Work and Pensions Committee

Tuesday 24 April 2018 Meeting starts at 9.30am

AGENDA

Subject: Universal Credit rollout

Witnesses: Kit Malthouse, MP, Minister for Family Support, Housing and Child Maintenance

Simple Payment, which allowed people without a bank account to collect benefit or pension payments, was replaced by the Payment Exception Service on 29 March 2018.

Ahead of the introduction of the Payment Exception Service, people using Simple Payment were encouraged to open a bank, building society or credit union account so they could access a wider range of financial services. People who were unable to open an account were transferred to the new service.

People using the Payment Exception Service can continue to collect benefit and pension payments through the PayPoint network.

People who are disabled or have a physical or mental health condition can now claim up to £57,200 a year in Access to Work grants.

The grants can pay for additional support that people may need in the workplace beyond reasonable adjustments.

The grants can cover:

•  workplace adaptations
•  assistive technology
•  transport
•  interpreters

Access to Work is part of a range of support available to ensure that people who are disabled or have a physical or mental health condition can enter and thrive in the workplace. It is part of the government’s plan to see one million more disabled people in work by 2027. 

ABC Note: 

You’re disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.

The Equality Act 2010 doesn’t apply to Northern Ireland.

What ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ mean

‘substantial’ is more than minor or trivial, e.g. it takes much longer than it usually would to complete a daily task like getting dressed

‘long-term’ means 12 months or more, e.g. a breathing condition that develops because of a lung infection

There are special rules about recurring or fluctuating conditions, e.g. arthritis.

Progressive conditions

A progressive condition is one that gets worse over time. People with progressive conditions can be classed as disabled.

However, you automatically meet the disability definition under the Equality Act 2010 from the day you’re diagnosed with HIV infection, cancer or multiple sclerosis.

What isn’t counted as a disability

There’s guidance on conditions that aren’t covered by the disability definition, e.g. addiction to non–prescribed drugs or alcohol.

DWP has improved the DLA for children claim form.

 The improved form:

•             includes guidance to help claimants provide the right supporting information

•             says that claimants should send photocopies of supporting documents, not original documents

•             includes a checklist of what claimants need to do before sending the form

The form is available in English and Welsh.

ABC Note: You can download the form here: 

The DWP are making Mandatory Reconsideration easier. If someone disagrees with a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) decision about benefits, tax credits or child maintenance, they can ask DWP to look at the decision again. This is called mandatory reconsideration.

The DWP  have recently made this process easier by giving people the option to fill in and return a mandatory reconsideration request form. A notes document explains how to fill in the form and what will happen after the form has been returned.

People can also ask for mandatory reconsideration by phone or by letter, using the contact details on their decision letter.

ABC Note: Read the guidance notes carefully. A copy of the form is available for downloading below. 

Santander have published a useful leaflet called 'Scam Avoidance School'. If you are passing one of their branches you might grab a copy. Interestingly scammers target the over 60's says Santander’s research. Whether it is 'Social engineering' 'Phishing' or....'Smishing', you need to be aware of the tricks scammers get up to. 

'A fool and their money are soon parted' goes the old adage.

Calling into a Santander branch and picking up a 'Scam Avoidance School' leaflet might stop you being one of them.

We are not sure if being a 'Strictly Come Dancing' viewer might mean you are likely to be more gullible and more susceptible, but the choice of Come Dancing Star Len Goodman might be saying something. Quite what, we dare not say?  

Scots have been sanctioned by the DWP over 400,000 times since 2010, figures compiled by the Scottish Parliament’s Information Centre (SPICe) show.
 
The  figure does not include sanctions that were later overturned on appeal. The punitive sanctions regime has been a key driver in the rapid growth in foodbanks under the Tories, with sanctions increasing after extreme new rules were introduced in 2012.
 
Claimants have seen their support suddenly withdrawn because strict, and often ludicrous, conditions have not been met. Some of the absurd reasons for sanctions include claimants missing appointments due to being at a job interview or being hospitalised.

Over half of disability benefit appeals in Scotland are successful, figures uncovered under FOI show.
 
An FOI response to the SNP shows that over 55% of appeals to overturn Personal Independent Payment (PIP) assessments in Scotland were successful in 2016/17.
 
