Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number and proportion of people who may lose their entitlement to (1) Carer's Allowance, and (2) the carer element of Universal Credit, because they care for a disabled person who is no longer eligible for Personal Independence Payment because they score fewer than four points in the daily living component, broken down by gender.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department does not hold the data requested.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the cost of extending free school meals to all children of families in receipt of Universal Credit; and what assessment they have made of the current real value of the income eligibility limit, set in 2018, of £7,400.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The continued provision of school food has an important role to play in breaking the unfair link between background and opportunity, which is why the department is considering the government’s school food offer as part of our work on child poverty.

The transitional protections policy on free school meals (FSM), put in place in 2018 during the roll out of Universal Credit (UC), ensures that households in receipt of FSM will retain their entitlement during UC migration.

Support for children to access FSM has additionally been considered as part of the Child Poverty Taskforce’s consideration of how to:

• Support households to increase their income, including considering social security reforms that support people into work and alleviate poverty.
• Help to bring down essential household costs, build savings and tackle problem debt.
• Alleviate the negative experience of living in poverty, including through supporting families and the role of public services.

As with all government programmes, the department will keep the approach to FSM under continued review.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of children who will lose their entitlement to free school meals following the ending of phase one of the transitional protection for those migrating to Universal Credit.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The continued provision of school food has an important role to play in breaking the unfair link between background and opportunity, which is why the department is considering the government’s school food offer as part of our work on child poverty.

The transitional protections policy on free school meals (FSM), put in place in 2018 during the roll out of Universal Credit (UC), ensures that households in receipt of FSM will retain their entitlement during UC migration.

Support for children to access FSM has additionally been considered as part of the Child Poverty Taskforce’s consideration of how to:

• Support households to increase their income, including considering social security reforms that support people into work and alleviate poverty.
• Help to bring down essential household costs, build savings and tackle problem debt.
• Alleviate the negative experience of living in poverty, including through supporting families and the role of public services.

As with all government programmes, the department will keep the approach to FSM under continued review.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many and what proportion of recipients of the Personal Independence Payment daily living component scored fewer than four points on all of the descriptors on which they qualified across the ten activities, broken down by (1) gender of the recipient, (2) age of the recipient, including those of working age and over pension age, and (3) main condition type.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The proportion of people in receipt of Personal Independence Payment with the Daily Living component who were awarded fewer than four points in all daily living activities is readily available as part of the Pathways to Work Evidence Pack in Chapter 2.

(https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/pathways-to-work-reforming-benefits-and-support-to-get-britain-working-green-paper).

The figures are broken down by the gender of the claimants in table 2.23, in which 39% of males and 52% of females scored fewer than four points on any daily living activity.

The figures are broken down by the age of the claimants in table 2.21. However, this table only includes statistics for working age claimants. For claimants over state pension age, 58% scored fewer than four points in all daily living activities. Claimants currently over state pension age are not routinely reviewed and will be unaffected by the proposals outlined in the Pathways to Work Green Paper.

The figures are broken down by the primary condition group of the claimants in table 2.22.

The number of people currently on PIP who did not score 4 points in one category in their last assessment should not be equated with the number who are likely to lose PIP. It is important to make a clear distinction between the two, not least because we do not want people to be unnecessarily fearful about their situation, when we understand many are already anxious.

No one will lose access to PIP immediately. The changes, subject to parliamentary approval, would be brought in from November 2026. After that date, no one will lose PIP without first being reassessed by a trained assessor or healthcare professional, who assesses individual needs and circumstance. Reassessments happen on average every 3 years. Someone who did not score 4 points in an activity in a previous assessment may well score 4 points in a future assessment – not least as many conditions tend to get worse, not better, over time. The OBR has taken into account expected behavioural changes in its numbers and determined that 370,000 (1 in 10) current PIP recipients may lose entitlement by 29/30 at their next award review after changes to PIP eligibility come into effect in November 2026.

Even with these reforms, the overall number of people on PIP is expected to rise by 750,000 by the end of this parliament and spending will rise from £23bn in 24/25 to £31bn in 29/30.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will allow Ukrainian visa-holders to sponsor more family members through the Homes for Ukraine scheme, including (1) partners, (2) children over 18, and (3) siblings.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

Following a review, on the 31 January 2025 we amended the sponsorship eligibility criteria under the Homes for Ukraine scheme to enable parents with Ukraine Scheme visas to sponsor their children to join them in the UK.

