A/HRC/41/39/Add.3 31. DWP has announced that it will reduce the maximum duration for a single sanction from three years to six months. 32. DWP will run a series of PoCs to test giving claimants a written warning instead of a sanction when a claimant first fails to attend an appointment without good reason. 33. DWP will also evaluate the effectiveness of UC sanctions in supporting claimants search for work and publish the results in Summer 2019. Local Government Funding: Recommendation E 34. The Local Government Finance Settlement included extra funding for local services. Councils were given access to up to £4bn more dedicated funding for Adult Social Care in 2019-20, and Government will publish a Green Paper on Adult Social Care ensuring the social care system is more sustainable long term. Core Spending Power is forecast to increase from £45.1bn (2018-19) to £46.4bn (2019-20). 35. The national Troubled Families Programme, which supports families facing complex, interconnected problems, has committed up to £920m for local authorities and partners since 2015. 36. The Spending Review (SR) will decide the overall amount of funding for local government. The Chancellor’s Spring Statement 2019 noted that the upcoming SR will “reflect the public’s priorities between areas like social care, local government, schools, police, defence and the environment.” Decisions on relative needs and resources will be taken in context of the SR. Disadvantaged Groups: Recommendation C and J 37. The Government’s objective is to help individuals into work. However, for those facing particularly severe barriers or with complex needs, the initial focus is on achieving the wellbeing and stability needed, rather than on moving directly into work. 38. We publish equality analyses alongside all major policy decisions, including UC (as legislated in 2012) and all UC policy changes. We have reservations about using cumulative analysis of the impact of tax and spending decisions on vulnerable groups. This often requires unreasonable assumptions about income sharing, and it is difficult to include the value of public spending on benefits-in-kind, presenting a partial and misleading picture of Government policy. Women and Children 39. Numerous Government policies support women and children. For example:  Over 60% of people benefiting from the National Living Wage increase to £8.21 are women;  Automatic enrolment into Workplace Pensions has greatly increased the number of women who will benefit from an occupational pension;  Over 90% of employees have the right to request flexible working and Government has set up a taskforce to make flexible working a reality;  UC provides up to 85% of childcare costs;  Disadvantaged 2 year olds can access 15 hours of free early education a week. 40. In 2019 we will publish plans to address persistent gendered economic barriers, particularly those faced by low-paid and financially-fragile women. 41. DWP is considering how to ensure that the main carer receives the household payment within Universal Credit. We want to make it easier for Universal Credit claimants who need a split payment because of their domestic circumstances to obtain one. 5