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1359832

	registered interest
	date	15/10/2021
	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	Covid Local Support Grant
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits for vulnerable households of extending the Covid-19 Local Support Grant until December 2021.
	tabling member constituency	Coventry South
	tabling member printed	Zarah Sultana
	uin	57396
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/10/2021 answer text <p>The Covid Local Support Grant ended on September 30<sup>th</sup> 2021. However, we recognise that some people continue to require extra support, which is why we have introduced £500m of funding to boost households this winter. £421m of this will help vulnerable people in England with essential household costs through the Household Support Fund, whilst almost £80m will be given to the devolved nations (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive). This new grant began on 6<sup>th</sup> October 2021, and will run to 31<sup>st</sup> March 2022<strong>.</strong></p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 20/10/2021 15:50:31 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	4786 label Biography information for Zarah Sultana

1367433

	registered interest
	date	09/11/2021
	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	Social Security Benefits
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support benefit claimants in meeting increased living costs.
	tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
	tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
	uin	72389
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/11/2021 answer text <p>This Government is wholly committed to supporting those on low incomes, and continue to do so through many measures, including by spending over £111 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2021/22.</p><p> </p><p>With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, our focus now is on continuing to support people into and to progress in work. Our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has recently been expanded by £500 million, will help people across the UK to find work and to boost their wages and prospects.</p><p> </p><p>Universal Credit recipients in work will soon benefit from a reduction in the Universal Credit taper rate from 63% to 55%, and increasing the work allowance by £504 per year means that 1.9m working households will be able to keep substantially more of what they earn. These measures effectively represent a tax cut, worth around £2.2bn a year in 2022-23, for the lowest paid in society, and are combined with a rise in the National Living Wage to £9.50 per hour.</p><p> </p><p>We recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter as we enter the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country will now be able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund will provide £421 million to help vulnerable people in England with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. The Barnett Formula will apply in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 17/11/2021 16:21:56 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi

1367434

	registered interest
	date	09/11/2021
	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
	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 she has made of the potential impact of Universal Credit deductions on the risk of poverty among benefit claimants.
	tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
	tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
	uin	72390
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/11/2021 answer text <p>No recent assessment has been made of the potential impact of Universal Credit deductions on the risk of poverty among benefit claimants.</p><p> </p><p>To enable households to retain more of their Universal Credit award towards day to day living costs we have reduced the normal maximum amount that can be deducted from Universal Credit, from 40% of the Universal Credit Standard Allowance, to 30% and from April 2021 to 25%. As a result, there were 792,000 people in May 2021 who potentially have had reduced deductions due to the most recent policy change. Customers can also contact DWP Debt Management if they are experiencing financial hardship to discuss a reduction in their rate of repayment of benefit overpayments, or a temporary suspension, depending on financial circumstances.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 17/11/2021 16:00:15 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi

1362186

	registered interest
	date	21/10/2021
	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	Inflation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the rate of inflation as of 21 October 2021 on child poverty.
	tabling member constituency	Ilford North
	tabling member printed	Wes Streeting
	uin	60468
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/10/2021 answer text <p>No such assessments have been made of the effect of the rate of inflation as of 21 October 2021 on child poverty.</p><p> </p><p>However, DWP Secretary of State completes an annual review of most benefit rates for people below State Pension age to determine whether they have retained their value in relation to inflation. Where prices have increased relative to the value of those benefits, the Secretary of State will increase certain disability and carers’ benefits – such as Personal Independence Payments and Carer’s Allowance – at least in line with that increase. She may also decide to increase other benefits, such as the Universal Credit Standard Allowance. That decision is discretionary. The up-rating review is conducted in the Autumn of each year, with the outcome announced in November and the new rates implemented the following April.</p><p> </p><p>We understand that with inflation rising, some people will be concerned about the cost of living. That is why this government is continuing to take action to support living standards by increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 effective from April 1<sup>st</sup> 2022.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We have also announced a reduction in the taper rate in Universal Credit from 63% to 55% in the coming weeks, meaning Universal Credit claimants will be able to keep more of their earnings and announced that all work allowances will be increased by £500 per year, meaning many claimants will be able to earn over £550 each month before their benefits begin to be scaled down. These two measures mean 1.9m households will keep, on average, around an extra £1,000 a year.</p><p> </p><p>Children living in workless households were around 5 times more likely to be in absolute poverty in 2019/20 than those where all adults work (before housing costs). That is why, through our Plan for Jobs, we are targeting tailored support schemes of people of all ages to help them prepare for, get into, and progress in work. Following the Chancellor’s extension and expansion announcement last month our Plan for Jobs interventions will support more than two million people.</p><p> </p><p>In April this year we also increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25, helping eligible low-income households buy basic foods like milk, fruit and vitamins. We are also investing up to £221m in the Holiday Activities and Food programme, which has been expanded to every Local Authority across England. Participating children are benefitting from a range of support, including healthy and nutritious meals as well as fun and engaging activities covering the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays in 2021.</p><p> </p><p>However, we recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter as we enter the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country will now be able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund will provide £421 million to help vulnerable people in England. The Barnett Formula will apply in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 29/10/2021 14:15:02 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley previous answer version 28248 answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	4504 label Biography information for Wes Streeting

