Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the child poverty strategy will look beyond the 10-year timeframe.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish a Child Poverty Strategy in the autumn that will deliver fully funded measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty.
Our focus is on bringing about an enduring reduction in child poverty in this parliament, as part of a 10-year Strategy for lasting change, thereby reversing the trend that is seeing forecasts of child poverty continuing to increase. More details, including on the timeframes, will be set out in the strategy publication.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the process for (a) paying and (b) claiming reimbursement for childcare expenses on the finances of Universal Credit recipients.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The childcare costs element in Universal Credit is based on a customer’s actual costs and monthly reporting of paid out costs is simple to submit. Working parents can report their childcare costs either in the same assessment period they were paid, or by the end of the following assessment period.
Universal Credit customers who need help with their upfront childcare costs to move into work or increase their working hours may be eligible for support from the Flexible Support Fund. The Flexible Support Fund can be used to pay 100% of the upfront costs of up to one month of childcare. This is designed to ensure that any costs incurred in relation to childcare when starting work or increasing hours is not a barrier to taking up this work.
Customers who have received an upfront childcare award can make a Universal Credit childcare claim for up to 85% of their childcare costs thereafter. The Universal Credit childcare claim is paid to the customer through their Universal Credit award, which they can use to pay for the next month's costs, thereby easing customers into the Universal Credit childcare costs payment cycle.
Alternative help with upfront costs for eligible Universal Credit customers is available through Budgeting Advances.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to incentivise single parents to re-enter the workforce who are receiving Universal Credit childcare costs.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to reducing child poverty. Evidence suggests that if parents work, including second earners and lone parents, this substantially reduces the risk of child poverty; and that growing up in poverty is a strong predictor of children’s education and future earnings.
Parents claiming Universal Credit have support from Work Coaches, who provide individual, tailored help to all customers across the country. This includes supporting the development of skills needed to look for and obtain sustained employment and advice to parents on childcare support. There is also funding available through the Flexible Support Fund to remove immediate barriers to employment, including support for upfront childcare costs, travel costs, work wear, tools and equipment.
The number of hours a parent who has childcare responsibilities is expected to work or search for work can be reduced to allow the parent to combine work and care.
We are also considering how we can improve our support to help parents into work as part of our Child Poverty Strategy.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of Universal Credit childcare costs.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No such assessment has been made.
The Universal Credit Childcare element expenditure and forecast statistics can be found in row 18 of the ‘Universal Credit and equivalent’ tab, published here: Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2025 - GOV.UK
Further information, including Universal Credit childcare element statistics and supplementary data tables, are also published and available here: Universal Credit statistics, 29 April 2013 to 10 July 2025 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to encourage people who are not in employment but have the capability to work to re-enter the workforce.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Our Get Britain Working reforms, set out in a White Paper in November last year, will tackle economic inactivity, build a thriving labour market, and increase the number of people in work. By delivering the biggest reforms to employment support for a generation, with a combined focus on skills and health, we will enable more people to get into work and get on in work. This will move us toward our long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate, which is central to growing the economy.
Building on our Get Britain Working reforms, our ‘Pathways to Work Guarantee’ will provide work, health, and skills support for disabled people and those with health conditions claiming out of work benefits. As announced in the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions’ statement on Welfare Reform on 30 June, we have increased the funding for employment support for disabled people and those with health conditions, investing an additional £300m over the next 3 years. This means our Pathways to Work Guarantee is now an investment of £2.2 billion by 2030 and brings our total investment in employment support for disabled people and those with health conditions to £3.8 billion over this Parliament.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the PIP assessments are not impacted by illnesses which frequently vary in severity.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The PIP criteria consider an individual’s ability over a 12-month period, ensuring that fluctuations are taken into account. The assessment looks at how a long-term health condition or disability impacts daily life across 12 activities, and considers whether each activity can be completed safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly, and in a reasonable time period.
The assessment is designed to reflect the impact of variations in an individual's needs for all health conditions, not only those which more typically fluctuate. Health professionals are trained to consider a wide range of physical, sensory, mental, intellectual and cognitive impairments. Case Managers give due consideration to all available evidence when making PIP decisions.
We set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper our intention to improve the experience for people who use the system of health and disability benefits, including a move to recording our assessments as standard. We want to build greater trust with claimants, and we intend to bring this proposal forward as soon as we are able.
We have also launched a review of the PIP assessment, which I am leading. Through the review, we want to make sure the PIP assessment is fit for the future. We have now begun the first phase of this review, during which I am speaking to stakeholders to gather views on how best to approach the review. As soon as the Terms of Reference have been drawn up, they will be published.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with Parkinson's in receipt of PIP with Parkinson's as their main condition were awarded four points or more in a category under the Daily Living Activities assessment.
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.