Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed question first answered answering member label previous answer version answering member constituency answering member printed answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1191762

registered interest
date	29/04/2020
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, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of ending the five week wait for universal credit by making the advance payment a grant when the claim is confirmed.
tabling member constituency	Airdrie and Shotts
tabling member printed	Neil Gray
uin	41470
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/05/2020 answer text <p>Nobody has to wait five weeks for a payment under Universal Credit. Advances are a mechanism for getting claimants faster access to their entitlement; allowing claimants to receive 13 payments over 12 months with up to 12 months to repay the advance.</p><p> </p><p>New Claims Advances of up to 100% of potential entitlement are available if a claimant needs support during their first assessment period. Face-to-face checks for Universal Credit advances have been scrapped due to Covid-19, so people get the support they need despite COVID-19 restrictions.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has already taken steps to help ease the burden of the repayment of advances.</p><p>We have reduced the maximum deduction from 40% to 30% of a claimant’s standard allowance. The Budget 2020 set out that the maximum level will be further reduced, so that standard deductions will not exceed 25% of a claimant’s Standard Allowance from October 2021.</p><p> </p><p>The repayment time for advances has already been extended from 6 months to 12 months, and a further extension to 24 months from October 2021 was announced in the budget. Claimants can ask for repayments to be delayed for up to 3 months if they can’t afford them.</p><p> </p><p>Any further changes to this policy would require significant system development at a time when all resources are rightly focused on processing new claims. We will continue to review our policies but have no further planned changes at this time</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 04/05/2020 15:56:54 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4365 label Biography information for Neil Gray

1191767

registered interest
date	29/04/2020
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 she is taking to ensure that claimants are aware that making a claim for universal credit could automatically stop existing benefits.
tabling member constituency	Airdrie and Shotts
tabling member printed	Neil Gray
uin	41471
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/05/2020 answer text <p>(During the coronavirus) The Department has prioritised ensuring people have the information they need to understand the benefits and employment support they may be eligible for, including launching a new website to help people navigate the range of support available and apply for it.</p><p> </p><p>Although neither HMRC nor DWP can advise tax credit claimants whether they should claim UC, we have actively encouraged them to use benefit calculators to check their eligibility for Universal Credit before applying, and have explained that applying for UC will stop their tax credit claim. This includes adding information to HMRC’s Interactive Voice Response for people calling on the phone, and updating GOV.UK pages. We have used the DWP Twitter and Facebook channels to share messages for tax credit claimants, and used paid media to ensure we reach millions of people.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 05/05/2020 12:41:02 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4365 label Biography information for Neil Gray

1191780

registered interest
date	29/04/2020
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, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing the £16,000 savings threshold for eligibility for universal credit.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Lloyd Russell-Moyle
uin	41570
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/05/2020 answer text <p>A key principle of UC is that it supports people who do not have assets available to meet their basic needs. While it is important to protect the incentive to save for claimants on low earnings, people with substantial capital can take responsibility for their own support. This is to ensure that we can maintain our focus on getting money to citizens who need it and safeguarding the most vulnerable.</p><p> </p><p>If capital exceeds £16,000 there will be no entitlement to UC, unless the capital can be disregarded, for example personal injury compensation payments. Capital above £6,000 will reduce the amount of UC paid by £4.35 per month for every £250 of capital or part thereof.</p><p> </p><p>If someone has money in their account that is to be used for business purposes, for example for paying tax, it will not be counted towards their capital, but they may be asked to prove that the money is for business purposes. People should make clear in their application the savings that are business assets, and note it in their online journal.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 07/05/2020 15:11:53 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince previous answer version 19214 answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4615 label Biography information for Lloyd Russell-Moyle

1191860

registered interest
date	29/04/2020
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 how many households with children are currently receiving Universal Credit as well as legacy benefits; and what proportion of those cannot fully benefit from the recent £1,000 increase in Universal Credit as that increase pushed them over the limit of the total amount of benefit they are allowed to receive.
tabling member printed	Baroness Boycott
uin	HL3678
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2020 answer text <p>The information requested is not readily available and to provide a reply would require us to produce new analysis to link together several complex datasets, including Child Benefit data which is administered by HMRC, to identify if a household would have a benefit income above the cap levels due to increases in their UC award alone (independent of increases to Local Housing Allowance and CPI uprating of working age benefits). We would also need to identify if the household would otherwise be exempt from the benefit cap. This includes assessing whether or not a household has earnings over the earnings threshold, currently £604 per assessment period, is in receipt of an exempting benefit e.g. Personal Independence Payments, Carer’s Allowance etc. or is eligible for a grace period due to previous earnings. It is estimated that the time this would take to produce and quality assure the results would be in excess of 4 working days and therefore would incur disproportionate costs.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 21/05/2020 11:46:22 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4704 label Biography information for Baroness Boycott