Information request from IRRV on Two important benefits consultations currently underway

Let us know your views – two important benefits consultations

Two important benefits consultations are currently underway: the Inquiry into Benefit Delivery and the examination of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill. The Institute would welcome your comments, with a view to these adding to evidence within the Institute’s own submission.  All comments are welcomed, particularly evidence which is attributable (although we will maintain confidentiality if specifically required). Please send your comments to policy@irrv.org.uk to arrive by Friday 28th August. Alternatively, Institute members may wish to make submissions for both papers direct through the Work and Pensions Committee webpage on the Parliament website.

Inquiry into Benefit Delivery

The Parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee is holding an inquiry into the timeliness and accuracy of benefit delivery by the DWP. Potential problems that can arise when benefits are delayed or underpaid include people resorting to food banks for emergency food rations.

The Committee has invited written submissions on:

The extent to which the DWP delivers benefit and Universal Credit payments correctly and promptly

The impact of errors and delays and how such effects are mitigated

How the Department’s performance in this area might be monitored and improved

Frank Field, Chair of the Committee, said:

"My own Hunger inquiry found that the Department could straight away cut by a third the numbers of people having to rely on food banks, if it could ensure all legitimate benefit claims were paid promptly and correctly. It has made some progress in speeding up the delivery of new claims, but the five or six week wait for a first payment under Universal Credit could turn out to be a nightmare for some claimants. Even under the existing system there are too many mind-blowing instances in which people on their uppers are left with little or even no money for weeks on end. We will seek, therefore, to come up with a package of reforms which helps the Department build on its early progress towards a more effective system."

New Committee Member, Mhairi Black MP, said:

"Local welfare rights officers have highlighted to me the issues they face with the speed of cases being process by the department.  They are particularly concerned when no priority is given to clients who they have identified as vulnerable, especially when all of the information required by the DWP has been supplied.  Vulnerable people are often left in a position where they have no money to heat their homes or feed themselves for several days or weeks.  It is therefore, no surprise to them that Paisley has the third busiest food bank in Scotland.

There are also serious concerns about the current impact of procedures for people in receipt of housing benefit whose circumstances have changed as well as the anticipated problems with Housing Costs being paid directly to claimants in receipt of Universal Credit rather than direct to the landlord.

I welcome the opportunity to explore these and many other issues that have been raised with me through the inquiry."

Have your say on the Welfare Reform and Work Bill

The House of Commons Public Bill Committee also invites written submissions regarding the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, which was presented to the House on 9^th July. .

The Bill would make provision about reports on progress towards full employment and the apprenticeships target; to make provision about reports on the effect of certain support for troubled families; to make provision about social mobility; to make provision about the benefit cap; to make provision about social security and tax credits; to make provision for loans for mortgage interest; and to make provision about social housing rents.

The Bill received its Second Reading in the House of Commons on 20^th July, where MPs debated the main principles of the Bill.

The Bill has now been sent to the Public Bill Committee where detailed examination of the Bill will take place. The Bill Committee is expected to hold its first oral evidence session on 10 September.  Whilst written submissions may be considered as late as mid-October, the Institute intends to submit its evidence early, so that it can be fully considered.

The submission will address matters contained within the Bill and concentrate on factual information of which the Institute would like the Committee to be aware.

The Institute invites members to contribute to this process.  Let us know if you have suggested amendments to the Bill (with accompanying explanation), or you wish to support or oppose amendments tabled or proposed to the Bill by others (when these are made available) with explanation.