1365630

	registered interest
	date	02/11/2021
	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	Poverty: Children
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the overall impact of the (a) Autumn Budget and (b) Spending Review 2021 on levels of child poverty.
	tabling member constituency	Ilford North
	tabling member printed	Wes Streeting
	uin	68378
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/11/2021 answer text <p>While the government has not made an assessment of the SR 2021 or Autumn Budget directly on child poverty, it has made an assessment of the distributional impact of these decisions on UK households. This can be found here:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1028953/DA_Document_Autumn_Budget_2021_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1028953/DA_Document_Autumn_Budget_2021_FINAL.pdf</a></p><p> </p><p>This shows that households in the poorest income deciles will, on average, gain the most as a percentage of net income in 2024-25 from decisions announced since the Spending Review in 2019.</p><p> </p><p>National Statistics on the number and percentage of children in low income are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication.</p><p> </p><p>Latest statistics for the number of children who are in low income, can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020</a> in children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2019-20-tables.</p><p> </p><p>In 2019/20, the latest year for which data is available 100,000 fewer children were living in absolute low income, before housing costs, than in 2009/10.</p><p> </p><p>This Government is committed to supporting those on low incomes, including by spending over £111 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2021/22. We know that children living in workless households are around six times more likely to be in absolute low income (before housing costs) than those where all adults work, which is why our comprehensive Plan for Jobs is helping people to boost their skills in order to gain employment or increase their hours.</p><p /><p>We recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter as we enter the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country will now be able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with the cost of essentials. In England at least 50% of the £421m Household Support Fund will be used to support families with children. The Barnett Formula will apply in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 17/11/2021 16:23:07 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	4504 label Biography information for Wes Streeting

1455091

	registered interest
	date	28/03/2022
	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: Refugees
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to (a) disregard property in Ukraine from any capital calculations for Ukrainian refugees applying for universal credit and (b) provide further exemptions from any capital calculations for Ukrainian refugees applying for universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	Bath
	tabling member printed	Wera Hobhouse
	uin	148320
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/04/2022 answer text <p>The emergency regulations laid on Monday 21 March 2022 ensure Ukrainian evacuees can access Universal Credit and jobs support immediately. Each claim for benefit will be assessed individually and as quickly as possible.</p><p> </p><p>Available capital in the form of savings and investments will be taken into account in the normal way. Legislation already provides for capital assets held overseas only to be taken into account on the basis of their market value: clearly assets such as property owned in Ukraine have no market value at the current time.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 05/04/2022 16:52:38 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	4602 label Biography information for Wera Hobhouse

1357970

	registered interest
	date	23/09/2021
	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	Social Security Benefits
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what definition her Department uses to classify social security claimants as vulnerable; what method is used to identify those claimants; and how that information is recorded.
	tabling member constituency	North East Fife
	tabling member printed	Wendy Chamberlain
	uin	54017
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/10/2021 answer text <p>The Department does not identify or record claimants as ‘vulnerable’ or ‘not vulnerable’. However, we often need to consider a customer’s particular circumstances to provide the right service or ensure appropriate support. Where a staff member recognises that a customer has particular needs which should be flagged within their case file, they can do this by recording relevant information on the appropriate customer profile record. For example, in Universal Credit, complex needs information is recorded in profile notes within the claimant history.</p><p> </p><p>In 2019 we created a central team in the Customer Experience Directorate who focus on supporting customers who require advanced support. We have also appointed over 30 regional Advanced Customer Support Senior Leaders across Great Britain; their role is to provide targeted support to customers who most need it.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 18/10/2021 16:14:10 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	4765 label Biography information for Wendy Chamberlain

1382989

	registered interest
	date	29/11/2021
	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
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of ending the £20 uplift to universal credit on levels of foodbank use in the UK.
	tabling member constituency	North East Fife
	tabling member printed	Wendy Chamberlain
	uin	83491
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/12/2021 answer text <p>The uplift to Universal Credit was a temporary measure, that is why an assessment has not been completed on its withdrawal.</p><p> </p><p>Foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations and the Department for Work and Pensions does not have any role in their operation. There is no consistent and accurate measure of food bank usage at a constituency or national level. We understand the data limitations in this area, and thus from April 2021 we introduced a set of questions into the Family Resources Survey (FRS) to measure and track food bank usage. The first results of these questions are due to be published in March 2023 subject to usual quality assurance. These questions will allow us to gauge where people in food security are seeking help and over time will allow us to build a time series on the scale of food bank usage.</p><p> </p><p>This Government is wholly committed to supporting low-income families, including through spending over £110 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2021/22 and by increasing the National Living Wage by 6.6% to £9.50 from April 2022.</p><p> </p><p>With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, our focus now is on continuing to support people into and to progress in work. Our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has recently been expanded by £500 million, will help people across the UK to find work and to boost their wages and prospects.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, Universal Credit recipients in work will soon benefit from a reduction in the Universal Credit taper rate from 63% to 55%, while eligible in-work claimants will also benefit from changes to the Work Allowance. These measures represent, for the lowest paid in society, an effective tax cut of around £2.2 Billion in 2022-23, and will benefit almost two million of the lowest paid workers by £1000 a year on average.</p><p> </p><p>We recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter as we enter the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country will now be able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund will provide £421 million to help vulnerable people in England with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. The Barnett Formula will apply in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.</p><p> </p><p>To support low income families further we have also increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25, helping eligible low income households buy basic foods like milk, fruit and vitamins, and we are investing over £200m a year from 2022 to continue our Holiday Activities and Food programme, which is already providing enriching activities and healthy meals to children in all Local Authorities in England.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 03/12/2021 11:03:53 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	4765 label Biography information for Wendy Chamberlain

1421022

	registered interest
	date	08/02/2022
	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	Lone Parents: Social Security Benefits
	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 the effect of the benefit cap on women who are lone parents.
	tabling member constituency	North East Fife
	tabling member printed	Wendy Chamberlain
	uin	120931
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/02/2022 answer text <p>No recent assessment has been made of the effect of the benefit cap on women who are lone parents.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 21/02/2022 14:13:06 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	4765 label Biography information for Wendy Chamberlain

1421023

	registered interest
	date	08/02/2022
	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	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 the impact of the benefit cap on levels of poverty.
	tabling member constituency	North East Fife
	tabling member printed	Wendy Chamberlain
	uin	120932
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/02/2022 answer text <p>No recent assessment has been made of the impact of the benefit cap on the levels of poverty.</p><p> </p><p>There is a statutory duty for the Secretary of State to review the benefit cap levels once in each Parliament. The review will happen at the appropriate time, as determined by the Secretary of State.</p><p /><p>The Benefit Cap provides a strong work incentive and fairness for hard-working taxpaying households and encourages people to move into work, where possible. This aligns with our long-term focus of continuing to support people into, and to progress in, work. Our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has recently been expanded by £500 million, will help people across the UK to find work and to boost their wages and prospects.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 21/02/2022 18:08:43 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	4765 label Biography information for Wendy Chamberlain