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 printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member printed grouped question UIN question first answered answering member label attachment file name title
tabling member	label

Search

1313662

registered interest
date	11/05/2021
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: Deductions
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) how many, and (2) what proportion of, new universal credit payments have deductions as a result of repayment of (a) budgeting loans and advances, (b) universal credit advances, (c) universal credit overpayments, and (d) tax credit overpayments, in each month from March 2019 to the most recent month for which data are available.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL54
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/05/2021 answer text <p>We carefully balance our duty to the taxpayer to recover overpayments with our support for claimants. Safeguards are in place to ensure deductions are manageable; from 12 April 2021, we further reduced the cap on deductions from Universal Credit awards to 25 per cent and lengthened the payback period from 12 months to 24 meaning in effect someone can receive 25 payments over 24 months, giving them more flexibility over the payments of their UC award. This will also allow claimants to retain more of their award, giving additional financial security.</p><p> </p><p>New Claims Advances are available which allows claimants to receive up to 100 per cent of their estimated UC payment upfront. Advances are designed to ensure that the most vulnerable claimants receive the money they need to live on during their transition to UC. Claimants have the option to spread twenty-five UC payments over twenty-four months, giving them more flexibility over the payments of their UC award.</p><p>From 3rd April 2020, deductions from Universal Credit for some government debt, such as Tax Credits, benefit overpayments and Social Fund Loans were suspended for 3 months, which resulted in many claimants seeing an increase in the amount they received while allowing staff to prioritise processing the unprecedented number of new benefits claims.</p><p> </p><p>Customers can contact the Department if they are experiencing financial hardship in order to discuss a reduction in their rate of repayment, depending on financial circumstances.</p><p> </p><p>The information requested is provided in the attached spreadsheet.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 25/05/2021 15:48:32 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott attachment 1 file name Spreadsheet.xlsx title Spreadsheet
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1313663

registered interest
date	11/05/2021
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	Welfare Tax Credits: Overpayments
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how much it would cost to write-off overpayment tax credit debt accrued by Universal Credit claimants (1) in total, and (2) for the time periods of (a) 12 months and under, (b) 12 months to under 36 months, (c) 36 months and above; and in each case how many claimants would have their overpayment tax credit debt written off.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL55
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/06/2021 answer text <p>The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does not store information in a format entirely commensurate with the question, but I can confirm that approximately £3 billion Tax Credit debt associated to Universal Credit claimants has been transferred to DWP. This debt relates to 2.4 million claimants, some of whom could appear more than once in this total. The following table breaks this down and shows how much has been recovered to date.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Tax Credit debt transferred to date</strong></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Financial Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Customer Count</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Values</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Total Recoveries</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>2016-17</strong></p></td><td><p>110.8k</p></td><td><p>£147.933m</p></td><td><p><strong>£6.261m</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>2017-18</strong></p></td><td><p>155.8k</p></td><td><p>£190.472m</p></td><td><p><strong>£37.987m</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>2018-19</strong></p></td><td><p>531.3k</p></td><td><p>£676.984m</p></td><td><p><strong>£109.091m</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>2019-20</strong></p></td><td><p>724.5k</p></td><td><p>£964.170m</p></td><td><p><strong>£213.693m</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>2020-21</strong></p></td><td><p>593.0k</p></td><td><p>£679.055m</p></td><td><p><strong>£206.041m</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>2021-22 YTD</strong></p></td><td><p>285.4k</p></td><td><p>£364.141m</p></td><td><p><strong>£61.838m</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Totals </strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2400.8k</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>£3,022.76m</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>£634.910m</strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>During the same period, the Department wrote off £9.4 million Tax Credit debt for approximately 5,700 customers. The latest HMRC forecasts suggest that a further £2.4 billion is due to migrate to DWP Debt Management for future recovery. Therefore, based on the value of debt transferred to date and the forecast of further debt that will transfer, if all Tax Credits debt associated to UC claimants was written off it would cost in the region of £5.4 billion associated to approximately 4 million customers.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has a duty to protect public funds and an obligation to ensure that overpaid benefit payments are recovered in accordance with the appropriate social security legislation.</p><p> </p><p>The Department seeks to recover benefit overpayments as quickly as possible without creating any undue financial hardship to the claimant. The rate of deduction is determined by legislation and can only be calculated once other higher priority deductions have been taken into account. The maximum deduction that can be taken from someone’s UC Standard Allowance was reduced to 25 per cent in April 2021.</p><p> </p><p>We want to ensure that repayment of all debt owed to the Department is sustainable and takes into account the customer’s ability to pay. Claimants are encouraged to contact DWP if they are unable to afford the rate of recovery. The recovery rate of Tax Credit overpayments can be reduced where a claimant is experiencing financial hardship.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 08/06/2021 16:57:06 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1313664

