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1600567

registered interest
date	01/03/2023
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: Social Rented Housing
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government how many households in England are affected by the under-occupancy charge for (1) one extra bedroom, or (2) more than one extra bedroom; and what assessment they have made of the financial impact of these deductions on those households.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL6023
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/03/2023 answer text <p>For the latest data available, related to September 2022, 286,149 households were subject to the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS) for 1 extra bedroom, and 63,759 for 2 or more extra bedrooms. This data is available on Stat-Xplore.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>For 2021/22, a total of £434m worth of deductions were made for RSRS in Great Britain. This includes households on Universal Credit and Housing Benefit. No wider assessment has been made.</p><p> </p><p>The RSRS policy applies to claims for housing support - either Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit - where the claimant is living in the social rented sector in a property that is deemed too large for their needs.</p><p> </p><p>The policy helps encourage mobility within the social rented sector to make better use of the existing social housing stock and strengthens work-incentives. An additional bedroom is allowed in certain circumstances such as for disabled people and carers, foster carers, and parents of service personnel. Additionally, those in receipt of pension age housing benefit are exempt.</p><p> </p><p>Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP’s) are available for those who need additional support with housing costs. Since 2011 we have provided nearly £1.6 billion in DHP’s to local authorities.</p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 09/03/2023 12:33:58 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1547518

registered interest
date	01/12/2022
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	Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment: Cost of Living Payments
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of people in receipt of (1) Disability Living Allowance (DLA), or (2) Personal Independence Payment (PIP), who are not eligible for the Cost of Living Payment; and what plans they have to provide assistance to those affected.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL3931
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/12/2022 answer text <p>Of those claimants in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in England and Wales in May 2022 (the most recent data available), 220 were not eligible for a Disability Cost of Living Payment (DCoLP), as they had claimed the benefit after the 25<sup>th</sup> May 2022 deadline. A further 3,020 may not have been eligible as they had their DLA suspended in May. Some of these claimants may have been partially suspended and so would be eligible for a payment.</p><p> </p><p>Of those claimants in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in England and Wales in July 2022 (the most recent data available), 2,260 were not eligible for a DCoLP, as they had claimed the benefit after the 25<sup>th</sup> May 2022 deadline. A further 43,290 claimants may not have been eligible as they had their PIP suspended on the 25<sup>th</sup> May 2022. This figure includes claimants who were only partially suspended and so would be eligible for a payment.</p><p> </p><p>There is a range of support available to claimants.</p><p> </p><p>DLA and PIP claimants are paid at up to £159.60 per week and we are forecast to spend £24bn on PIP and DLA this year.</p><p> </p><p>The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living, which is why, in addition to the £37 billion of support we have provided for cost of living pressures in 2022-23, we are acting now to ensure support continues throughout 2023/24.</p><p> </p><p>To ensure stability and certainty for households, in the Autumn Statement, the Government has announced £26bn in cost of living support for 2023/24. From April 2023 we are uprating benefits for working age households and disabled people, including DLA and PIP, as well as the basic and new State Pensions, by 10.1%. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions, the benefit cap will also be increased by 10.1%. Alongside further Cost of Living Payments for the most vulnerable, the amended Energy Price Guarantee which will also save the average UK household £500 in 2023-24.</p><p> </p><p>For those who require extra support, the Government is providing an additional £1 billion of funding, including Barnett impact, to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund in England in the next financial year. This is on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding to £2.5 billion. In England, this will be delivered through an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £842 million, running from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, which local authorities will use to help households with the cost of essentials. It will be for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their additional Barnett funding.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Notes:</strong></p><p><strong>Source:</strong> PIP Atomic Data Store (ADS), National Statistics Frozen Dataset</p><ul><li>This is unpublished data. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.</li><li>The PIP data provided reflects the position on suspensions as recorded on the PIP analytical data system as at 5<sup>th</sup> December 2022. This is subject to revision as the Department receives more information about a claimant’s situation.</li><li>The DLA data provided reflects the position on suspensions as recorded on the DLA analytical data system as at 31<sup>st</sup> May 2022. This is subject to revision as the Department receives more information about a claimant’s situation.</li><li>Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.</li><li>Figures include England and Wales only.</li></ul><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 14/12/2022 12:29:31 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1547131

registered interest
date	30/11/2022
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	Air Pollution: Business Premises
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to introduce schemes which rate the indoor air quality of commercial premises and their associated risks of viral transmission.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL3875
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/12/2022 answer text <p>The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the regulator for workplace health and safety. Whilst HSE expects businesses to consider any risks arising from the quality of the air in their premises and to ensure they have mitigations in place where, for example, work generates fumes or dust that is harmful to workers this does not extend to general infection control. As such HSE has no plans to introduce any schemes to rate indoor air quality or the risks of viral transmission.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 19/12/2022 17:21:59 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1547182

registered interest
date	30/11/2022
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	Pension Credit
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Stedman-Scott on 22 November (HL3269), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, what are the (1) average, and (2) longest, delays being experienced by pensioners applying for pension credit for applications made (a) in late April, and (b) subsequently.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL3880
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/12/2022 answer text <p>DWP does not maintain data for the longest time taken to process Pension Credit applications. This information is only available at disproportionate cost to the Department for Work &amp; Pensions as the Department does not have a business requirement for this information to be retained.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>We are processing claims as quickly as possible and streamlining our processes, as well as increasing our staffing resources, which has resulted in the outstanding claims reducing considerably. We expect the clearance of claims to reduce as outstanding claims are cleared.</p><p> </p><p>All successful claims and arrears are paid accordingly to ensure no one misses out.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 13/12/2022 15:23:02 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1540883

registered interest
date	08/11/2022
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	Pension Credit
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what are the (1) average, and (2) longest, delays being experienced by pensioners applying for pension credit for applications made (a) in late April, and (b) subsequently.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL3269
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/11/2022 answer text <p>We currently aim to process claims within 35 days from receipt, although following the successful launch of our campaign to increase take up of Pension Credit, we have received an unprecedented number of claims, which has resulted in average processing increasing.</p><p> </p><p>We are processing claims as quickly as possible and streamlining our processes, as well as increasing our staffing resources, which has resulted in the outstanding claims reducing considerably.</p><p> </p><p>All successful claims and arrears are paid accordingly to ensure no one misses out.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 22/11/2022 14:31:16 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1536993

registered interest
date	27/10/2022
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	Social Security Benefits
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the total saving to His Majesty's Treasury through (1) housing benefit subsidy, and (2) Universal Credit, of imposing a social housing rent cap at less than the usual level of Consumer Price Index plus one per cent.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL2947
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/11/2022 answer text <p>The Government recently consulted on whether to make a temporary amendment to the CPI+1% cap on annual social housing rent increases. The consultation closed on 12 October and the government is carefully considering the responses.</p><p> </p><p>Any decision to change the CPI+1% cap would subsequently be reflected in the fiscal forecasts (including of Universal Credit and Housing Benefit expenditure) that are published by the Office for Budget Responsibility, and the more detailed breakdowns of these expenditure forecasts that are published by DWP.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 02/11/2022 17:15:36 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1487763

registered interest
date	11/07/2022
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	Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many households are currently affected by the under-occupancy charge with deductions for (1) one extra bedroom, or (2) more than one extra bedroom; and what assessment they have made of the impact of these deductions given the increased cost of living.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL1620
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/07/2022 answer text <p>The removal of the spare room subsidy is an important tool to make better use of the existing social housing stock, enable mobility within the social rented sector and contain growing housing support expenditure. It also aligns the size criteria rules used in the private rented sector in the social sector.</p><p>The policy allows for the provision of an additional bedroom to support disabled people and carers, the families of disabled children, foster carers, parents who adopt, parents of service personnel, and people who have suffered a bereavement. Additionally, those in receipt of pension age housing benefit are exempt.</p><p>Those who need additional support with their housing costs can seek assistance from their local authority via the Discretionary Housing Payment (DHPs) scheme. Since 2011 the Government has provided almost £1.5 billion in DHP funding to local authorities.</p><p>The number of Households affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy is set out in the table below.</p><p><strong>Households with a reduction due to the removal of the spare room subsidy, Great Britain, February 2022</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>One bedroom</p></td><td><p>Two or more bedrooms</p></td><td><p>Reduction applied but bedroom information is unknown</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>396,100</p></td><td><p>84,900</p></td><td><p>500</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Notes:</p><p>i. Figures are from <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/" target="_blank">Stat-Xplore</a> and are rounded to the nearest hundred.</p><p>ii. Includes Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Housing Element. Universal Credit data for February is provisional and will be within two per cent of revised figures in future releases.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 26/07/2022 14:26:21 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1487673

