Asked by Baroness Sherlock To ask Her Majesty’s Government
what progress they have made in rolling out Universal Credit. The
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and
Pensions (Baroness Buscombe) (Con) My Lords, we continue to
roll out universal credit in a safe and controlled way, with an
expected completion date of December...Request free trial
Asked by
-
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have
made in rolling out Universal Credit.
-
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Work and Pensions (Baroness Buscombe) (Con)
My Lords, we continue to roll out universal credit in a
safe and controlled way, with an expected completion date
of December 2018. Any changes to the rollout schedule are
carefully considered, and we work together with local
authorities and stakeholders to deliver universal credit.
Universal credit is working and transforming lives across
the country; it continues to deliver real improvements to
people’s lives and strengthens the UK economy.
-
(Lab)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her Answer. The Welfare
Reform and Work Act introduced the two-child limit to
universal credit and most other benefits and credits. Noble
Lords may recall the case I raised in December of Alyssa
Vessey. She was 18 when her mother died suddenly and gave
up college to raise her three younger siblings. When she
later had a baby of her own, she applied for support and
was turned down under the two-child policy. This House had
secured an exemption for kinship carers, but Ministers
applied it in such a way that, if Alyssa had had her own
baby and then taken on her siblings she would have got
help, but doing it the other way round she did not. Last
Thursday, in a case taken by the Child Poverty Action
Group, the High Court ruled that to be perverse and struck
it down. Will the Minister confirm to the House today that
the Government will act immediately to extend the exemption
from the two-child policy to all kinship carers?
-
My Lords, the Government acknowledge the immense value of
care provided by kinship carers. We are working to ensure
that they are supported by enabling them to access benefit
entitlement in the same way as parents. We have introduced
a number of exceptions to the two-child policy—providing
support for a maximum of two children—to protect claimants
who are unable to make the same choices about the number of
children in their family. These already protect certain
groups, including kinship carers. Regarding the court case
to which the noble Baroness referred, the department is now
closely looking into the impact of this policy on kinship
carers.
-
(CB)
My Lords, under universal credit, claimants with mental
health problems who are waiting for their work capability
assessment and who may, therefore, be proved unfit for work,
are nevertheless being required to look for work during that
waiting period, and will be sanctioned if they fail to do so.
Does the Minister accept that this is an entirely
unacceptable and grossly unfair system? Will she assure the
House today that the Government plan to take action to bring
this system to an end? If she cannot do that today, will she
write to me to explain what action the Government will take
to give fair treatment to mentally ill people waiting for
their work capability assessment?
-
I thank the noble Baroness for her question; I know that she
has great interest in this area. As I have said before, we
are continually working to improve the work capability
assessment. As a result of our Budget announcements last
autumn, it is now possible for people to have a 100% advance
on their universal credit while they are waiting for that
assessment. I emphasise that those with severe disability do
not now have to go through further work capability
assessments. I assure the noble Baroness that we are
constantly looking at this, working to improve the training
of our work coaches and all the professionals involved in
work capability assessments, to make sure that we minimise
the number of people for whom we fall short in terms of
support and protection.
-
(LD)
My Lords, coming back to the rollout of universal credit,
surely the Minister’s department’s priority in the short term
should be to improve the quality of services available to
vulnerable applicants for universal credit at a local level.
Will she commit to working with her local authority
colleagues to establish a more widespread network of
multi-agency hubs, which have proved so effective in getting
people from disadvantaged families through the transition
process? Does she agree that multi-agency hubs are a much
better form of support than food banks?
-
My Lords, it is right to say that our focus is not
necessarily on multi-agency hubs but on proper signposting by
our work coaches to make sure that, working with local
authorities, we protect those vulnerable groups. A particular
example is prison leavers. We have made sure that they can
now have up to 100% advances on their universal credit the
moment they leave prison. Vulnerable groups are at the
forefront of our minds.
-
(Con)
My Lords, many of those on universal credit also struggle
with debt, sometimes involving expensive payday lenders,
because of their credit standing. Are the Government doing
anything through universal credit to support people who find
themselves in such difficulties?
-
Yes, they are, I am pleased to say. The Government have taken
a number of steps to reduce the risk of problem debt,
including capping payday lending costs and promoting savings.
In addition, we have outlined a firm timetable for taking
forward the breathing space scheme, and we are progressing
with policy proposals for this and a statutory payment plan,
all through the single financial guidance Bill, under which
overindebted individuals will continue to be protected from
creditor action.
-
Baroness Primarolo (Lab)
My Lords, will the Minister explain why the universal credit
sanctions regime imposes multiple sanctions on claimants with
mental health problems, damages individuals’ health, causes
unnecessary suffering and hardship, and does absolutely
nothing to improve their ability to find paid work?
-
My Lords, I have to disagree with the noble Baroness. Putting
aside the raft of additional support and improvements that
come with universal credit, we can demonstrate that universal
credit is a far better route than the old legacy system to
giving much better support to the people to whom she
referred. Sanctions are used only in a minority of cases
where claimants fail to meet their conditionality
requirements without good reason.
-
(CB)
My Lords, I want to take the Minister back to the Question
raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock. The Minister
said that the department is “closely looking into” this
grossly unfair and unjust case. Those are almost exactly the
same words she used when this issue was raised some months
ago. Since then, I raised it with the Minister, her noble
friend , who promised that the
Treasury would look at it. Given that we have now had a court
ruling, and given the great interest in this issue on the
part of Members on all sides of this House, who have written
to the Secretary of State about it, can the Minister
undertake to let us know within the next week what the
department will do?
-
I well remember the noble Baroness asking me this very
question probably about two months ago. I reassure all noble
Lords that I continue to press on this point. However, as the
result of last Friday’s judgment, I am now able to say that
we are again looking at this point. I cannot confirm within
the week, but I can confirm whether we will be able to go
forward and support these people, who rightly deserve our
particular attention, within the month.
|
