Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 7
Eighth Report - Plan for Jobs and employment support
Published 19 Jul 2023
Paragraph 57
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Plan for Jobs and employment support All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The benefit rules for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit can interact in such a way that a cliff edge arises when claimants in supported accommodation who must Plan for Jobs and employment support 81 claim both benefits work more than 12 hours a week. This is counter-productive to encouraging younger employees to return to the labour market. DWP should not maintain any policies or practices that stand in the way of people who want to work. Not only does this reduce labour market engagement in the short-term it can also prevent people from progressing at work and becoming financially independent in the long-term. DWP needs to remove this cliff edge. The Government should increase the applicable amount within Housing Benefit for young people in supported accommodation to £117.56 a week, either by raising the personal allowance or by introducing a new premium. This would bring the benefit taper in line with those not in supported housing. This change should be implemented no later than the start of the 2024–25 financial year.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Eighth Report - Plan for Jobs and employment support (HC 600), paragraph 57, 19 July 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 23 October 2023 (deadline 24 October 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the report's focus on economic inactivity and points to its Spring Budget 2023 package, while declining several recommendations, including devolving all employment support and separating support from benefit administration.
- On the Housing Benefit and Universal Credit cliff edge, the Department "acknowledges the challenge" and officials are working to develop options, but says it "would be challenging to eradicate this issue as early as April 2024" and funding "would also need to be secured through a future fiscal event".
- It does not agree that Restart should be extended to inactive people, or that employment support should be separated from benefit administration, giving conditionality and welfare spend management as reasons for the latter.
- It does not agree to automatically devolve all employment support, deciding the delivery approach "on a programme-to-programme basis". It will trial a more devolved approach in the Greater Manchester and West Midlands deals before considering further rollout.
- On Jobs Plus, the government says it is "supportive of Jobs Plus and will be implementing a pilot scheme based on the Jobs Plus model", though no date is given.