Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, of course we take this extremely seriously, as I say. We have to be extremely careful to ensure that victims are properly looked after and supported through the process, but also that those who have committed fraud have the full force of criminal justice thrown at them. This is crime. I look forward to the latest British attitudinal survey being published imminently, because the...
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, in the department we were already aware that there was an issue, and we have been working on this. We have a strong team of investigators—125 people dedicated to working out what we do about incidents relating to advances. It is very difficult. As for support—I return to the right reverend Prelate—we are taking every step we can to ensure that people have access to money with...
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall now repeat in the form of a Statement the Answer given to an Urgent Question in another place on universal credit fraud. The Statement is as follows: “Mr Speaker, universal credit is now in all jobcentres, with around 2 million people claiming this benefit. In accordance with our approach to test and learn while rolling out universal credit,...
Baroness Buscombe: The Institute for Fiscal Studies published “Living Standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2019” on 19 June which acknowledged that the rise of in-work relative poverty is a complex issue with no easy answer. They cited a number of reasons, including that there are more people in work overall and far fewer workless households, for example, there are 667,000 fewer children in workless...
Baroness Buscombe: On 3 May 2019, the High Court handed down a judgment in relation to Universal Credit and the Severe Disability Premium (SDP). The judgment quashed the SDP related parts of the draft Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019. The Department is currently considering the options open to us and will respond in due course.
Baroness Buscombe: The change announced in the Budget will enable working parents and people with disabilities on Universal Credit to keep £630 extra income each year or around £12 per week. HM Treasury’s distributional analysis, published alongside Budget 2018, shows the cumulative effect on household incomes of policies on welfare, tax, and public service spending measures. Because different measures...
Baroness Buscombe: The Department estimates there will be around 4.1m children in households in Great Britain that will gain from the change in work allowances by 2023/24.
Baroness Buscombe: Department for Work and Pensions officials liaised extensively with the Special Rapporteur’s office over the arrangements for his visit to the UK last November. From the outset, his staff were clear that Professor Alston’s priority was to secure meetings with UK Government Ministers. DWP proposed meetings and round tables with senior officials across the relevant departments so that...
Baroness Buscombe: Work is the best route out of poverty and for people to be more financially independent. Our welfare reforms are part of the Government’s commitment to incentivise moves into work and progression in work, and to better support working families. The Department completed an Impact Assessment titled ‘Welfare Reform and Work Bill: Impact Assessment of the Benefit rate freeze’ in July 2015...
Baroness Buscombe: Government definitions of low income households are set out in the annual National Statistics publication Households Below Average Income. Someone is in absolute low income (commonly referred to as ‘absolute poverty’), if they are in a household that received less than 60% of the UK median equivalised net household income in 2010/11, adjusted for inflation. Absolute low income is...
Baroness Buscombe: National statistics on the number of children in absolute poverty in a family where at least one adult is employed can be calculated from figures published in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication. In 2017/18, 2.5m children were in absolute poverty (after housing costs) in families with at least one adult in employment. However, nearly half of these families are in part...
Baroness Buscombe: National statistics on the number of children in absolute poverty in a family where the adults are in part time employment only can be calculated from figures published in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication. In 2017/18, the number of children in absolute poverty in families where the adult or adults were in part-time employment only, was 400,000 before housing costs, and...
Baroness Buscombe: National statistics on the number of children in absolute poverty, in couple families where at least one adult is in full-time self-employment, can be calculated from figures published in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication. In 2017/18, the number of children in absolute poverty, in couple families where at least one adult was in full-time self-employment, was 400,000...
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Bird, for securing this debate. As usual, these Questions for Short Debate are too short as there is so much to say. I believe I have some good responses to all noble Lords, and I will do my best to answer their questions as I go through. Both employers and the Government have a stake in the nation’s mental health. The Government provide the necessary...
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, I refute the allegation that this is a deeply discredited system. The Department for Work and Pensions takes the death of any claimant very seriously. Where it is made aware that a person has died and it is suggested that that is associated in any way with the department’s activity, a review will be undertaken to identify any lessons that can be learned. It is important to make it...
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, I cannot respond to the specific case that the noble Baroness mentioned, but I will write to her. I can only repeat what I have already said. This is not a question of keeping information from individuals. As I said in the Statement, the reviews that we carry out—84 since 2015—contain extremely personal information. It would not be appropriate to declare which individual cases...
Baroness Buscombe: I thank my noble friend for that question because this instance relates to the work capability assessment. As I said, we carry out an independent review of any case where there has been a death by suicide. Yes, we are working hard to reassess the work capability assessments to support claimants and we will integrate the services that deliver both PIP and the WCA from 2021. We are testing the...
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, I will now repeat a Statement made earlier in another place as an Answer to an Urgent Question. The Statement is as follows: “Mr Speaker, the department holds the original commission and final report for all peer reviews of disability benefit claimants’ deaths up to 2015. All these documents are kept for six years from the date of the final report. In October 2015, we moved from...
Baroness Buscombe: Latest National Statistics estimate that 60 per cent of those eligible for Pension Credit are in receipt of it. The Government is committed to ensuring that older people receive the support they are entitled to and the DWP targets activity on engaging with people who may be eligible to benefits at pivotal stages, such as when they claim State Pension or report a change in their...
