November 2023
Dear Constituent,
Thank you for contacting me about the Trussell Trust’s Social Security Campaign.
I am committed to supporting those on low incomes, and I welcome that this country has a robust social security system to do so. Around £276 billion is being spent through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2023/24, including around £124 billion on people of working age and children. Alongside this, the Government is taking decisive and unprecedented action to support households with the cost of living.
Over 2023-24, the Government is providing targeted support to the most vulnerable through Cost of Living Payments, which will be paid to 8 million households on eligible means-tested-benefits, 6 million people on eligible disability benefits, and 8 million pensioner households. The Government is also providing £1 billion of extra funding by extending the Household Support Fund to March 2024, bringing the total of the Fund to £2.5 billion. Benefits were also increased by 10.1 per cent in April 2023, in line with inflation.
Debt deductions for Universal Credit overpayments are part of the Department for Work and Pension’s (DWP) obligation to protect public funds and to ensure that, wherever possible, benefit overpayments are recovered. I know that Ministers want to discharge this duty without causing undue financial hardship. That is why the Government has an established route by which anyone experiencing difficulties with repayments is encouraged to contact DWP Debt Management in order to negotiate a possible reduction in their rate of repayment or a temporary suspension of repayment, depending on financial circumstances.
The Department has to balance the amount that can be deducted with the protections that deductions offer claimants. Lowering the maximum deduction rate further would result in fewer essential deductions such as Child Maintenance being made. The Government has reduced the maximum deduction rate twice in recent years – from 40 per cent to 30 per cent in 2019, and further to 25 per cent in 2021. Ministers believe this strikes the right balance of ensuring priority debts and social obligations are met whilst enabling claimants to retain more of their award to meet day-to-day needs.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Best wishes,
Angela Richardson MP
Member of Parliament for Guildford, Cranleigh and our villages