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1246439

registered interest
date	22/10/2020
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: Coronavirus
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to extend the £20 per week increase in the standard rate of Universal Credit to people remaining on legacy benefits such as Jobseeker's Allowance and Income Support.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL9476
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/11/2020 answer text <p>The Government introduced a package of temporary welfare measures worth around £9.3 billion this year to help with the financial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This included the £20 weekly increase to the Universal Credit Standard Allowance rates as a temporary measure for the 20/21 tax year.</p><p> </p><p>We are continuing to work with the Treasury on the best ways to support those receiving benefits.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 02/11/2020 14:27:56 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1246440

registered interest
date	22/10/2020
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 plans they have, if any, to replace Universal Credit Advance Payment loans with grants or 'starter payments' to reduce applicants' accrual of debt during the five-week waiting period.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL9477
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/11/2020 answer text <p>We have no plans to do this. Our focus remains firmly on ensuring that millions of new and existing claimants continue to receive their payments on time, and that we do everything possible to support people back into work where it is right to do so.</p><p> </p><p>Nobody has to wait for five weeks for a Universal Credit (UC) payment. New Claims Advances are available which allow claimants to receive up to 100 per cent of their estimated UC payment upfront so that new claimants will receive their annual award over 13 payments during their first year, instead of 12. These advances are not loans.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has announced that from October 2021, the maximum recovery period is increasing from 12 to 24 months for new claim and benefit transfer advances and that we are reducing the normal maximum level of deductions from a claimant’s UC Standard Allowance to 25 per cent, down from 30 per cent.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 02/11/2020 14:37:12 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1246441

registered interest
date	22/10/2020
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 plans they have to publicise and promote the Alternative Payment Arrangements for Universal Credit.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL9478
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2020 answer text <p>The Department for Work and Pensions recognises that vulnerable claimants may need additional support managing their money. Alternative Payment Arrangements (APAs) are available to help Universal Credit (UC) claimants have their award paid differently. This can involve housing costs being paid directly to a claimant’s landlord, receiving twice monthly instead of monthly payments and/or having the UC award split between two members of a couple.</p><p> </p><p>APAs can be considered at any point during the UC claim. Crucially, these arrangements are intended only for vulnerable claimants who need targeted, additional support in managing their money – for example, claimants with dependency issues, learning difficulties, significant debts and/or victims of domestic abuse.</p><p> </p><p>The Department already publicises APAs. UC work coaches have clear guidance to help them identify when an APA may be appropriate and will always consider any APA that would best support the claimant. Identifying vulnerabilities is a key element of the work coach role and allows the Department to tailor the support it offers to each claimant. In addition, landlords and support organisations are aware of this provision and can request an APA be considered at any time for claimants they are supporting. GOV.UK also includes APAs as part of the additional financial support available to UC claimants</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 04/11/2020 17:33:57 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1144160

registered interest
date	03/09/2019
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	Housing Benefit
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for increasing the (1) scope, and (2) total amount, of housing benefit, including any resulting savings on temporary accommodation and other costs.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL17648
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2019 answer text <p><del class="ministerial">It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.</del></p><p><strong><ins class="ministerial">No assessment has been made of the case for increasing the scope of housing support. Housing support in the private rented sector is based on the Local Housing Allowance and decisions on the uprating of Local Housing Allowance from April 2020 will form part of the discussions in support fiscal events later this year.</ins></strong></p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 09/09/2019 15:39:15 question first ministerially corrected 30/09/2019 12:02:40 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott previous answer version 134928 answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1141922

registered interest
date	24/07/2019
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the National School Breakfast Programme feeding an estimated 280,000 children, (2) the number of pupils receiving Free School Meals, (3) the incidence of food banks, food pantries and similar help in kind, throughout England and Wales; and what consideration they are giving, as a result of any such assessment, to reviewing their policies to address destitution, food and fuel poverty and ensure sufficient services to prevent poverty.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL17466
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/08/2019 answer text <p>The Government is committed to tackling poverty in all its forms by building a strong economy and a benefit system that supports employment and higher pay. A child growing up in a home where all adults are working is around 5 times less likely to be in poverty than a child in a household where nobody works. Since 2010, there are around 1 million fewer workless households and 667,000 fewer children in such households.</p><p>To help make sure every child gets the best start in life, the Department for Education is investing up to £26 million in a programme to establish or improve breakfast clubs in over 1,700 schools, targeting most disadvantaged areas. The programme’s effectiveness will be reviewed once it concludes next year. Additionally, over 1.2 million of the most disadvantaged children receive a free school meal.</p><p>The Government has not made an assessment of the incidence of food banks or similar charity-based provision in England and Wales. However, new questions have been added to the Family Resources Survey to develop a food insecurity measure from 2021 to help better understand the drivers of food insecurity and identify which groups are most at risk.</p><p>This Government spend more on family benefits than any other country in the G7, at 3.5% of GDP (OECD, 2015 data), demonstrating a commitment to providing a strong safety net for those that need it.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 05/08/2019 15:49:45 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1140015

registered interest
date	17/07/2019
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to review their policies to address poverty, and (2) to ensure sufficient services for and assistance to those at risk of destitution.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL17250
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/07/2019 answer text <p>This Government is committed to a sustainable solution to poverty in all its forms, by building a strong economy and a benefit system that supports employment and higher pay. We have acted to increase the incomes of the poorest in society, for example, by increasing the National Living Wage and announcing a £4.5 billion cash boost to Universal Credit in the last Budget. We are also working with the Social Metrics Commission, and other experts in the field, to develop new experimental statistics which will help us to find new and better ways to analyse poverty in this country. These will be published in 2020 and, in the long-run, could help us target support more effectively.</p><p> </p><p>Through our Jobcentre network, we are taking wider action to support vulnerable claimants. Work coaches are upskilled to recognise and help claimants with a wide range of complex employment barriers and work with external partners to offer individualised, specialist support to help people to turn their lives around.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 23/07/2019 13:46:36 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1140016

registered interest
date	17/07/2019
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 plans they have to ensure that Universal Credit payments begin within a week of a person registering for that benefit.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL17251
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/09/2019 answer text <p>Universal Credit payments are available on the first day of a claim in the form of an advance payment of benefit. Advances of up to 100 per cent of a claimant’s expected Universal Credit award are available from day one of their claim, if required. Advances are paid back over a maximum of 12 months and in the Autumn Budget 2018, we announced that from October 2021, the payback period for these advances will be extended further, to 16 months.</p><p> </p><p>This is just one of a number of measures the Department has put in place to support claimants during their first assessment period, such as removing waiting days and paying those claimants moving from Housing Benefit onto Universal Credit a two week ‘transitional housing payment’. We are also introducing a two-week run on for eligible claimants of Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance from July 2020.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 02/09/2019 15:49:10 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1140019

registered interest
date	17/07/2019
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	Food Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the number of people who need to use food banks.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL17254
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/07/2019 answer text <p>This Government is committed to a sustainable solution to poverty in all its forms, by building a strong economy and a benefit system that supports employment and higher pay. Households where all adults are in work are around 6 times less likely to be in relative poverty than adults in a household where nobody works. Compared to 2010, there are 3.7 million more people in work and around 1 million fewer workless households.</p><p> </p><p>We have worked with food insecurity experts, the Office for National Statistics and the Scottish Government to introduce a new set of food security questions in the Family Resources Survey starting from April 2019. This means that we will, in future, be able to monitor the prevalence and severity of household food insecurity across the UK and for specific groups, to better understand the drivers of food insecurity and identify which groups are most at risk.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 23/07/2019 13:37:04 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton