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 grouped question UIN question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

714695

registered interest
date	28/03/2017
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 assessment his Department has made of the effect of the time taken between opening a new claim for universal credit and receiving the first payment on people's (a) financial security, (b) housing security and (c) ability to access work opportunities.
tabling member constituency	Easington
tabling member printed	Grahame Morris
uin	69540
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/04/2017 answer text <p>The Universal Credit assessment period and payment structure is a fundamental part of the design; it helps reduce welfare dependency by mirroring the world of work, where 75% of people are paid monthly.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has a number of safeguards in place to help claimants transition to Universal Credit. Universal Credit Advances are available, which give the claimant up to 50% of their indicative monthly award, including housing costs, to support them until they receive their first monthly payment. We believe that this satisfies the same need as an interim payment.</p><p> </p><p>We also work closely with landlords, Local Authorities and community organisations to ensure that claimants are supported in understanding their new responsibilities for housing costs, and verifying those costs quickly, which in turn enables the Department to make payments on time, and claimants to stay up to date with the payments to their landlord.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, Work Coaches can use the Flexible Support Fund to help claimants access work opportunities soon after they have made their claim.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 69544 69547 question first answered 05/04/2017 14:58:27 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	3973 label Biography information for Grahame Morris

714696

registered interest
date	28/03/2017
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 his Department is taking to review the waiting time between opening a new claim for universal credit and the receipt of an initial payment.
tabling member constituency	Easington
tabling member printed	Grahame Morris
uin	69544
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/04/2017 answer text <p>The Universal Credit assessment period and payment structure is a fundamental part of the design; it helps reduce welfare dependency by mirroring the world of work, where 75% of people are paid monthly.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has a number of safeguards in place to help claimants transition to Universal Credit. Universal Credit Advances are available, which give the claimant up to 50% of their indicative monthly award, including housing costs, to support them until they receive their first monthly payment. We believe that this satisfies the same need as an interim payment.</p><p> </p><p>We also work closely with landlords, Local Authorities and community organisations to ensure that claimants are supported in understanding their new responsibilities for housing costs, and verifying those costs quickly, which in turn enables the Department to make payments on time, and claimants to stay up to date with the payments to their landlord.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, Work Coaches can use the Flexible Support Fund to help claimants access work opportunities soon after they have made their claim.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 69540 69547 question first answered 05/04/2017 14:58:27 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	3973 label Biography information for Grahame Morris

714699

registered interest
date	28/03/2017
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 he will introduce an interim payment for when a person opens a claim for universal credit.
tabling member constituency	Easington
tabling member printed	Grahame Morris
uin	69547
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/04/2017 answer text <p>The Universal Credit assessment period and payment structure is a fundamental part of the design; it helps reduce welfare dependency by mirroring the world of work, where 75% of people are paid monthly.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has a number of safeguards in place to help claimants transition to Universal Credit. Universal Credit Advances are available, which give the claimant up to 50% of their indicative monthly award, including housing costs, to support them until they receive their first monthly payment. We believe that this satisfies the same need as an interim payment.</p><p> </p><p>We also work closely with landlords, Local Authorities and community organisations to ensure that claimants are supported in understanding their new responsibilities for housing costs, and verifying those costs quickly, which in turn enables the Department to make payments on time, and claimants to stay up to date with the payments to their landlord.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, Work Coaches can use the Flexible Support Fund to help claimants access work opportunities soon after they have made their claim.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 69540 69544 question first answered 05/04/2017 14:58:27 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	3973 label Biography information for Grahame Morris

712574

registered interest
date	20/03/2017
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 what is the rationale for setting a single benefit cap earnings exception threshold in Universal Credit linked to the National Living Wage; and whether this will require under-25s receiving the lower National Minimum Wage, including young lone parents, to work a longer number of hours before qualifying for the exception.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL6169
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/04/2017 answer text <p>A threshold linked to the national living wage ensures the work incentive provided by the benefit cap is maintained. The new threshold is consistent with the original intention of the earnings exception threshold by excepting from the cap any household that earns the monthly equivalent of working 16 hours per week at the highest minimum wage rate in force.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has fully considered the position of people who may have to work more than 16 hours to qualify for the exception. More information is in the impact assessment and equality analysis published with the Universal Credit (Benefit Cap Earnings Exception) Amendment Regulations 2017 (SI No: 2017/138). The Government also published a statement in response to comments made by the Social Security Advisory Committee on the amendments.</p><p> </p><p>These documents can be found on: the ‘legislation.gov.uk’ website by searching for year 2017 number 138</p><p>And on the ‘gov.uk’ website by searching ‘universal credit benefit cap earnings exception amendment regulations 2017 ssac report’</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 03/04/2017 17:01:42 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

709523

registered interest
date	08/03/2017
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 what is their assessment of the impact of the introduction of Universal Credit on the existence and size of couples penalties; whether this differs from the impact arising from existing benefits, and if so why; and whether couples penalties increase or decrease depending on the income of those claiming Universal Credit.
tabling member printed	Lord Farmer
uin	HL5930
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2017 answer text <p>The information requested is not available and to collect it would incur disproportionate cost<strong></strong></p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 21/03/2017 13:47:15 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
tabling member	4321 label Biography information for Lord Farmer

