We are committed to ensuring that prisoners have sufficient financial support upon release from custody.<\/p>
We have recently explored the current use of the Discharge Grant. This will help inform future Discharge policy direction, and help to ensure that Discharge policy contributes to ensuring the immediate basic needs of prisoners are met when they return to the community. We are currently analysing findings.<\/p>
The purpose of the Discharge Grant is not to provide for all the prisoner\u2019s needs after release; it is intended solely to assist them in the first few days after release and before they might reasonably be able to get a job or an appointment at a jobcentre and/or begin to access state benefits<\/p>
We also are working with the Department for Work and Pensions to improve access to Universal Credit and ensure that they have the relevant identification documents. Offenders are able to access a DWP Work Coach prior to release, who can make an appointment as early as the day of release to complete their claim, and can receive an advance of a full month\u2019s benefit, including the housing element where appropriate, within hours.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4106", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir Robert Buckland"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "South Swindon"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Robert Buckland"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-06-10", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-06-10T16:48:22.187Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "54"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Justice"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Justice"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-06-05", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Prisoners' Discharge Grants"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the Discharge Grant for prisoners in respect of (a) inflation and (b) the five week waiting period for universal credit.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4425", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Jo Stevens"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Cardiff Central"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Jo Stevens"} ], "uin" : "260669"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }