Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Accepted
We recommend that the Department for Work and Pensions engage with the organisations mentioned throughout...
Recommendation
We recommend that the Department for Work and Pensions engage with the organisations mentioned throughout this report to assess what further or more direct support needs to be provided to any of these groups as the cost of living continues to rise. We also urge the Government to simplify the support mechanisms to ensure households understand what support they are entitled to and enable them to chase up receipt. (Paragraph 12) The adequacy and uprating of social security
Government Response Summary
The Department says it already works hard to ensure that people are in receipt of their full entitlement and communicates with the public about benefits through various channels, including paid advertising, stakeholder and employer engagement, and campaigns. They also say they are providing extra financial help to the most vulnerable people, including the £650 cost of living payment.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Department works hard to ensure that people are in receipt of their full entitlement. We communicate with the public about benefits through paid advertising, stakeholder and employer engagement, campaigns to help people understand their entitlement and the support we can provide as a safety net and in times of need. We have made additional use of digital media such as YouTube videos, particularly British Sign Language videos, to widely promote DWP benefits. The Government’s website, GOV.UK, provides guidance on individual’s rights and entitlements to benefits in the UK. In particular, the website provides links to independent benefits calculators that can be used to find out what benefits an individual could get, how to claim and how these benefits will be affected if an individual starts work. https://www. gov.uk/benefits-calculators. DWP is at the forefront of providing the most vulnerable people in society with extra financial help to help with the cost of living, including the £650 cost of living payment for eligible people on means tested benefits. To ensure people are aware of this help and that they understand how to check their eligibility, a cross-government Help for Households campaign was launched in July across a range of channels to co-incide with the first cost of living payments being issued. This campaign will continue throughout the Autumn to promote the wider package of support being made available to millions more people, whilst also supporting the next tranche of specific payments for benefit customers. A dedicated online ‘hub’ for information on the wider support package is also available at Cost of living support - Help for Households cost of living (campaign.gov.uk).