Welfare rights news and case law

26 June, 2023

Early Legal Advice Scheme pilot in Manchester and Middlesbrough helped just three people between October 2022 and March 2023

However, Minister says that draft evaluation of the pilot has gathered ‘valuable insights’ on the nature and implementation of such pilots as well as barriers to engagement

23 June, 2023

NAO warns that scale and complexity of DWP’s Health Transformation Programme leaves it at high risk of delay, cost overruns and not achieving intended benefits

New report recommends that that Department publishes revised business case for Programme to factor in reforms set out in Health and Disability White Paper including abolition of WCA

23 June, 2023

Using SSAC to advise on annual uprating of benefits would risk contaminating its ability to act as an impartial adviser on other aspects of government policy

Committee chair advises MPs that SSAC's focus is instead on the adequacy of benefits over the longer-term to help it ‘shine a spotlight on issues and questions that a government of the day may not be adequately thinking about’

23 June, 2023

Changes to universal credit childcare costs provisions from 28 June 2023

New DWP guidance on disregard of upfront childcare costs met by the Flexible Support Fund and increase in maximum amounts of childcare costs element

23 June, 2023

Disregarding compensation payments relating to the Grenfell fire, the Post Office Horizon scandal and to vaccine damage in the calculation of means-tested benefits in Northern Ireland

New statutory rule

22 June, 2023

Government announces closure of a further 36 temporary jobcentres

Decommissioning programme will not reduce levels of service or access to face-to-face appointments, says DWP Minister

22 June, 2023

Department for Communities confirms funding decisions for the delivery of social security in Northern Ireland in light of restricted 2023/2024 Budget

Discretionary support funding cut to £20 million from £40 million last year, while no funds are available to recruit the additional staff needed to deliver an increasing universal credit caseload

21 June, 2023

Low rates of social security are ‘pushing people into poverty and driving destitution’, say MPs

All-Party Parliamentary Group calls for immediate increase in all benefit levels to meet the needs of claimants

21 June, 2023

Tribunal’s failure to find that former prisoner should be disqualified from receiving payments of contributory ESA for period of sentence amounted to error of law

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v NC (ESA)
[2023] UKUT 124 (AAC)
UA-2022-000802-ESA

20 June, 2023

DWP confirms vision for last phase of Universal Credit Programme, including ‘safe and secure’ migration of remaining 2.5 million households on legacy benefits and tax credits

Letter to Senior Responsible Owner sets out requirement for all tax credits, income support, JSA and housing benefit only claimants to be migrated by 2024/2025, with remaining 800,000 ESA claimants to be migrated by 2028/2029

20 June, 2023

Number of households subject to benefit cap increased by 3 per cent in the three months to February 2023

New DWP statistics also show that the number of universal credit households flowing off the cap has increased for the fourth consecutive quarter

20 June, 2023

DWP acknowledges that waiting times for PIP and ESA inquiry lines ‘have been too long’

However, Minister assures MPs that PIP recruitment will reduce waits 'by the end of summer', while ESA waiting times have 'improved significantly in recent weeks'

19 June, 2023

DWP invites applications for Future Support Offer grant funding to extend support for people claiming universal credit to April 2026

However, Department confirms that funding to extend the 'Help to Claim' type service is not yet guaranteed, and the second year of funding for 2025/2026 will be subject to future spending review decisions

16 June, 2023

DWP has the capacity to deal smoothly with any increase in the number of benefit applications resulting from the Home Office’s new streamlined asylum process, says Home Secretary

Letter to Home Affairs, LUHC and Work and Pensions Committees also sets out steps being taken to mitigate potential impacts of the policy on local authorities' ability to provide effective support

16 June, 2023

Allowing DLA for children to continue for 13 weeks after claimant has left England, Wales or Northern Ireland and becomes permanently resident in Scotland

New statutory instrument also provides that claimants have to be present in England or Wales to be entitled to DLA for children

16 June, 2023

Average speed of answering PIP telephone enquiries exceeded 40 minutes in March, April and May 2023

Responding to a written question in Parliament, Minister advises that Department is currently in the process of 'recruiting additional resource into telephony' in order to increase the number of calls answered and reduce wait times

15 June, 2023

Use of AI within the new digital justice systems being created in England and Wales likely to result in it taking some decisions, says Master of the Rolls

Doubting that there will be an effective pause in the research and development of generative AI, Sir Geoffrey Vos says that the legal community will need to develop mechanisms to deal with it within the legal system

15 June, 2023

MPs vote against SNP Opposition Day motion that included call to create a new Cost of Living Select Committee

Proposed Committee would have included 45 members drawn from 14 existing Select Committees

15 June, 2023

Bill providing for automatic enrolment onto Healthy Start scheme receives first reading in House of Commons

Private Members' Bill will require Secretary of State to enrol all eligible families onto the scheme unless they chose to opt-out