Asked by: Baroness Browning (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend for the proposal to remove eligibility for the limited capability for work and work-related activity group from those under the age of 22 to apply to disabled adults receiving residential care.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of the Pathways to Work Green Paper consultation, the Government invited views on the proposal to raise the minimum age for accessing the Universal Credit (UC) health element to 22. The consultation closed on 30 June, and we are now considering responses. The Government’s conclusion will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure homeless people can access benefits.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave to question HL9238 on 17 July.
The Government has committed to a cross-government strategy to get the country back on track to ending homelessness. We have already taken the first steps, making a £1 billion investment in homelessness and rough sleeping services in 2025/26, a £233 million increase on the previous year, to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and to help prevent rough sleeping
My department is committed to ensuring people experiencing homelessness receive the benefits and support they need. Support is in place to help people experiencing homelessness claim and receive benefits, including:
Jobcentres provide outreach in community and homelessness settings in areas with high levels of homelessness and organise referrals to local authority housing teams under ‘Duty to Refer’ legislation. There are single points of contact in every jobcentre to support work coaches with complex homelessness cases, along with training to better understand and support vulnerable customers. Our advanced customer support senior leaders and vulnerable customer champions review our processes to ensure we are effectively safeguarding such customers
The Government’s plans to get Britain working include the new Jobs and Careers Service, which will provide individualised support to those with the greatest barriers to work, while Connect to Work will provide support to people with disabilities, health conditions and complex barriers, including those experiencing homelessness.
Report Jul. 29 2025
Committee: Work and Pensions Committee (Department: Department for Work and Pensions)Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what work they have undertaken following the findings in the report by the National Audit Office The Motability scheme (HC 1681), published on 7 December 2018, in particular in relation to the findings on the remuneration of senior staff.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP is responsible for the disability benefits which passport people to the Motability scheme. Motability Foundation is a registered charity, incorporated by Royal Charter, to help disabled people with their mobility and transport needs. They own and have oversight of the Motability Scheme which is delivered by an independent commercial company Motability Operations.
The National Audit Office made a number of recommendations in their 2018 report. Those relating to remuneration of senior staff were directed to Motability and Motability Operations. The Department has worked closely with Motability Foundation since then in relation to developing a long-term strategy to put its charitable funding to best use and governance.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether Motability Scheme support is available to applicants with (1) a food intolerance, (2) alcohol misuse, and (3) obsessive compulsive disorder; and if so, what are the reasons for making that support available.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP is responsible for the disability benefits which passport people to the Motability Scheme. To be eligible for the Scheme individuals must be in receipt of a qualifying benefit such as enhanced mobility Personal Independence Payment, higher rate mobility Disability Living Allowance, War Pensioner’s Mobility Supplement and Armed Forces Independence Payment (including equivalent Scottish benefits).
Disability benefits are awarded based on how conditions affect a claimant, a determination of their functional needs and not the condition itself.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many migrants are claiming Universal Credit in the UK at present, and how many did so for each of the past three years.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department recently published Universal Credit Immigration status and nationality summary statistics on GOV.UK and this shows that 96.0% of UC claimants are either citizens or have been living and contributing to the UK for a very long time.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance she has issued to (a) work coaches and (b) case managers on processing claims for new claimants from (i) Israel and (ii) the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Guidance for DWP staff making benefit decisions is available on gov.uk. Specific guidance on new customers arriving in the UK from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories will be published in the usual way.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department collects data on (a) errors and (b) false positives arising from algorithmic fraud detection tools.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP is committed to processing data lawfully, proportionately, and ethically, with meaningful human input and safeguards in place to protect individuals. “Algorithmic fraud detection tool” is not a term we use in DWP however, the department develops, tests, and invests in advanced analytics to support the detection of fraud and error. Currently, the UC Advances model is the only machine learning model deployed at scale in live service. On the 17th July, the Department published a fairness assessment of the UC Advances model, which includes consideration of the model’s performance. The model remains an effective fraud prevention control, performing approximately three times better than a control group in identifying high-risk advances.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason new claimants from (a) Israel and (b) the Occupied Palestinian Territories will be exempt from the Habitual Residence Test for Universal Credit.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Given the circumstances in which British nationals and their eligible families have urgently travelled to the UK following the Government’s evacuations, DWP want to ensure that those arriving can access benefits as soon as possible (where they meet all other eligibility requirements).
This does not enable DWP to pay benefits to anyone who does not already have an underlying entitlement to benefits. For those who are not British or Irish citizens, they must have a valid immigration status that provides recourse to public funds to access benefits, on top of meeting other benefit-specific eligibility criteria.
More detail can be found in the explanatory memorandum for this amendment: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/884/memorandum/contents.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many benefit decisions made using (a) automated and (b) AI-assisted systems have been overturned on appeal since 2020.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
No Artificial Intelligence is currently deployed to make decisions regarding benefit entitlement or value in isolation. There is automation in some benefit processes but decisions regarding entitlement and value will have a human decision maker involved.