Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 potential impact of unemployment on young people.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
With over one million young people not in education, employment and training, this Government will not leave an entire generation of young people behind. The Government is investing an additional £2.5 billion over the next three years into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy. This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn.
This includes the delivery of eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England, expansion of Youth Hubs to more than 360 areas across Great Britain and introduction of a new Youth Guarantee Gateway in Jobcentres, providing more intensive support to 16–24-year-olds. We will also prioritise prevention – improving support in schools, access to work experience and further education places.
This investment will also create around 300,000 more opportunities to gain workplace experience and training. It will also help unlock up to 200,000 more employment opportunities, through a new £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant for employers who hire 18–24-year-olds who have been on Universal Credit for over six months, a new £2,000 apprenticeship incentive for small and medium sized employers hiring 16–24-year-olds and the Jobs Guarantee scheme, providing long-term unemployed 18–24-year-olds with a fully funded six month job.
We also recognise the crisis of participation that Alan Milburn has so clearly laid out in his interim report. Between 2021 and 2024, the number of young people not in education, employment or training rose by 250,000. We know that unemployment can have a negative impact on young people – on their health, earnings, and future employment prospects. We will use this interim report to continue to build our reforms and look forward to the full recommendations in the Autumn.
Together these measures demonstrate the Government’s commitment to supporting employers, partners and young people across Great Britain.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to tackle the causes of youth unemployment.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
With over one million young people not in education, employment and training, this Government will not leave an entire generation of young people behind. The Government is investing an additional £2.5 billion over the next three years into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy. This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn.
This includes the delivery of eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England, expansion of Youth Hubs to more than 360 areas across Great Britain and introduction of a new Youth Guarantee Gateway in Jobcentres, providing more intensive support to 16–24-year-olds. We will also prioritise prevention – improving support in schools, access to work experience and further education places.
This investment will also create around 300,000 more opportunities to gain workplace experience and training. It will also help unlock up to 200,000 more employment opportunities, through a new £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant for employers who hire 18–24-year-olds who have been on Universal Credit for over six months, a new £2,000 apprenticeship incentive for small and medium sized employers hiring 16–24-year-olds and the Jobs Guarantee scheme, providing long-term unemployed 18–24-year-olds with a fully funded six month job.
We also recognise the crisis of participation that Alan Milburn has so clearly laid out in his interim report. Between 2021 and 2024, the number of young people not in education, employment or training rose by 250,000. We know that unemployment can have a negative impact on young people – on their health, earnings, and future employment prospects. We will use this interim report to continue to build our reforms and look forward to the full recommendations in the Autumn.
Together these measures demonstrate the Government’s commitment to supporting employers, partners and young people across Great Britain.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 get young people into (a) training and (b) employment.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
With over one million young people not in education, employment and training, this Government will not leave an entire generation of young people behind. The Government is investing an additional £2.5 billion over the next three years into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy. This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn.
This includes the delivery of eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England, expansion of Youth Hubs to more than 360 areas across Great Britain and introduction of a new Youth Guarantee Gateway in Jobcentres, providing more intensive support to 16–24-year-olds. We will also prioritise prevention – improving support in schools, access to work experience and further education places.
This investment will also create around 300,000 more opportunities to gain workplace experience and training. It will also help unlock up to 200,000 more employment opportunities, through a new £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant for employers who hire 18–24-year-olds who have been on Universal Credit for over six months, a new £2,000 apprenticeship incentive for small and medium sized employers hiring 16–24-year-olds and the Jobs Guarantee scheme, providing long-term unemployed 18–24-year-olds with a fully funded six month job.
We also recognise the crisis of participation that Alan Milburn has so clearly laid out in his interim report. Between 2021 and 2024, the number of young people not in education, employment or training rose by 250,000. We know that unemployment can have a negative impact on young people – on their health, earnings, and future employment prospects. We will use this interim report to continue to build our reforms and look forward to the full recommendations in the Autumn.
