DWP UPDATE – March 2016
New State Retirement Pension: -: get ready for State Pension changes
The new State Pension comes into effect in just one month’s time, on Wednesday 6 April 2016, when the full rate of the new State Pension will be £155.65 a week.
We wanted to remind you of the top five places to get pensions information:
1. State Pension toolkit – A one-stop shop for organisations and employers to get State Pension information, now with over 250,000 visitors. Get your hands on a detailed guide, fact sheets, FAQs, hand-outs, graphics, examples, presentation slides and a pensions glossary. Visit www.gov.uk/government/collections/state- pension-toolkit 2. Check your State Pension service – Find out online how much State Pension you could get, the earliest you could get it and what you can do to improve it. This is an online service for people of working age. Visit www.gov.uk/check-state-pension 3. State Pension age calculator – Find out your State Pension age, your Pension Credit qualifying age and when you’ll be eligible for free bus travel. Visit www.gov.uk/state-pension-age 4. PensionTube – A pensions-only YouTube channel with animations, case studies and interviews about State Pension and workplace pensions. Visit www.youtube.com/pensiontube
Pensions Latest – The official blog from the Minister for Pension’s featuring regular posts to help you understand what pension changes mean for you – including this week’s post on Counting down to the new State Pension. Visit www.pensionslatest.blog.gov.uk/
The new online Pension Tracing Service can help people track down their workplace and private pension providers. The service is quick and easy. Just search for your previous employer or pension provider’s name and the service trawls a database of 320,000 contacts to give you their up-to-date contact details. To find your lost pension, visit www.findpensioncontacts.dwp.gov.uk
Universal Credit
From 11 April 2016, the range of UC work allowances available will be simplified. UC Claimants will be eligible for a work allowance if they (and/or their partner) either: have responsibility for a child and/or have limited capability for work
If a UC claimant has earnings but they (or their partner) are not responsible for a child or do not have limited capability for work they will not be eligible for a work allowance.
Transition to Full Service:-The full UC Service remains on track to be delivered nationally for all types of claimants from May 2016 and completing in June 2018. The Full UC service will be open to all new claims from all claimant types, this will include anyone who is currently on existing benefits or Tax Credits and has a change in circumstances that would naturally trigger a new claim to UC; meaning the entire household affected would migrate to the new service. Details of the Phase 1 and 2 roll out have been published on GOV.UK: UC transition to full service. (West Yorkshire Local Authority areas are not included in phase 1 and 2 roll out)
1 DWP UPDATE – March 2016 Universal Credit Trusted Partner Pilot
UC is piloting an exercise to understand and assess how social landlords can identify vulnerable tenants and arrange direct payment of housing costs to landlords, where appropriate. The pilot is a product of joint working between DWP and the Social Rented Sector to develop an approach that ensures those tenants who need support receive it. The first set of landlords has been selected and is due to commence the next phase of the Trusted Partner Pilot on the 8 February 2016
Fee-Free Basic Bank Accounts Nine banks have launched fee-free basic bank accounts so many customers who previously weren’t able to open a bank account may now be able to.
The accounts are available where people are ineligible for a standard current account, and either: have no bank account; have a bank account elsewhere, but want to change provider are in financial difficulty and want to open a new account
Information can be found on Gov.UK, for details of Proof of identity go to Money advice Service basic bank accounts
Personal Independence Payment PIP
A series of example letters sent to DLA claimants to invite them to start a claim for Personal Independence Payment. To view the letters click here
Benefit Cap
Planning estimates for local authorities of the number of households that could be subject to lower benefit cap levels from autumn 2016 have been published on GOV.UK.
From autumn 2016, total household benefit payments for working-age claimants will be capped at new levels. Workless households will no longer be entitled to receive more than:
£20,000 in benefit (£13,400 for single adults with no dependent children) outside Greater London £23,000 (£15,410 for single adults with no dependent children) in Greater London
This analysis provides estimates of the numbers of households, by local authority that could be subject to these new benefit cap levels.
Calderdale Band 2:- 200 to 399 households Kirklees and Wakefield band 4:- 600 to 799 households Bradford and Leeds band 6:- 1,000 to 1,999 households
2 DWP UPDATE – March 2016 DWP Video Relay Service (VRS)
The DWP VRS pilot was launched on 6 January 2016 and has been welcomed by organisations representing people with hearing loss. The six-month pilot will be trialed through call centers for Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Access to Work enquiry lines and hearing loss advisers. It will be offering deaf and hard of hearing customers more choice in how they communicate with us. The service is accessed through the relevant link on GOV.UK, for example Disability Living Allowance can see the links at https://www.gov.uk/disability-benefits-helpline. Customers should first watch the BSL Video to hear how to use the service.
Consultations
DWP is leading a review of the market for British Sign Language (BSL) and communication support for people who are deaf, deafblind or have a hearing loss. We are working in collaboration with other government departments, support organisations and the communications and language profession.
This Call for Evidence seeks to improve our understanding of the role communications support workers have in supporting people who are deaf, deafbind or have hearing loss. Community support workers could include: interpreters for deafblind people lip speakers note takers sign language interpreters sign language translators speech to text reporters
Statistics
The UC Monthly Experimental Statistics to the 4 February 2016 have been published on GOV.UK. Some of the main findings show that 197,043 people on the UC caseload as of the 14 January 2016. Of these 63,312 (32%) were in employment and 133,737 (68%) were not in employment. 364,495 claims have been made to UC up to the 4 February 2016
Census Output Data on Workless Benefit Claimants: - Official Statistics are now available on the number of people, by area, claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support and other income-related benefits.
Publications
Dementia Without Walls – a Joseph Rowntree project, which aimed to make the UK a place for people with dementia to live well, finished in 2015. A website has been developed that shares resources from the project – including videos, audio diaries, reports and toolkits.
Later Life Newsletters Issue 75 – included in this issue are articles on Understanding digital engagement in later life, and Coping with challenging behaviour – a guide for families and carers.
3