Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 8
First Report - Cost of Living Support Payments
Published 14 Nov 2023
Paragraph 42
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Cost of living support payments All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
If the Government continues to issue cost of living support payments in the next financial year, it should maintain the Household Support Fund as it is an important safety net for those ineligible for these payments and other means tested benefits. In doing so, ahead of the next financial year, the Government should better communicate and advertise the fund to make sure that people are aware of its existence. The accessibility of the application process should be improved to enable people who may be disabled, do not speak English, do not have access to the internet, or may struggle to access support during working hours, to apply.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, First Report - Cost of Living Support Payments (HC 143), paragraph 42, 14 November 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 25 January 2024 (deadline 14 January 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government's response sets out the case for the one-off, automated Cost of Living Payments and the Household Support Fund, and does not change eligibility rules or payment timing in the ways the Committee recommended.
- On the UC nil-award recommendation, the Department "recognises the frustration" but says substantial changes "would introduce complexity, risking delays to payments or introducing unacceptable levels of fraud or error".
- On bringing forward the evaluation, it says fieldwork is due to begin in early 2024 with full findings "later in the year", that earlier publication would be "detrimental to the robustness of the evaluation", but that "any early relevant findings" will feed into policy decisions.
- On Housing Benefit as a qualifying benefit, it says payments to those receiving only Housing Benefit "could not therefore be delivered in a quick, accurate and straightforward manner", and points to Household Support Fund guidance on prioritising such households.
- On Household Support Fund guidance for people with no recourse to public funds, it says it "would not be appropriate to provide a definitive list of powers" because cases "must be judged on an individual basis".