Together these measures demonstrate the Government’s commitment to supporting employers, partners and young people across Great Britain.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support people with the cost of adult training courses.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are investing in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Skills Fund (ASF), spending £1.4 billion in the 2025/26 academic year. The ASF fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to support them to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning, with the aim to in particular support adults with low earnings or skills, whether they are in or out of work.
As of August 2025, approximately 68% of the ASF is devolved to 12 Strategic Authorities and the Greater London Authority. These authorities are responsible for the provision of ASF-funded adult education for their residents and allocation of the ASF to providers. For learners in Ashfield, the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) decides how to make best use of their ASF to meet their local needs beyond four statutory entitlements, including which courses are funded and the eligibility criteria. By honouring our commitments to combine and further devolve adult skills funding, we give those with local knowledge the power they need to make decisions that are best for their areas.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
Whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of publishing levels of welfare spending on foreign nationals by benefit type.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
My Department remains focussed on ensuring we provide robust, transparent data where this is available.
That is why we regularly publish quarterly official statistics on the number of Universal Credit claimants broken down by immigration status type and nationality group, as well as whether claimants are in work. We have no plans to change this approach.
In benefits other than Universal Credit, nationality and immigration status is not held or collected on digital systems in a way that allows it to be extracted for the publication as official statistics.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government are taking to help increase employment opportunities for people with autism.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to supporting all neurodivergent people, including autistic people, into and at work. This is part of our wider commitment to drive healthy and inclusive workplaces for all.
Our employment support for neurodivergent people is led by DWP’s £1 billion, voluntary, locally-led Supported Employment programme, Connect to Work. It covers all of England and Wales, with the exception of Greater Manchester which is using their Connect to Work funding to pilot their Prevention Demonstrator, through their Integrated Settlement.
Connect to Work will support around 300,000 disabled people, people with health conditions and individuals with complex barriers to employment by the end of the decade. It offers intensive, personalised employment support to help people move into and stay in paid employment, and is built around two internationally recognised evidence-based Supported Employment frameworks: Individual Placement and Support, and the Supported Employment Quality Framework. The latter has been specifically designed to support neurodivergent people and those with learning disabilities into sustainable jobs. Crucially, Connect to Work supports both participants and employers, helping to ensure that individuals are given the best chance to succeed once in work.
We recognise that supporting employers to understand the needs of neurodivergent employees is also key to our efforts. This year we funded free-of-charge neurodiversity masterclasses, delivered by ACAS, to help small and medium sized businesses build their understanding of neurodivergence and improve workplace support. Over 1800 representatives of small and medium sized businesses attended these masterclasses.
As announced early this year, we are reforming our Disability Confident scheme by strengthening its criteria and expectations to drive meaningful change across its approximately 19,000 employer members and the estimated 11.5 million employees working in their organisations. The reforms will provide clearer, more robust guidance on inclusive recruitment and retention, including for autistic people; and these reforms are being closely aligned with the work of the Keep Britain Working Review.
As part of the vanguard phase of the Keep Britain Working Review, we are working directly with employers to identify what “good” looks like in inclusive workplace practice, including for neurodivergent employees. This vanguard phase includes over 150 volunteer employers and 10 regions and will, over the next three years, work with government to test employer-led approaches to support individuals to stay in and return to work.
Finally, last year, DWP launched an independent panel of academics with expertise and lived experiences of neurodiversity to advise us on boosting neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work. The panel considered the reasons why neurodivergent people have poor experiences in the workplace, and a low overall employment rate. DWP has now received a final version of the Panel’s report and is considering its findings.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to help support autistic people to find employment.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to supporting all neurodivergent people, including autistic people, into and at work. This is part of our wider commitment to drive healthy and inclusive workplaces for all.
Our employment support for neurodivergent people is led by DWP’s £1 billion, voluntary, locally-led Supported Employment programme, Connect to Work. It covers all of England and Wales, with the exception of Greater Manchester which is using their Connect to Work funding to pilot their Prevention Demonstrator, through their Integrated Settlement.
Connect to Work will support around 300,000 disabled people, people with health conditions and individuals with complex barriers to employment by the end of the decade. It offers intensive, personalised employment support to help people move into and stay in paid employment, and is built around two internationally recognised evidence-based Supported Employment frameworks: Individual Placement and Support, and the Supported Employment Quality Framework. The latter has been specifically designed to support neurodivergent people and those with learning disabilities into sustainable jobs. Crucially, Connect to Work supports both participants and employers, helping to ensure that individuals are given the best chance to succeed once in work.
We recognise that supporting employers to understand the needs of neurodivergent employees is also key to our efforts. This year we funded free-of-charge neurodiversity masterclasses, delivered by ACAS, to help small and medium sized businesses build their understanding of neurodivergence and improve workplace support. Over 1800 representatives of small and medium sized businesses attended these masterclasses.
As announced early this year, we are reforming our Disability Confident scheme by strengthening its criteria and expectations to drive meaningful change across its approximately 19,000 employer members and the estimated 11.5 million employees working in their organisations. The reforms will provide clearer, more robust guidance on inclusive recruitment and retention, including for autistic people; and these reforms are being closely aligned with the work of the Keep Britain Working Review.
As part of the vanguard phase of the Keep Britain Working Review, we are working directly with employers to identify what “good” looks like in inclusive workplace practice, including for neurodivergent employees. This vanguard phase includes over 150 volunteer employers and 10 regions and will, over the next three years, work with government to test employer-led approaches to support individuals to stay in and return to work.
Finally, last year, DWP launched an independent panel of academics with expertise and lived experiences of neurodiversity to advise us on boosting neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work. The panel considered the reasons why neurodivergent people have poor experiences in the workplace, and a low overall employment rate. DWP has now received a final version of the Panel’s report and is considering its findings.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 reduce waiting times for the medical assessment stage of Personal Independence Payment claims in (a) Nottinghamshire and (b) the East Midlands.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department is committed to ensuring that Personal Independence Payment claimants receive timely assessments and continues to work closely with its suppliers to improve customer experience across all geographical areas, including Nottinghamshire and the wider East Midlands.
We have introduced a range of measures to increase assessment capacity and reduce waiting times. These include ongoing recruitment and training of additional health professionals and a series of process improvements to streamline the assessment journey.
Waiting times can vary by region due to local demand and operational factors. Assessment suppliers actively monitor regional performance to ensure resources are deployed where they are most needed, and additional capacity will be directed where appropriate.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2026 to Question 118868 on Personal Independence Payment, when he expects additional health professionals to be recruited.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department continues to work closely with its Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment suppliers to ensure that sufficient capacity is in place to meet operational demand. Recruitment of health professionals is a continuous activity undertaken by suppliers in line with contractual requirements and the need to maintain appropriate levels of trained staff.
Staffing levels are managed continuously by suppliers to respond to regional demand and ensure service quality.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 help improve the availability of (a) apprenticeships and (b) training courses in the electronic device repair industry.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Level 3 Digital Device Repair Technician apprenticeship standard is available to support the electronic device repair industry, and other occupational standards are available to facilitate engineering and manufacturing skills more widely.
To improve the availability of apprenticeships, from the next academic year, the government will fully fund apprenticeship training costs for eligible people aged under 25 at non-levy paying employers. The department currently pays the full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21 at non-levy paying employers and apprentices aged 22-24 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or have been, or are, in local authority care.
From October 2026, non-levy paying employers will also receive a £2,000 incentive payment when they take on, as new employees, apprentices under the aged of 25, to help them meet the additional costs of supporting a young person at the beginning of their career.
This is in addition to the £1,000 that the Government already pays to both employers (of all sizes) and providers for apprentices aged 16-18, and for apprentices aged 19-24 who have an EHCP or have been, or are, in local authority care. On top of this, employers will receive additional payments of up to £2,000 for foundation apprenticeships and employers are not required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25 (when the employee’s wage is below £50,270 a year).