Guidance

July 2019: Touchbase edition 135

Updated 9 March 2020

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/touchbase-dwp-news-about-work-working-age-benefits-and-services/july-2019-touchbase-edition-135

Changes to Universal Credit

Improvements have been made to help claimants understand their Universal Credit payments. On the ‘Home’ page of a claimant’s online account, a ‘Payments’ section is now available as soon as the claim is made that will display:

  • the date that the first statement should be available
  • the date they should receive their first payment
  • a version of the statement to show how their payment will be made up based on what they’ve declared

The design of the statement itself has also been improved to make it clearer.

Get your State Pension online

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a video encouraging people to claim their State Pension online securely and quickly, rather than make a phone call or fill in a paper form.

The Get your State Pension service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and there’s help on hand if needed.

If you work with relevant audiences, consider sharing the video and linking to it from your resources.

Supporting parents in conflict

DWP has published Reducing Parental Conflict: a digital discovery, which looks at how parents from low-income households access online information and what support is most effective.

The findings of the report will be of interest to policymakers and family support workers as well as local authorities and their partners as they continue to shape and improve digital services that make a difference for parents and improve outcomes for children.

Help us share these interesting findings by forwarding this article to your networks.

Support for Mortgage Interest videos

DWP has launched 2 videos to help people who are considering applying for a Support for Mortgage Interest loan:

We have also developed 4 British Sign Language videos covering the same content and an easy read version for people with learning disabilities or who have English as a second language.

Organisations supporting or advising claimants are welcome to feature the videos on their websites or social media channels.

For more information, contact [email protected].

Childcare choices – 30 hours awareness campaign

The Department for Education has launched a video campaign to:

Six families across England share the positive effects of 30 hours free childcare on their household in a series of videos, highlighting how the government childcare offers are:

  • making childcare more affordable
  • increasing household budgets
  • enabling parents to go back to work

Share these videos with your network and channels, and look out for content from the Department for Education on social media.

The 30 hours offer is applicable to working families in England.

For more information on the government childcare offers available throughout the UK, visit www.childcarechoices.gov.uk.

News round-up

Investing in action to combat climate change

Scheme launched to help ex-offenders in Scotland get better employment support

Prime Minister launches new drive to tackle barriers faced by disabled people

Minister announces new transfer option for mortgage interest support

Speech at the CBI Diversity and Inclusion Conference

Wages beat inflation for 15th month in a row with record employment in April

End to Metro Bank “no DSS” mortgages

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