registered interest
date	11/05/2021
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: Carers
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the commitment made in their response to the report from the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill, published on 16 July 2019 (CP 137), what steps they have taken to review the effectiveness of the policy to encourage Universal Credit claimants to nominate the main carer's bank account for payment.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL56
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2021 answer text <p>Since Summer 2019, the online claim process has featured messaging that encourages joint claimants to select the bank account of the main carer when choosing where Universal Credit payments should be paid to. This seeks to balance encouragement of positive financial management behaviours, whilst also allowing claimants to choose how to best manage their own finances.</p><p> </p><p>It is not currently possible to reliably identify whether payment has been made to the main carer in couples with children. While we have analysed data on payments to male and female members of couples (as below), we cannot yet confidently identify the main carer. It has not been possible to draw robust conclusions based on this limited evidence. Further work is planned.</p><p> </p><p>The ‘Universal Credit Statistical Ad Hoc: Gender of bank account holders on Universal Credit’, published January 2019, shows that for couple claimants where the gender of the account holder could be identified, 59% of accounts are held by a female with 41% held by a male. This is the source of the statistic stated in the Government’s response to the report from the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill, that ‘around 60 per cent of Universal Credit payments go to the main carer, usually a woman’, although I regret that response should more accurately have said that ‘around 60 per cent of Universal Credit couple payments go to the woman, usually the main carer.’</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott grouped question UIN HL57 question first answered 10/06/2021 16:24:02 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1313665

registered interest
date	11/05/2021
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: Carers
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the source of the statistic that around 60 per cent of Universal Credit payments go to the main carer, which is stated in their response to the report from the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill, published on 16 July 2019 (CP 137).
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL57
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2021 answer text <p>Since Summer 2019, the online claim process has featured messaging that encourages joint claimants to select the bank account of the main carer when choosing where Universal Credit payments should be paid to. This seeks to balance encouragement of positive financial management behaviours, whilst also allowing claimants to choose how to best manage their own finances.</p><p> </p><p>It is not currently possible to reliably identify whether payment has been made to the main carer in couples with children. While we have analysed data on payments to male and female members of couples (as below), we cannot yet confidently identify the main carer. It has not been possible to draw robust conclusions based on this limited evidence. Further work is planned.</p><p> </p><p>The ‘Universal Credit Statistical Ad Hoc: Gender of bank account holders on Universal Credit’, published January 2019, shows that for couple claimants where the gender of the account holder could be identified, 59% of accounts are held by a female with 41% held by a male. This is the source of the statistic stated in the Government’s response to the report from the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill, that ‘around 60 per cent of Universal Credit payments go to the main carer, usually a woman’, although I regret that response should more accurately have said that ‘around 60 per cent of Universal Credit couple payments go to the woman, usually the main carer.’</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott grouped question UIN HL56 question first answered 10/06/2021 16:24:02 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1313666

registered interest
date	11/05/2021
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: Carers
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) how many, and (2) what proportion of, couples with children claiming Universal Credit since July 2019 have nominated the main carer's bank account for payment.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL58
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/06/2021 answer text <p>Analysis of the proportion of first payments that go to the main carer has been carried out. However, it is not possible to draw robust conclusions based on the limited evidence available</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 07/06/2021 14:17:00 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett