Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what impact assessment has been conducted on the change in the method of payment of Disability Living Allowance to being solely into a bank account.

Justin Tomlinson

There has been no change to the method of payment policy in relation to benefit and pension payments.

DWP is committed to battling financial exclusion and helping more people to move towards, and benefit from, mainstream banking. Direct Payment into a bank, building society or credit union account is the most efficient, secure and reliable way of making payments and is the preferred way to make benefit payments. Government paying departments would like all of their customers to benefit from the advantages of a mainstream account.

Although the majority of benefit and pension payments are paid into a bank account we do recognise that some customers remain unable to access such services. Arrangements are in place to ensure those customers can access their money.