693397

registered interest
date	22/02/2017
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 recipients of universal credit do not fall into rent arrears while waiting to receive payments.
tabling member constituency	Great Grimsby
tabling member printed	Melanie Onn
uin	65157
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/03/2017 answer text <p>Arrears are an important and complex issue. There are many factors at play and arrears can arise not only because of failure to pay rent but also through the charging policies of landlords that can create “book” arrears from the outset of a tenancy. Distinguishing between these two effects is not straightforward and we are undertaking work to investigate the issue of rent arrears in Universal Credit, aiming to understand the true level of rent arrears and what is causing them. It is also important to note that many people are coming into Universal Credit with pre-existing arrears. For example, recent research by the National Federation of ALMOs showed that over three-quarters of their tenants were already behind with their rent before their Universal Credit claim started.</p><p> </p><p>We have taken a number of steps to support claimants from falling into arrears:</p><p> </p><p>First, improving our processes for verifying housing costs so that claimants get their housing costs taken into account in their payments at the end of the first assessment period. We have centralised and streamlined the management of emails from Social Rented Sector Landlords to speed up the verification process and we continue to improve the support given to our work coaches so that they can identify and resolve housing issues as they arise in jobcentres.</p><p> </p><p>Secondly, whilst Universal Credit promotes personal responsibility and expects the majority of tenants to manage their finances, including their own housing cost, we recognise that some people may need help with this, so we can provide budgeting advice and benefit advances if appropriate. Claimants can apply for an advance of up to 50 per cent of their indicative award (including housing costs). Once people have successfully transferred to Universal Credit direct payments, they do generally succeed in managing their finances effectively, paying their rent and reducing their arrears. In Universal Credit we increased the recovery rate for rent arrears, from a maximum of 5%, to 20% and our research shows that after four months, the proportion of UC claimants who were in arrears at the start of their claim, fell by a third.</p><p> </p><p>Thirdly, we recognise that for some people, payment of rent is best made direct to the landlord and we have speeded up the process for Social Rented Sector landlords so that they can now apply for them at the same time as they verify rent and we have provided guidance to our work coaches to help them identify circumstances in which this would be appropriate.</p><p> </p><p>We continue to work closely with landlords, Local Authorities and other organisations to identify further improvements to ensure claimants are fully supported.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 02/03/2017 13:08:50 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	4464 label Biography information for Melanie Onn

693399

registered interest
date	22/02/2017
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 reduce the length of time it takes for working families to receive universal credit payments.
tabling member constituency	Great Grimsby
tabling member printed	Melanie Onn
uin	65160
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/02/2017 answer text <p>The Universal Credit assessment period and payment structure is a fundamental part of the design; it helps reduce welfare dependency and support people into employment by mirroring the world of work, where 75% of people are paid monthly. It is not possible to award a Universal Credit payment as soon as eligibility is determined.</p><p> </p><p>We have a number of safeguards in place to help claimants transition to Universal Credit including Advances and Budgeting Support. Claimants can apply for an advance and can receive up to 50 per cent of their indicative award. Personal Budgeting Support is also discussed at the claimant’s initial work search interview to gauge their potential support needs and can include money advice.</p><p> </p><p>We continue to work closely with landlords, Local Authorities and other organisations to ensure claimants are supported.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 28/02/2017 17:10:35 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	4464 label Biography information for Melanie Onn

692086

registered interest
date	20/02/2017
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 people previously receiving employment and support allowance are fully informed of the procedures for missed appointments due to illness when starting new claims for jobseeker's allowance under universal credit.
tabling member constituency	Garston and Halewood
tabling member printed	Maria Eagle
uin	64661
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/02/2017 answer text <p>At the point that each mandatory interview is arranged, all Universal Credit claimants, including those with a health condition or disability, are verbally advised by their Work Coach of the proper procedure if they cannot attend any appointment at the Jobcentre. This advice is also included in the notification of the appointment issued to the claimant.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 28/02/2017 17:34:36 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	483 label Biography information for Maria Eagle

692089

registered interest
date	20/02/2017
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 procedures are in place to prevent lengthy, open-ended sanctions in cases where people claiming universal credit have not received correspondence informing them of a sanction on their claim.
tabling member constituency	Garston and Halewood
tabling member printed	Maria Eagle
uin	64659
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/02/2017 answer text <p>DWP has robust procedures in place to ensure that claimants are notified of sanctions that are applied to their claim and are clearly informed of their responsibilities and options of what to do next.</p><p> </p><p>Open-ended sanctions relate to a failure to undertake a specific requirement which will be ended if the claimant re-engages to satisfy the original requirement or if the original requirement changes or becomes no longer relevant. Other changes in circumstances will also end the sanction such as a change in conditionality group or if the claim terminates.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 28/02/2017 17:38:57 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	483 label Biography information for Maria Eagle

687140

registered interest
date	08/02/2017
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 estimate his Department has made of the number of universal credit claimants who have been threatened with eviction because of the six-week waiting period to receive a payment.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Hall Green
tabling member printed	Mr Roger Godsiff
uin	63708
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2017 answer text <p>The information requested is not available.</p><p> </p><p>The Universal Credit assessment period and payment structure is a fundamental part of the design; it helps reduce welfare dependency by mirroring the world of work, where 75% of people are paid monthly. We have a number of safeguards in place to help claimants transition to Universal Credit including Advances and Budgeting Support.</p><p> </p><p>We continue to work closely with landlords, Local Authorities and other organisations to ensure claimants are supported.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 63706 question first answered 24/02/2017 14:35:09 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	304 label Biography information for Mr Roger Godsiff