Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) autistic and (b) neurodivergent people will no longer be eligible to Personal Independence Payment following the proposed reforms.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number will not be known until those affected have gone through their first award review after the reforms take effect, starting in November 2026.
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people claiming the standard level of the Personal Independence Payment who did not score four points in any of the 10 descriptors are (a) autistic and (b) neurodivergent.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In January 2025 (latest available data), there were 8,200 claimants of Personal Independence Payment in England and Wales receiving the Standard Daily Living component who did not score at least four points in any of the 10 descriptors and had autism as their primary condition. There were 21,600 such claimants whose primary condition was a neurodivergent condition, including the 8,200 with autism.
We have defined Neurodivergent claimants as those with the following primary conditions:
- Autism
- Dyslexia
- Dyspraxia
- ADHD / ADD
- Tourette’s Syndrome
There may be other claimants with neurodivergent conditions as a primary or secondary condition, but these are not identifiable from the readily available data. Behavioural responses on the part of claimants and assessors to the reforms planned to take effect from November 2026 will affect the outcomes of award reviews undertaken after that date.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's report entitled The Buckland review of autism employment: report and recommendations, published 28 February 2024, how many recommendations of that report have been implemented.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The independent Buckland Review of Autism Employment reported to the last Government with recommendations to employers, third sector organisations and government on addressing barriers autistic people face when seeking and remaining in employment.
This was a valuable piece of work. This Government is committed to raising awareness of neurodiversity (as a more inclusive concept including autism, ADHD and other conditions, recognising that these co-occur for many neurodivergent people) in workplaces. We have launched a review by an independent panel of academics with expertise and experiences of neurodiversity to build on the Buckland Review and advise on how we improve experiences for all neurodivergent people, including in recruitment and day to day workplace practices. Recommendations are expected in the summer.
Although we have set a more ambitious and inclusive scope by expanding beyond the focus of the Buckland Review, several of the recommendations specifically to Government are already in progress. These include working with employers to reform Disability Confident to improve the scheme's outcomes and realise its full potential, promoting and enhancing the visibility of the Support with Employee Health and Disability Service (SEHD), and launching our new Supported Employment programme, Connect to Work, to support disabled people, those with health conditions and those with complex barriers to employment to get into and stay in work. We have also collaborated with ACAS to promote updated neurodiversity guidance for employers.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to publish a target for the autism employment gap.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We recognise the current disability employment gap. As set out in the King’s Speech last July, the government is committed to making the right to equal pay effective for ethnic minority and disabled people and introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers.
Addressing disability pay gaps will play a key role in boosting opportunity and household income for disabled people, as we deliver our programme for national renewal set out in the Plan for Change.
Disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting will provide transparency and vital data to help businesses identify and close pay gaps within their workforces. We also know that the current disability employment gap stands at 28 percentage points as of December 2024 and that for autistic people in particular the gap may be even more substantial.
We are committed to supporting all neurodivergent people in their employment journeys and reducing the employment gap, and on 29 January this year, we launched an independent panel of academics with expertise and experiences of neurodiversity to advise us on boosting neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work. Recommendations are due in the late summer.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of her Department's proposed reforms to health and disability benefits on people who are (a) autistic and (b) neurodivergent.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of freezing Local Housing Allowance rates on levels of homelessness.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The causes of homelessness are multi-faceted and often complex, they interact dynamically making it very difficult to isolate the relative importance of individual factors. We do however work closely with other departments, including MHCLG, to ensure the impacts of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) on homelessness are considered.
This included consideration in last year’s Autumn Budget not to increase LHA rates for 2025/26. Rental data, the impacts of LHA rates, the fact that rates were increased in April 2024, and the wider fiscal context were all considered. The April 2024 one-year LHA increase cost an additional £1.2bn in 2024/25 and approximately £7bn over 5 years.
We continue to work across Government on the development of the Homelessness and Rough-sleeping strategy. Any future decisions on LHA policy will be taken in the context of the Government’s missions, goals on housing and the fiscal context.
For those who need further support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities. DHPs can be paid to those entitled to Housing Benefit or Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs.
On other areas of public expenditure, we have announced the government will invest £2bn in social and affordable housing in 2026-27, to deliver up to 18,000 new homes. This will immediately allow housing associations and local councils to bring bids forward for new affordable housing developments in every part of the country.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of freezing the Local Housing Allowance on other areas of public expenditure.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The causes of homelessness are multi-faceted and often complex, they interact dynamically making it very difficult to isolate the relative importance of individual factors. We do however work closely with other departments, including MHCLG, to ensure the impacts of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) on homelessness are considered.
This included consideration in last year’s Autumn Budget not to increase LHA rates for 2025/26. Rental data, the impacts of LHA rates, the fact that rates were increased in April 2024, and the wider fiscal context were all considered. The April 2024 one-year LHA increase cost an additional £1.2bn in 2024/25 and approximately £7bn over 5 years.
We continue to work across Government on the development of the Homelessness and Rough-sleeping strategy. Any future decisions on LHA policy will be taken in the context of the Government’s missions, goals on housing and the fiscal context.
For those who need further support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities. DHPs can be paid to those entitled to Housing Benefit or Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs.
On other areas of public expenditure, we have announced the government will invest £2bn in social and affordable housing in 2026-27, to deliver up to 18,000 new homes. This will immediately allow housing associations and local councils to bring bids forward for new affordable housing developments in every part of the country.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to support low-income renters.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
We spend around £30bn annually on housing support for low-income renters in the private and social rented sectors.
From April we are investing £1.2bn increasing the Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of market rents, ensuring 1.6m private renters gain on average almost £800 in 2024/25 in additional support towards rental costs. This significant investment will cost £7bn over five years.
Discretionary Housing Payments are available for those who need additional support. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7bn for DHPs to local authorities.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps his Department has taken to support older workers.
Answered by Steve Webb
This Government has abolished the default retirement age, extended the right to request flexible working, and will be giving people more freedom in how they draw their pension pots to smooth the transition to retirement. The Department also published “Fuller Working Lives - A Framework for Action” in June, which set out the business case for employing older workers and included the following actions: