Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 3
Second Report - The Cost of Living
Published 27 Jul 2022
Paragraph 17
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee The cost of living All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We welcome the inclusion of those on legacy benefits in the Government’s support measures. We recognise that there are logistical difficulties in getting the necessary support in place quickly, but the Government does not seem to have taken on board our previous recommendations to improve systems. While we understand that in this case one-off payments may have been quicker to put in place, and able to reach more people, we agree with the Secretary of State’s opinion from 2021 that they are not the preferred approach. We recommend that other options, such as more responsive benefit uprating, are prioritised in future.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Second Report - The Cost of Living (HC 129), paragraph 17, 27 July 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 8 September 2022 (deadline 27 September 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) sets out its position on the Committee's recommendations on the cost of living, declining several (including a review of benefit adequacy and a written Pension Credit strategy) while describing existing communications work and support measures.
- On benefit uprating, DWP says it "will not be making any IT changes" to legacy benefits as they close, and that there are "no plans to change the up-rating period", because a consistent period means peaks and troughs "even out over time".
- The Government says it does not intend to conduct a specific review of benefit adequacy; in the autumn the Secretary of State will undertake her statutory annual up-rating review and may increase benefits "if she considers it appropriate".
- On the benefit cap, the Government says the cost-of-living payment is exempt from it, and that the Secretary of State "is reviewing further advice on this". It gives no date.
- On Pension Credit, DWP "does not consider that a written strategy or targets for take-up" are required, citing existing work with organisations; it is "looking at processes" that might be simplified but says automatic awards are not possible.