Just under 8,000 Scots and around 67,000 people in the whole of the UK appealed the private assessors’ decision to take away their disability benefits last year - and 65% of these decisions were overturned overall.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) recently published its findings on the potential cumulative impact of implemented and proposed UK Government tax and welfare reforms on people sharing different protected characteristics. 

The report analyses policy changes made between May 2010 and January 2018, which will have been implemented by the financial year 2021-22. It finds nearly half of all households in Wales will lose out from the reforms, and that the largest impact will be felt by people on the lowest incomes. 

The report also shows:

• relative child poverty in Wales will increase substantially – by 50,000 children (or 8 percentage points) by 2021/22 because of the tax and welfare reforms analysed
• large families will be particularly hard hit by the reforms with those families that have three or more children losing around £5,600 a year
• the child poverty rate for those in lone parent households in Great Britain is forecast to increase from 37% to over 62%, with lone parents losing an average of £5,250 a year, almost one-fifth of their annual income. 

In a joint letter to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the Minister for Children and Social Care, Huw Irranca-Davies, Leader of the House with responsibility for equalities, Julie James and Minister for Housing and Regeneration, Rebecca Evans, have called on the UK Government to reconsider its tax and welfare reform policies, because of the negative financial impacts they will have on the most disadvantaged.

Image: Huw Irranca-Davies

Minister for Children, Huw Irranca-Davies said:

"The Welsh Government’s efforts to tackle child poverty and improve the lives of low income families are being damaged by the UK Government’s package of tax and welfare reforms - by changes to the benefit system such as the freeze in working-age benefit rates, changes to disability benefits and reductions in Universal Credit rates.

“It is entirely unacceptable in a civilised nation to ignore the impacts of these reforms on equality of opportunity. It cannot be right, proper or moral for the incomes of protected groups to be impacted in such a disproportionate way. 

“As a government, we cannot and will not be silent as the UK Government’s damaging tax and welfare reforms threaten to plunge 50,000 more Welsh children into poverty and increase levels of deprivation for our most vulnerable families.

“We have called on the UK Government to take urgent action in relation to these policies, which will result in profound hardship. It is essential that these policies are revisited as a matter of priority and rigorous equality impact assessments are undertaken to safeguard the well-being of those who are most vulnerable.”

The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty, T.D., has today announced that she will facilitate access, from 1 June this year, to Community Employment (CE) and Tús schemes for long-term unemployed jobseekers who are engaging in JobPath.  This has a number of benefits both for the vital services provided at a local level by participants on CE and Tús programmes and directly for the Department’s customers.  It maximises the assistance and services for people who are long-term unemployed through a combination of a quality work placement and personalised job seeking support provided through the JobPath service.

Customers currently engaged with the JobPath service and those who may be referred in future will have the option of applying for CE and Tús placement while continuing to engage with JobPath.

Minister Doherty today said “My Department and I consult widely with our customers and those delivering local services. I would like to ensure that local services will remain, and that my Department’s customers continue to benefit from practical work experience. I want to make sure that their valuable contribution to their local communities will continue, and that they continue to benefit from the personalised, case-managed activation support of the JobPath service.”

The Minister added: “By facilitating jobseekers who are on JobPath to also avail of a Tús or CE placements, we can ensure that they can benefit from the jobseeking support of JobPath while also availing of a part-time work placement provided by Tús, or a quality training and development opportunity provided by a CE scheme. In essence we will treat jobseekers in a similar way to the way we deal with part-time workers who are referred to JobPath.”

From a labour market activation policy perspective the implementation of this option is timely given the significant improvement in the labour market and the requirement to ensure that those people who are long-term unemployed continue to be case-managed having commenced on a labour market activation programme such as CE/ Tús. 

ABC Note: The Community Employment (CE) programme is designed to help people who are long-term unemployed (or otherwise disadvantaged) to get back to work by offering part-time and temporary placements in jobs based within local communities. Participants can take up other part-time work during their placement. After the placement, participants are encouraged to seek permanent jobs elsewhere, based on the experience and new skills they have gained while on a Community Employment scheme. Critics of the scheme point to forced labour and the 'race to the bottom'.