 label Biography information for Baroness Primarolo

1135083

registered interest
date	26/06/2019
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Baroness Buscombe on 17 June (HL Deb, col 653), how much each household will gain per week from the £1.7 billion a year cash boost announced in the Budget.
tabling member printed	Baroness Primarolo
uin	HL16710
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/07/2019 answer text <p>The change announced in the Budget will enable working parents and people with disabilities on Universal Credit to keep £630 extra income each year or around £12 per week.</p><p> </p><p>HM Treasury’s distributional analysis, published alongside Budget 2018, shows the cumulative effect on household incomes of policies on welfare, tax, and public service spending measures. Because different measures often interact with each other, this cumulative assessment provides the best representation of the overall intended policy effect. This shows that the Government’s decisions have benefited households throughout the income distribution, with the poorest households gaining the most as a percentage of net income.</p><p> </p><p>DWP has not conducted research into the impact of Universal Credit on household poverty. Estimates of the number and proportion of individuals in relative low income are published in the National Statistics Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series, available on gov.uk.</p><p> </p><p>The latest annual publication was on 2017/18 data and we will continue to monitor relative low income rates in future publications. We are committed to building a country that works for everyone – not just the privileged few. We know that work is the best route out of poverty and Universal Credit is designed to strengthen incentives for parents to move into and progress in work. The impact of Universal Credit cannot be considered in isolation; it is a key component of a broader strategy to move Britain to a higher wage, lower welfare, lower tax society.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe grouped question UIN HL16708 question first answered 09/07/2019 15:25:45 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	217 label Biography information for Baroness Primarolo

1135084

registered interest
date	26/06/2019
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	Poverty: Children
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Baroness Buscombe on 17 June (HL Deb, col 653), why child poverty has been “rising almost entirely in working families”.
tabling member printed	Baroness Primarolo
uin	HL16711
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/07/2019 answer text <p>The Institute for Fiscal Studies published “Living Standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2019” on 19 June which acknowledged that the rise of in-work relative poverty is a complex issue with no easy answer. They cited a number of reasons, including that there are more people in work overall and far fewer workless households, for example, there are 667,000 fewer children in workless households compared with 2010. Furthermore, far fewer pensioners are poor than ever before, primarily driven by increased government spending on pension benefits. This has raised the relative poverty line resulting in more ‘in work’ households falling below the line in recent years than they would have done without these increases in pensioner incomes.</p><p>The IFS estimated that the remaining third of the increase is due to two main factors: that earnings have risen less quickly towards the bottom of the distribution than the top and that housing costs have risen faster for poorer households than richer ones.</p><p>We know that there is more to do to support working people. The Chancellor has set out the Government’s ambition to end low pay across the UK. The National Living Wage, rose to £8.21 an hour in April 2019 and is expected to benefit over 1.7m people. The government is working to ease issues around high housing costs by delivering over 1.3 million extra homes in England since 2010. The Government is now on track to raise housing supply to 300,000 per year on average by the mid-2020s. Over £44 billion of new financial support will be available for housing over the next five years.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 10/07/2019 16:48:19 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	217 label Biography information for Baroness Primarolo

1134313

registered interest
date	24/06/2019
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	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Buscombe on 19 June (HL Deb, col 771), on what occasions the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights was "not keen to engage" with UK officials.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL16598
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2019 answer text <p>Department for Work and Pensions officials liaised extensively with the Special Rapporteur’s office over the arrangements for his visit to the UK last November. From the outset, his staff were clear that Professor Alston’s priority was to secure meetings with UK Government Ministers.</p><p> </p><p>DWP proposed meetings and round tables with senior officials across the relevant departments so that topics, including health, housing and welfare benefits, could be explored in more detail. The scope and time available for these meetings was significantly curtailed as the Special Rapporteur’s office asked that meetings with parliamentary committees and other public bodies, for example the National Audit Office, be prioritised over meetings with UK Government officials.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 08/07/2019 13:50:34 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1134314

registered interest
date	24/06/2019
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	Social Security Benefits
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the current (1) weekly rates of Child Benefit, and (2) monthly rates of Universal Credit standard allowances and child elements; and what would each of those rates have been had they not been frozen for the past four years.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL16599
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2019 answer text <p>Work is the best route out of poverty and for people to be more financially independent. Our welfare reforms are part of the Government’s commitment to incentivise moves into work and progression in work, and to better support working families.</p><p>The Department completed an Impact Assessment titled ‘Welfare Reform and Work Bill: Impact Assessment of the Benefit rate freeze’ in July 2015 which included information surrounding the policy objectives and the intended effects. Benefits for the additional costs of disability, and for carers, are exempt from the benefit freeze.</p><p>Currently the weekly rate of Child Benefit is £20.70 for the eldest or only child and £13.70 for additional children.</p><p>Universal Credit is made up of a standard allowance and any additional amounts which apply to claimants with certain circumstances, such as dependent children. The current monthly rates for the requested Universal Credit components are shown in the tables below.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Standard allowance</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Single and under 25</p></td><td><p>£251.77</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Single and over 25</p></td><td><p>£317.82</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>In a couple and both under 25</p></td><td><p>£395.20 (for both)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>In a couple and either are 25 or over</p></td><td><p>£498.89 (for both)</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p><strong>Child components</strong></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>For the first child</p></td><td><p>£277.08 (born before 6 April 2017) £231.67 (born on or after 6 April 2017)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>For the second or other eligible children</p></td><td><p>£231.67</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>For a disabled or severely disabled child</p></td><td><p>£126.11 or £392.08</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>We are unable to determine what each of the rates would have been had they not been subject to a freeze, as the legacy system is not comparable with Universal Credit.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 08/07/2019 15:17:12 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1134318

registered interest
date	24/06/2019
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	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Buscombe on 17 June (HL Deb, col 652), what is their definition of "absolute poverty".
tabling member printed	Baroness Primarolo
uin	HL16603
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2019 answer text <p>Government definitions of low income households are set out in the annual National Statistics publication <em>Households Below Average Income</em>. Someone is in absolute low income (commonly referred to as ‘absolute poverty’), if they are in a household that received less than 60% of the UK median equivalised net household income in 2010/11, adjusted for inflation.</p><p> </p><p>Absolute low income is measured both before and after housing costs. Housing costs include; rent (gross of housing benefit); water rates, community water charges and council water charges; mortgage interest payments; structural insurance premiums (for owner occupiers); ground rent and service charges.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 08/07/2019 13:57:43 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	217 label Biography information for Baroness Primarolo

1134319

registered interest
date	24/06/2019
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	Poverty: Children
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children who live in a household where at least one adult is employed are currently living in absolute poverty after housing costs.
tabling member printed	Baroness Primarolo
uin	HL16604
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2019 answer text <p>National statistics on the number of children in absolute poverty in a family where at least one adult is employed can be calculated from figures published in the annual &quot;Households Below Average Income&quot; publication.</p><p>In 2017/18, 2.5m children were in absolute poverty (after housing costs) in families with at least one adult in employment. However, nearly half of these families are in part time work only, or are self-employed</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 08/07/2019 14:38:48 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	217 label Biography information for Baroness Primarolo