registered interest
date	08/07/2022
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
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 number of recipients of universal credit discouraged from taking employment by the low level of net financial benefit from being employed due to associated costs, such as transport and childcare, known as the "benefit trap".
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL1592
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/07/2022 answer text <p>No such assessment has been undertaken.</p><p> </p><p>UC recipients in work now benefit from a reduction in the UC taper rate from 63% to 55%, and for those eligible customers an increase in the work allowance by £500 per year meaning that working households will be able to keep more of what they earn and strengthening incentives to move into and progress in work.</p><p> </p><p>The National Living Wage has risen from £8.91 to £9.50 an hour from 1 April. That means a pay rise for millions of the country’s lowest paid workers – worth an increase of over £1,000 to the annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is aware that for some UC claimants’ childcare costs presents challenges to entering employment. To support parents to become financially resilient by moving into work and progressing in work, eligible UC claimants can claim back up to 85% of their registered childcare costs each month regardless of the number of hours they work, compared to 70% in Tax Credits. This is up to the maximum amount of £646.35 per month for one child and £1,108.04 per month for two or more children. For families with two children, this could be worth over £13,000 a year.</p><p> </p><p>This support is available to all lone parents and couples, regardless of the number of hours they work. For couples, both parents need to be in paid work to be eligible unless one of the allowable exceptions is met.</p><p> </p><p>The UC childcare policy aligns with the wider government childcare offer in England and there are similar funded early learning offers in devolved nations. The Free Childcare offer provides 15 hours a week of free childcare in England for all 3- and 4-year old’s and disadvantaged 2 year old’s, doubling for working parents of 3 and 4 year old’s to 30 hours a week.</p><p> </p><p>The UC childcare element can be used to top up a claimant’s eligible free childcare hours if more hours are worked and childcare required. This offer means that for some claimants’ childcare costs should not present any barriers to entering work.</p><p> </p><p>UC claimants who need help with upfront childcare costs to enter employment or significantly increase their working hours can apply for help from the Flexible Support Fund (FSF). This is a non-repayable payment that will pay their initial childcare costs directly to the provider up to the first salary received.</p><p> </p><p>In order to achieve our long-term goals of driving up productivity and levelling up, we are supporting people in work to ensure they have the right skills and opportunities to progress out of low pay. Through providing right infrastructure we will support an ambitious and productive workforce suited to meet the UK’s future demand.</p><p> </p><p>Through a staged rollout from April 2022 onwards, 2.1m low paid Universal Credit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher paid work. This will be provided by work coaches and focus on career progression advice, such as considering skills gaps, identifying training opportunities, or looking for opportunities for the claimant to progress in their current role or in a new role. Jobcentres will be supported in this new role by a network of 37 Progression Champions across Great Britain who will spearhead the scheme. They will work with partners to address local barriers that limit progression, such as transport and childcare.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 22/07/2022 10:09:39 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1455630

registered interest
date	29/03/2022
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	Birds of Prey: Poisoning
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 impact of relaxing regulations regarding the use of the rodenticide brodifacoum, particularly in the light of the poisoning of a white-tailed eagle in Dorset.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL7411
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/04/2022 answer text <p>The Regulation controlling the use of brodifacoum was established by a European Union (EU) implementing regulation in 2017 and has remained unchanged in Great Britain following the United Kingdom’s (UK) departure from the EU on 31 January 2020.</p><p> </p><p>A stewardship regime is in place in the UK for professional use of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) including brodifacoum. A cornerstone of the stewardship scheme is the <a href="https://www.thinkwildlife.org/code-of-best-practice/crru-code/" target="_blank">Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use (CRRU) Code of Best Practice</a>, which sets out guidance on the safe use of rodenticides. It is a legal requirement to comply with this code. Risk hierarchy is central to the code, which clearly states that SGARs including Brodifacoum present the greatest risk to non-target species and the environment, so they should be the last option after all other types of control have been carefully considered. The scheme also supports the <a href="https://pbms.ceh.ac.uk/content/pbms-reports" target="_blank">monitoring of exposure of barn owls and red kites to SGARs</a> (as a sentinel species) led by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.</p><p> </p><p>The stewardship scheme is overseen by a Government Oversight Group (GOG) led by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) with representatives of other government stakeholders. The GOG meets annually to assess the impact of the Stewardship scheme. This year the GOG is conducting a review of the stewardship scheme after five years of operation and will publish its findings in due course.</p><p> </p><p>Natural England continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident to which the Noble Lady refers, in partnership with HSE.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 06/04/2022 14:55:54 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1453811

registered interest
date	23/03/2022
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	State Retirement Pensions: Yemen
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people in Yemen entitled to a UK state pension are not receiving payments.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL7255
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/04/2022 answer text <p>We estimate that around 1,170 people in Yemen who are entitled to a UK State Pension are not receiving payments.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Source:</strong> DWP internal management information, based on clerical estimates as at 23 March 2022.</p><p><strong>Note:</strong> This management information has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but has been provided here in the interests of transparency.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 06/04/2022 11:34:55 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle