Department for Work and Pensions<p>There is no set minimum level Universal Credit award for a claimant to retain. A claimant’s award will reflect their individual circumstances, topping up any earnings or other income that they may have, so their Universal Credit might just constitute a small proportion of their total income. Deductions from the award are calculated in relation to the Universal Credit standard allowance and the maximum rate of deductions cannot normally exceed 40 per cent of the Universal Credit standard allowance. From October 2019 this will be reduced to 30 per cent.</p><p /><p> </p>Reading WestAlok Sharma2019-06-24266652false2019-06-24T16:41:12.587Z29Work and PensionsWork and Pensions2019-06-20Universal Credit1House of CommonsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether there is a minimum level of income that a claimant of universal credit must retain after a 40 per cent reduction to repay an advance.falseBirmingham, Selly OakSteve McCabe267165Department for Work and Pensions<p>Universal Credit new claim and benefit transfer advances provide access to a payment for those in financial need, which can be accessed on the same day, until their first UC payment is due, ensuring no one has to be left without means of financial support.</p><p>A budgeting advance is available for one-off unexpected financial events for Universal Credit claimants and is repayable over a period of up to 12 monthly instalments. Claimants might be able to get help for things such as: emergency household costs, getting a job or staying in work or funeral costs.</p><p>Of the Universal Credit claims repaying an existing advance:</p><p>a) 8% of these claims received a budgeting advance which was the maximum amount available to them</p><p>b) 13% of these claims received a budgeting advance to be paid over the maximum time period allowed</p><p>c) Information regarding those budgeting advances repaid within the pre-agreed time period is not readily available, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><ol><li>Figures relate to Universal Credit full service only</li><li>Figures relate to claims repaying an advance between March 2018 and February 2019</li><li>Figures are rounded to the nearest %</li><li>Budgeting advances with a value of £348, £464 and £812 have been used for proportion of claimants receiving the maximum available advance, as the values relate to the maximum entitlement dependent on the claimant's circumstances</li></ol><p> </p>Reading WestAlok Sharma2019-06-24false2019-06-24T16:28:06.77Z29Work and PensionsWork and Pensions2019-06-19Universal Credit1House of CommonsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of claimants of universal credit with an existing advance that have successfully applied for a budgeting advance have (a) received the maximum available budgeting advance, (b) chosen to repay the budgeting advance over the maximum time period allowed and (c) repaid the budgeting advance within the pre-agreed time period.falseBirmingham, Selly OakSteve McCabe266642Department for Work and Pensions<p>Claimants are advised from the onset advances of Universal Credit are not loans. They are Universal Credit awards paid early which is then recovered over an agreed period via deductions from their Universal Credit payment. Universal Credit New Claim Advances are recovered over a maximum of 12 months, this increases to 16 months in 2021. Exceptionally, the maximum period could be deferred by up to three months. Claimants can opt to repay the advance over a shorter period. For advances made after the payment due date, the full amount is recovered immediately from arrears payable.</p>Reading WestAlok Sharma2019-06-24false2019-06-24T16:22:46.817Z29Work and PensionsWork and Pensions2019-06-19Universal Credit1House of CommonsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 June 2019 to Question 263677 on universal credit, what recovery methods her Department uses.falseBirmingham, Selly OakSteve McCabe266645Department for Work and Pensions<p>Universal Credit new claim advances provide access to a payment for those in financial need, which can be accessed on the same day, until their first payment is due. Claimants can access up to 100% of the total expected monthly award, for which they can pay back over a period of up to 12 months. From October 2021, this maximum repayment period will be extended from 12 to 16 months.</p><p> </p><p>The Department ensures claimants are made aware of their maximum advance entitlement and informed that their Universal Credit award will be adjusted over the relevant recovery period to take into account the advance of benefit they received.</p><p> </p><p>There were 1,046,000 claims made to Universal Credit during January to December 2018 which went into payment. Of these claims, 598,000 (57%) received an advance by end of February 2019 and 449,000 (43%) did not receive an advance. Those who did not receive an advance will include instances of advance payments being refused. However, to identify and collate the total number of applications refused for (a) new claim and (b) benefit transfer in the last 12 months would incur disproportionate cost to the Department.</p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p> </p><ol><li>Figures relate to Universal Credit full service</li><li>Figures capture all advances types</li><li>Figures are rounded to the nearest 1,000</li><li>Advances paid are provided for claims which went into payment in the 2018 calendar year to ensure enough time has elapsed to be certain these claims did actually progress to payment</li></ol>Reading WestAlok Sharma2019-06-24false2019-06-24T16:06:42.197Z29Work and PensionsWork and Pensions2019-06-19Universal Credit1House of CommonsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claimants had advance payments refused for a (a) new claim and (b) benefit transfer in the last 12 months.falseBirmingham, Selly OakSteve McCabe266647Department for Transport<p>I know that disability awareness training can provide taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers with the skills, knowledge and confidence to give disabled passengers the assistance they need, and am clear that licensing authorities should use their existing powers to require drivers to complete it.</p><p> </p><p>On 12<sup>th</sup> February the Government published its response to the report of the Chair of the Task and Finish Group on Taxis and PHV licensing, indicating its intention to introduce mandatory disability awareness training as part of National Minimum Standards when Parliamentary time allows.</p><p> </p>WealdenMs Nusrat Ghani2019-06-24false2019-06-24T15:18:52.5Z27TransportTransport2019-06-19Taxis: Disability1House of CommonsTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the timescale is for bringing forward legislative proposals to make disability equality training mandatory for taxi and minicab drivers.falseBirmingham, Selly OakSteve McCabe266651Department for Work and Pensions<p>There is no set minimum level Universal Credit award for a claimant to retain. A claimant’s award will reflect their individual circumstances, topping up any earnings or other income that they may have, so their Universal Credit might just constitute a small proportion of their total income. Deductions from the award are calculated in relation to the Universal Credit standard allowance and the maximum rate of deductions cannot normally exceed 40 per cent of the Universal Credit standard allowance. From October 2019 this will be reduced to 30 per cent.</p><p /><p> </p>Reading WestAlok Sharma2019-06-24267165false2019-06-24T16:41:12.507Z29Work and PensionsWork and Pensions2019-06-19Universal Credit1House of CommonsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether there is a minimum level of income that a universal credit claimant must retain after a 40 per cent reduction to repay an advance has been applied.falseBirmingham, Selly OakSteve McCabe266652Department of Health and Social Care<p>Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have a statutory responsibility to commission healthcare services that meet the needs of their whole population, including fertility services. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Aauthority’s guidance for commissioners is a new tool to help them implement National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Fertility guidelines and utilise the benchmark price for In Vitro Fertilisation.</p><p>I have written to all CCGs to promote the guidance and benchmark price, and encourage them to fully implement NICE Fertility Guideline recommendations.</p>ThurrockJackie Doyle-Price2019-06-18false2019-06-18T15:21:37.133Z17Health and Social CareHealth and Social Care2019-06-18IVF1House of CommonsWhat recent discussions his Department has had with clinical commissioning groups on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s guidance on fertility treatment.falseBirmingham, Selly OakSteve McCabe911423Department of Health and Social Care<p>NHS England is leading the negotiations with Vertex and has made a revised and improved offer to Vertex that would provide immediate funding for Orkambi, and Symkevi in advance of assessment by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and expanded access to Kalydeco which is already funded on the National Health Service for certain patients.</p><p>The Government fully supports NICE and NHS England in seeking to ensure access for patients to effective and innovative medicines at a price that represents value to the NHS, and it is not for Ministers to intervene in this process. The Department’s approach remains to urge Vertex to accept NHS England’s generous offer, but we will explore other options to ensure patients can access treatments as soon as possible.</p>South RibbleSeema Kennedy2019-06-20265418false2019-06-20T09:33:36.433Z17Health and Social CareHealth and Social Care2019-06-17Lumacaftor/ivacaftor1House of CommonsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what contingency plans his Department has put in place in the event that Vertex declines NHS England’s latest offer for the supply of Orkambi.falseBirmingham, Selly OakSteve McCabe265417Department of Health and Social Care<p>NHS England is leading the negotiations with Vertex and has made a revised and improved offer to Vertex that would provide immediate funding for Orkambi, and Symkevi in advance of assessment by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and expanded access to Kalydeco which is already funded on the National Health Service for certain patients.</p><p>The Government fully supports NICE and NHS England in seeking to ensure access for patients to effective and innovative medicines at a price that represents value to the NHS, and it is not for Ministers to intervene in this process. The Department’s approach remains to urge Vertex to accept NHS England’s generous offer, but we will explore other options to ensure patients can access treatments as soon as possible.</p>South RibbleSeema Kennedy2019-06-20265417false2019-06-20T09:33:36.47Z17Health and Social CareHealth and Social Care2019-06-17Lumacaftor/ivacaftor: Clinical Trials1House of CommonsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of launching a large scale clinical trial of the generic version of Orkambi.falseBirmingham, Selly OakSteve McCabe265418Department for Work and Pensions<p>The Social Fund Funeral Expenses Payments provides a significant contribution towards funeral costs for claimants on qualifying benefits. It continues to meet the necessary costs of a cremation or burial and up to £700 towards other costs. In 2017-18 around 25,500 Funeral Expenses Payment awards were made. This amounted to £37.1 million of support for funeral costs. Interest-free Social Fund Budgeting Loans and Universal Credit Budgeting Advances are now also available to assist with funeral costs.</p><p> </p><p>The Department holds regular discussions with funeral providers and related organisations, including a Ministerial Roundtable on 18th June 2019 to discuss the Social Fund Funeral Expenses Payments scheme and listen to views for suggested future improvements.</p>ColchesterWill Quince2019-06-21false2019-06-21T12:07:19.577Z29Work and PensionsWork and Pensions2019-06-12Funerals: Costs1House of CommonsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 7 May 2019 to Question 249851, what steps her Department takes to (a) make funerals accessible to everyone and (b) co-ordinate actions between the various bodies listed to ensure they are making funerals accessible to everyone.falseBirmingham, Selly OakSteve McCabe26367410011928