The coronavirus outbreak is the biggest public health emergency in a generation. Our message to the public is clear: you must stay at home, in order to protect the NHS and save lives.
I wanted to update colleagues directly on the response of my Department to help people across the country in these extraordinary times and in making sure your constituents get the support they need. We have seen an exceptional demand for its services as a consequence of the challenging circumstances presented by the coronavirus outbreak.
The Scale of the Operational Challenge and Our Response
Since 16th March, the Department has received in excess of 800,000 claims for Universal Credit, which has been accompanied by a significant increase in call volumes. For comparison, in a normal week we will receive approximately 55,000. We are doing all we can to deal with these unprecedented levels of demand.
Our priority as a Department is ensuring people get their benefit payments and that we can continue to support those who need us the most. We have mobilised our robust business continuity plans to ensure we can do just that. We are already redeploying 10,000 staff from other parts of DWP and are also recruiting additional staff to assist with the processing of claims, including support from other government departments.
I am aware that many of you will have constituents who have contacted you about difficulties they are having accessing the UC system. We have seen unprecedented numbers of claims and with the superb work of our dedicated civil servants, our system is standing up to the challenge such that we can receive and process this significant number of new claims.
We are working to identify and overcome bottlenecks too. In particular, we have been pleased to provide extra support for the Cabinet Office’s digital ‘Verify’ identity service to help improve its running. We have also introduced new processes to ease pressure on waiting times for identity verification over the phone and other processes, wherever possible. This includes efforts to pro-actively contact new claimants via an outbound call, to conduct initial verification of identity following their online claim to UC, rather than requiring claimants to call us and wait for operators to become available. Identity verification is still veryimportant to deter cyber criminals trying to exploit the situation, especially as we have suspended the need to have face to face interviews.
We have also provided a second year of grant funding for Citizen’s Advice and Citizen’s Advice Scotland to deliver Help to Claim. This is helpful support at a time when so many people are interacting with my Department’s services for the first time and is available at https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/contact-us/help-t… and https://www.cas.org.uk/helptoclaim
Jobcentres and Assessments
We are doing all we can to keep our Jobcentres and service centres operational, but as of 24th March, Jobcentres are only offering face-to-face appointments – conducted in accordance with PHE guidelines on social distancing - for the small number of claimants who would otherwise not be able to receive support. This helps us to continue to deliver our critical services whilst keeping our customers and staff safe.
From 17th March, we suspended all face-to-face assessments for health and disability benefits. This week, for existing claimants we also automatically extended awards and suspended any new review or reassessment activity, except where claimants notify us of changes to their needs that may result in an increase to their award. This temporary measure is being taken to ensure the Department’s resources are focused on providing access to financial support for new claimants, and it will also reassure claimants about continuity of their benefit during the coronavirus outbreak.
We have also taken the decision to temporarily suspend the requirement for face-to-face Jobcentre Plus appointments from 19th March for all claimants in Universal Credit, Job Seekers’ Allowance (JSA), Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Income Support. This means that claimants are not expected to contact their Jobcentre Plus while this temporary suspension is in place. They will continue to receive benefits as normal and they will not be sanctioned for not taking part in interviews with Jobcentres.
Recognising the need for DWP staff to focus on the processing of claims, we will not be checking conditionality compliance with work search requirements for the next three months. This means no sanctions should be applied for that reason for the next three months. Regulations will be introduced to bring this change into effect.
We do, however, want claimants to continue to look for work. While these are difficult times, new jobs are being created. Retailers have announced tens of thousands of new jobs in response to the coronavirus outbreak. There are other opportunities where it is still possible to work safely and we are encouraging claimants to explore these opportunities and others, where able to do so. My Department will continue to offer support through online journals or by phone.
Changes to Support
The Government has been clear in its commitment that no one should be penalised for doing the right thing in these difficult times and we have made a number of changes to the welfare system in the past fortnight to ensure people are supported in doing this. These changes include:
- making it easier to access benefits. Those applying for Contributory ESA will be able to claim from day 1 – as opposed to day 8 - and we have removed the need for face-to-face assessment. Both Universal Credit and Contributory ESA can now be claimed by phone or online;
- increasing the standard rate of Universal Credit and working tax credit for this year by around £1000 per year. Together, these measures represent an injection of £6.5 billion into the welfare system;
- temporarily relaxing the application of the Minimum Income Floor (MIF) for all self-employed claimants affected by the economic impact of COVID-19 to ensure that the self-employed can access UC at a more generous rate;
- making Statutory Sick Pay available from day 1 – as opposed to day 4 - where an eligible individual is sick or self-isolating; and
- increasing in the Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants so that it covers the cheapest third of local rents – which is on average £600 in people’s pockets.
These measures, when taken together with other job and business support programmes announced by the Chancellor over the last fortnight, represent one of the most comprehensive packages of support introduced by an advanced economy in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
I hope this update is useful. I also gave evidence in person to the Work and Pensions Select Committee on Wednesday, with my Permanent Secretary; the transcript is available on the Parliamentary website.
Finally, I wanted to pay tribute to civil servants in my Department who are working round the clock to ensure that we can continue to provide help to those who need it. These are difficult times and I am grateful to them for their hard work and dedication in supporting people through challenging circumstances.
The Rt Hon Thérèse Coffey MP