Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many assessments for Personal Independence Payment were carried out by Capita by telephone in 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Capita delivers Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in the Midlands and Wales, and on behalf of the Department for Communities (DfC) in Northern Ireland.
Information relating to the Midlands and Wales is not currently published by DWP; however, we intend to include this data in a future statistical release.
If your query concerns Northern Ireland, responsibility for this information rests with the DfC. This data is not held by DWP.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of UK–EU social security coordination rules in protecting the pension rights of people who have worked in the UK and Greece.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The UK’s comprehensive social security relationship with the EU Member States, including State Pensions, is governed by the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
These agreements provide the necessary level of social security protection and continuity of State Pension provision for those moving between the UK and the EU Member States, including Greece.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of a bilateral reciprocal social security agreement with Greece.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The UK’s comprehensive social security relationship with the EU Member States, including State Pensions, is governed by the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
These agreements provide the necessary level of social security protection and continuity of State Pension provision for those moving between the UK and the EU Member States, including Greece.
Asked by: Graeme Downie (Labour - Dunfermline and Dollar)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the effects of ADHD on daily life are included in PIP assessments.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is designed to help with the extra costs that arise from long-term health conditions or disabilities. Entitlement is determined by the functional impact a person’s condition has on their daily living and mobility activities. The assessment looks at an individual’s ability to carry out a series of key everyday activities which are fundamental to living an independent life. This approach applies to all conditions.
Health professionals delivering assessments receive comprehensive training in disability analysis including specific training on health conditions and how to identify their impact on claimants’ ability to carry out the activities in the assessment.
PIP case managers consider information provided by claimants on claim forms, along with any other supporting evidence, further medical evidence that we receive from treating health professionals, and advice from our contracted assessment providers.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average end-to-end clearance time for a Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment was in each month since January 2025 for (a) new and (b) existing claimants.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department regularly publishes Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment statistics and the development of clearance times is detailed in the release strategy for those statistics. Further details on the future publication of clearance times will be published in the DWP Statistical Work Programme in due course.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is notified that a claimant has been moved in to out of area temporary accommodation.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department works closely with local authorities, who are responsible for administering Housing Benefit for people living in temporary accommodation. Housing Benefit covers housing costs in temporary accommodation, while Universal Credit supports daily living costs.
When a claimant moves into temporary accommodation, they or their appointee must report any change of circumstances through their Universal Credit account. Local authorities cannot do this on a claimant’s behalf.
Jobcentre staff in England support customers at risk of homelessness through the statutory Duty to Refer, offering a referral to a local authority for housing support.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure that employers participating in the Disability Confident scheme do not unfairly dismiss employees due to health-related absence or long-term conditions.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All employers are required to comply with the Equality Act 2010, including the duty to make reasonable adjustments where a disabled person would otherwise be put at a substantial disadvantage compared with their colleagues. The Equality and Human Rights Commission is responsible for enforcing the Equality Act and providing guidance on reasonable adjustments, and we expect all employers including those in the Disability Confident scheme to act within the law.
The Disability Confident scheme encourages employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. When an employer signs up to the scheme, they agree to commitments which include anticipating and providing reasonable adjustments as required and supporting any existing employee who acquires a disability or long-term health condition, enabling them to stay in work.
To help employers meet these commitments in practice, Disability Confident provides a range of guidance and resources. This includes the Disability Confident Manager’s Guide [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-confident-and-cipd-guide-for-line-managers-on-employing-people-with-a-disability-or-health-condition], which explains how managers can make and review reasonable adjustments, consider flexible working, and sets out examples of other types of workplace adjustments. In addition, the Department has developed the ‘Support with Employee Health and Disability’ digital service [https://www.support-with-employee-health-and-disability.dwp.gov.uk/support-with-employee-health-and-disability], which offers employers tailored guidance on supporting employees with health conditions or disabilities, including advice on legal obligations, making reasonable adjustments, and signposting to sources of expert support.
The scheme also signposts employers and employees to Access to Work, a discretionary grant that provides support for people with a disability or health condition to move into or retain employment, by helping with extra disability related costs of working that go beyond the standard reasonable adjustments an employer is expected to provide under the Equality Act.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to promote the use of engineering controls such as biological safety cabinets and closed‑system drug‑transfer devices during preparation and administration of hazardous medicinal products to better protect healthcare workers.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 October 2025 to Question UIN 84144.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-UK nationals have received Pension Credit for the following financial years a) 2024/25 b) 2025/2026, and what was the total value of Pension Credit paid to those non-UK nationals in each of those financial years.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The requested statistics are not held by the Department.
Entitlement to Pension Credit depends on a person’s residence or immigration status, including the requirement to have the right to reside and to be able to be treated as factually habitually resident in Great Britain. Foreign nationals must also have an immigration status that gives access to public funds, which most will not have until they have lived in the UK for at least 5 years.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many individuals that have migrated from Employment Support Allowance to Universal Credit in the last 12 months have had the amount of council tax support they receive reduced.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not administer the Council Tax Reduction scheme and therefore does not hold the data required to answer this question.