The Work and Pensions Committee, which Stephen chairs, has today published its report on DWP’s response to coronavirus outbreak. The report praises the work of DWP’s frontline staff, but calls the Government to raise rate of so-called legacy benefits, and suspend the No recourse to public funds (NRPF) condition for the duration of the crisis on public health grounds.
The Committee report finds that the pandemic has left huge numbers of people struggling to cover the costs of essentials, with some disabled people in particular hit hard by increased costs of care and rising food prices. It argues that rates of older benefits must be raised by an equivalent amount to the rise in UC, backdated to April, to provide help for millions of people who are struggling to meet the extra inescapable costs imposed by the pandemic.
The report also calls for the immediate suspension of the NRPF condition that prevents an estimated million people who live and work in the UK legally from claiming benefits and receiving access to financial support because of their immigration status. The Committee argues that during a pandemic it cannot be in the public interest to expect people, some of whom are key workers and front-line medical staff, to comply fully with restrictive public health guidance while simultaneously denying them full access to the welfare safety net.
Stephen praised the hard work of the DWP’s frontline staff, saying that without this “the impact of the pandemic could have been much worse”.
He commented: “But the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted weaknesses in a social security system which at times is too inflexible and slow to adapt to support people in times of crisis. The focus has mostly been on the unprecedented numbers of new claims for Universal Credit. But in the background, people on legacy benefits—including disabled people, carers and people with young families—have slipped down the list of priorities. It’s now time for the Government to redress that balance and increase legacy benefits too. It’s simply not right for people to miss out on support just because they happen, through no fault of their own, to be claiming the ‘wrong’ kind of benefit.
“At the same time, people whose immigration status leaves them with no recourse to public funds have been left with no support from the benefits system at all—and at risk of destitution and homelessness. Some have had to face the invidious choice between staying at home and facing financial ruin, for themselves and their children, or going to work and risking spreading the disease. The Government must suspend these rules for the duration of the pandemic.”