This change is intended to simplify the administrative process for children to reunite with their parents and has been developed in line with our duty to consider the best interests of children.

There are currently no plans to expand this beyond children under 18. Adults in Ukraine, including children over 18, will continue to be eligible to apply under the HFU scheme, once they have found an Approved Sponsor.

We continue to review our policies in line with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 2 May (HL6725), how many and what proportion of (1) existing, and (2) expected inflow, recipients of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are expected to lose (a) the standard, and (b) the enhanced, PIP rate, broken down by gender.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department does not hold the data requested.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people who receive (1) the employment and support allowance, or (2) Universal Credit, are treated as having limited capability for work and work-related activity without scoring points under the Work Capability Assessment, broken down by gender.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The specific information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Statistics on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment decisions, including reason for support group allocation, are published on Stat-Xplore in the section ‘ESA Work Capability Assessments’.

Statistics on Universal Credit Health caseload, including an identifier for terminally ill claimants, are published on Stat-Xplore in the section ‘Universal Credit Work Capability Assessments’.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract information.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people who underwent a Work Capability Assessment were placed in (1) the work-related activity group, (2) the support group, and (3) the fit-for-work group, for the year January to December 2024, broken down by gender.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The following tables shows the volumes of Work Capability Assessments (WCAs) that were placed in (1) the work-related activity group (WRAG), (2) the support group (SG), and (3) the fit-for-work (FFW) group, for the year January to December 2024, broken down by gender.

For WCA outcomes for the health element of Universal Credit (UC), WRAG is referred to as limited capability for work, SG is referred to as limited capability for work and work-related activity, and FFW is referred to as no limited capability for work.

Volumes cover all WCA outcomes including:

- initial assessments (the first assessment of the claim),

- repeat assessments (subsequent assessments after prognosis period of previous assessment of the claim expires), and

- initial assessments for those moving over from Incapacity Benefit (IB).

ESA WCAs January to December 2024 by gender

Source: WCA Administrative Data

UC WCAs January to November 2024 by gender

Source: Stat-Xplore

Please note that in both tables, figures may not sum due to rounding.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people who currently receive the limited capability for work and work-related activity element of Universal Credit also receive Personal Independence Payment, broken down by gender.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Information on the number of claimants who currently receive Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) element of Universal Credit (UC) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) can be found in the table below.

Table 1: number of claimants receiving LCWRA and PIP, by gender.

Source: Stat-Xplore (Benefits Combinations – Data from May 2019 for England and Wales)

Notes:

• Data is for August 2024, the most recent available for this dataset.
• Data is for England and Wales only, in line with the coverage of PIP.
• As a result of the Move to UC programme, the number of claimants meeting these criteria will increase considerably between this data point and early 2026, as claimants are moved across from income-related Employment and Support Allowance.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the problems affecting poorer students in accessing A level computer science, as identified by Teach First on 8 May.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter their background. However, the department knows that disadvantaged pupils are more likely to face barriers which hold them back from the opportunities and life chances they deserve.

Whilst it is ultimately for individual schools to decide which courses to offer their students, the best way of supporting schools to offer A level computer science, including those in deprived areas, is to ensure high-quality computing teaching by helping schools to recruit and retain good teachers.

For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is offering a targeted retention incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. This will support the recruitment and retention of specialist computing teachers in the schools and areas that need them most. There are also bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to teach computing.

In the 2024/25 academic year, there were 496 new postgraduate entrants to computing initial teacher training (ITT), a 21% increase on the number of entrants in the 2023/24 academic year (411). The number of postgraduate entrants in 2024/25 was broadly in line with the average across the last ten years.

As of April 2025, we are seeing positive recruitment trends regarding postgraduate ITT recruitment in computing. So far, there have been more candidate submissions (+10%), offers (+42%) and acceptances (+47%) compared to the same point in the previous recruitment cycle.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish (1) an updated impact assessment for the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that includes specific assessment of Clause 22, and (2) an equality impact assessment for the whole of the Children's Wellbeing and School Bill, including Clause 22.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The government is committed to supporting children in care and care leavers through the introduction of corporate parenting responsibilities for government departments and relevant public bodies. The measures will require Secretaries of State and relevant public bodies to be alert to matters which might adversely affect the wellbeing of children in care and care leavers.

The impact of all of the measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on business, equalities and human rights has been evaluated and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments.

We will continue to review and update these documents, when the Bill has completed its passage through the House of Lords.

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