Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of State Pension age changes on 1950s-born women living in Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West constituency.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the impact of State Pension age changes for 1950s-born women living in the Liverpool Walton constituency.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many liability orders regarding child maintenance they have applied for in the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department publishes Child Maintenance Service official statistics every three months. Table 6.1 of the latest National tables provides information about enforcement actions used by the Child Maintenance Service each quarter between April 2015 and September 2025 including the number of liability orders applied for in England and Wales.
The below table shows volumes of Liability Orders applied for in England and Wales, for the past 12 quarters from October 2022 to September 2025
Quarter | Liability Orders applied for |
Oct to Dec 2022 | 2,700 |
Jan to Mar 2023 | 4,300 |
Apr to Jun 2023 | 4,000 |
Jul to Sep 2023 | 4,100 |
Oct to Dec 2023 | 4,500 |
Jan to Mar 2024 | 5,300 |
Apr to Jun 2024 | 4,500 |
Jul to Sep 2024 | 3,500 |
Oct to Dec 2024 | 3,700 |
Jan to Mar 2025 | 4,000 |
Apr to Jun 2025 | 3,400 |
Jul to Sep 2025 | 3,600 |
Source: Child Maintenance Service Administrative and Clerical Data
Note:
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the net zero targets for the Department and its arm’s-length bodies are; and what guidance has been issued on adopting net zero targets earlier than 2050.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Net Zero target in the Climate Change Act 2008, is a target for the whole of the UK, not individual departments or arms-length bodies.
Greening Government Commitments are the central framework setting out the actions UK government departments and their agencies will take to reduce their impacts on the environment, including setting targets to reduce emissions, during the framework period.
Defra are reviewing the Greening Government Commitments to ensure that they remain aligned with government priorities.
DWP and its arms-length bodies support national Net Zero targets via the Greening Government Commitments (GGCs), which are set and administered by Defra and DESNZ. DWP together with its arms-length bodies has to date met its Greening Government Commitments carbon targets, and progress is reported both in Defra’s Greening Government Commitments reports and in DWP’s Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of parents on default rate calculations in each of the last three years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department estimates that there were approximately 2,900 paying parents with a Default Maintenance Decision (DMD) as of June 2025. These were identified by searching for cases that had liability amounts and numbers of children corresponding to the current DMD rates. Counts from previous years are not readily available.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much money for child maintenance was collected under the collect and pay service in the past three years; and for how many children this money was collected.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department publishes Child Maintenance Service official statistics every three months. Table 4 of the latest National tables provides the total amount of maintenance paid via Collect and Pay each quarter between January 2015 and September 2025.
The below table shows Money paid each Quarter via Collect and Pay for Great Britain, for the past 12 quarters October 2022 to September 2025
Quarter | Maintenance paid (£ millions) |
Oct to Dec 2022 | 49.1 |
Jan to Mar 2023 | 49.1 |
Apr to Jun 2023 | 52.1 |
Jul to Sep 2023 | 57.5 |
Oct to Dec 2023 | 56.6 |
Jan to Mar 2024 | 58.7 |
Apr to Jun 2024 | 61.2 |
Jul to Sep 2024 | 65.4 |
Oct to Dec 2024 | 67.8 |
Jan to Mar 2025 | 72.5 |
Apr to Jun 2025 | 78.2 |
Jul to Sep 2025 | 84.4 |
Source: Child Maintenance Service Management Information
Notes:
The below table shows the number of children covered by Collect and Pay arrangements by payment status, for Great Britain, by quarter end, December 2022 to September 2025
Quarter end [note 2] | Collect & Pay, paying [note 3] | Collect & Pay, not paying [note 4] | Total |
December 2022 | 167,183 | 140,187 | 307,370 |
March 2023 | 170,753 | 144,587 | 315,343 |
June 2023 | 181,346 | 140,181 | 321,526 |
September 2023 | 191,532 | 137,948 | 329,485 |
December 2023 | 192,539 | 146,012 | 338,548 |
March 2024 | 200,457 | 146,153 | 346,605 |
June 2024 | 208,444 | 150,600 | 359,038 |
September 2024 | 216,082 | 160,165 | 376,245 |
December 2024 | 223,538 | 169,759 | 393,297 |
March 2025 | 235,795 | 172,915 | 408,713 |
June 2025 | 256,722 | 164,079 | 420,799 |
September 2025 | 271,720 | 160,907 | 432,627 |
Source: Stat-Xplore
Note:
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, what steps he is taking to reform Access to Work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Pathways to Work Green Paper launched a consultation on the future of Access to Work which has now concluded. We are considering responses to the consultation and will set out our plans in due course.
We also have recently concluded the Access to Work Collaboration Committees, in which we engaged with a range of stakeholders, including disabled people’s organisation representatives and those with lived experience, to provide discussion, experience, and challenge to the design of the future Access to Work Scheme.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what consideration has been given to allowing appointees to use the Access to Work online portal.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Access to Work online portal has been designed to ensure that customers can manage their own claims securely and efficiently, following identity verification to protect personal information and prevent fraud. At present, the service does not include functionality for appointees to submit claims on behalf of customers. This is because the portal relies on individual identity verification to maintain the security and integrity of the process.
However, we continue to provide a paper-based route for appointees to ensure that support remains available for those who need it.
Asked by: Gideon Amos (Liberal Democrat - Taunton and Wellington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will set out how the Department’s planned reforms to enhance staff awareness of safeguarding roles and responsibilities will integrate new safeguarding frameworks into its organisational culture and operations, including guidance and training materials are accessible to staff with disabilities, provided in multiple formats, and include clear, direct routes to designated safeguarding leads.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Safeguarding is a priority for DWP. Year One of our multi-year strategy is about building strong foundations - raising awareness, strengthening capability, and deepening partnerships. This is not just a process change; it’s a fundamental culture shift to make safeguarding part of everyday business.
The Department already operates a tiered system of support for vulnerable customers. All staff are trained to recognise vulnerability and respond appropriately, with specialist help available for complex cases.
Frontline colleagues have access to guidance that supports them to refer individuals to external agencies with statutory responsibilities to protect people from harm, abuse or neglect when they identify safeguarding concerns.
The Department has committed to embedding Level 1 safeguarding training across the organisation. This provides employees with the knowledge and skills to recognise potential safeguarding concerns and to know what action to take and who to report to if they have concerns. We are offering this training to all DWP staff.
In addition, we have embedded Level 3 adult and child mandatory safeguarding for all clinicians across the organisation.
Our focus remains on making our training accessible. Design standards and design tools for DWP technical learning support a comprehensive range of learner needs, and DWP Service Delivery role based technical learning is fully compliant with the requirements of the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. Alternative formats are provided, and arrangements are made to support learners’ reasonable adjustments.
We will continue to enable colleagues to complete Safeguarding training as part of their professional development, and we will track progress.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 relationship between levels of pension financial literacy and vulnerability to pension fraud.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
In 2023, the Behavioural Insights Team within the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) conducted a scams evidence review which found that victims of pension fraud do not fall into easily defined demographic groups and that anyone can be targeted. To mitigate this, a range of measures are in place to raise awareness and reduce risk. These include the Financial Conduct Authority’s ScamSmart tool which highlights areas of potential risk, and the detailed guidance provided by MaPS through MoneyHelper, which offers practical steps to identify and avoid pension scams. Additional safeguards are provided by the pension transfer regulations which empower trustees to pause or refuse a transfer where there are indicators of potential scam activity.