Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 people claiming housing benefit in South Holland and the Deepings constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Monthly statistics for the number of Housing Benefit claimants in Great Britain are published quarterly on Stat-Xplore. The statistics are available for various geographies, including local authority and parliamentary constituency, and are currently available to May 2025.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest, and if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 3 September 2025 to Question 74705 on Social media, how much his Department has spent on promotion through social media influencers by influencer since July 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions has spent a total of £120,023 on influencer marketing since July 2024. Please note this figure is inclusive of whole costs, including agency fees. It is not possible to release individual spend per influencer, as commercial sensitivities exist around aspects of this spend which could prejudice commercial interests. All spend in these areas are subject to the standard value for money assessments.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of support available to people with Parkinson's disease in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the Rt.Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 5 September 2025 to Question UIN 72849.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has spent money on promotion through social media influencers since July 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions has spent money on social media influencers since July 2024. Influencers can be effective in reaching audiences that the Government and traditional marketing channels find hard to reach.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the levels of (a) fraud and (b) error in the welfare system in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Estimates of the levels of fraud and error in the benefit system for the financial year 2024-25 can be found at: Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2024 to 2025 estimates - GOV.UK
We do not provide sub-national estimates of fraud and error as we are unable to break the statistics down to this level.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much the National Employment Savings Trust has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Nest is a Public Corporation which operates independently of Government. This includes necessary expenditure surrounding supporting its staff to work from home. However, it has provided the following information:
Nest technology for staff is such that most equipment is used across home and office locations. Therefore, spending on equipment to enable working from home relates to specific items needed to adjust to working in a home environment (e.g. display screens and workstation accessories).
Nest Corporation working from home expenditure:
Year | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Total expenses | £8,914 | £6,945 | £5,137 |
*Nest accounts, including expenses recognised, are audited by the NAO. However, this information is based on more detailed management information which is not specifically audited.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many days the Union Flag was flown on her Department's main sites in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025 to date.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In response to the question raised by Sir John Hayes Conservative South Holland and the Deepings and the ask of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions as to how many days the Union Flag has been flown on her Department’s main sites:
I can confirm in response that the Department’s main sites where a flagpole is in situ and that fly the Union Flag, this is flown continuously unless we are instructed otherwise by DCMS, in line with procedures, to lower:
Quarry House, Leeds | - | Continuously |
Caxton House, London | - | Continuously |
Peel Park, Blackpool | - | Continuously until end of December 2024 when the flag was damaged. |
Treforest, Wales | - | Continuously |
Tyneview Park, Newcastle | - | Continuously |
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Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of benefit claimants have been subject to sanctions in Lincolnshire in the last 12 months.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department regularly publishes monthly Universal Credit sanction rate statistics for Great Britain as part of the benefit sanction statistics. The latest statistics to May 2025 are available in table 2.1 of the latest benefit sanction statistics tables.
Users can use the UC Sanction Rates dataset on Stat-Xplore to produce the same information for lower-level geographical breakdowns. After selecting the required geographies, firstly produce a table containing the monthly statistics for the total number of UC claimants in conditionality regimes where sanctions can be applied, i.e. "searching for work", "planning for work" and "preparing for work", and include those people with unknown conditionality regime too. Then produce a separate table containing the monthly statistics for the number of Universal Credit (UC) claimants with a payment that has been reduced due to a sanction using the sanction indicator. Note, the second table should be produced for all people, regardless of conditionality regime.
After retrieving these separate tables from Stat-Xplore, calculate the sanction rate, which is the number of people on UC with a sanction, as a proportion of all people on UC in conditionality regimes where sanctions can be applied, both counted at the same point in time.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much the Pensions Regulator has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Pensions Regulator spent £16,109 in 2022/23, £7,711 in 2023/24 and £6,056 in 2024/25 on equipment including desktop monitor, keyboard, laptop riser and mouse to enable those of its staff who required it to work from home.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much the Money and Pensions Service has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) has contributed the following for homeworking equipment in each of the last three years: £59,658 in 2022/23, £103,604 in 2023/24, and £61,087 in 2024/25.