Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish a health and social care impact assessment of the decision to reduce disability benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Pathways to Work Green Paper was published on 18 March 2025. This paper sets out plans and proposals to reform health and disability benefits and employment support.
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper has been published in the impacts analysis and equality analysis on 26 March 2025 and the evidence pack on 2 May 2025 at:
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
We will consider the wider impacts of reforms for disabled people or those with a health condition as we develop our detailed proposals for change. We will also continue to work closely with the Department for Health and Social Care to ensure health and social care considerations are built into our policies and to ensure everyone’s health and care needs are met.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 on disabled people of her decision not to hold a consultation on proposed cuts to disability benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Pathways to Work Green Paper set out our plans and proposals for reform to health and disability benefits and employment support. This includes some urgently needed reforms to PIP eligibility and Universal Credit rates that are not subject to consultation but on which Parliament will fully debate and vote.
This government values the input of disabled people and people with health conditions, in addition to the representative organisations and people that support them. The Green Paper consults on many key elements of the reform package, including employment support and Access to Work, which are at the centre of our plans to improve the system for disabled people. We hope that a wide range of voices will respond to the consultation, and we are holding a programme of public consultation events across the country to help facilitate input.
We are also continuing to develop other ways to facilitate the involvement of stakeholders and disabled people in our reforms. In addition to the consultation itself, we are establishing ‘collaboration committees’ that bring groups of people together for specific work areas and our wider review of the PIP assessment will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience. We are also in the process of establishing the Disability Advisory Panel we announced in the Get Britain Working White Paper, which will be a strategic advisory panel of disabled people and individuals with long-term health conditions.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 7 January 2025 to Question 21895 on Benefits for people with disabilities, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the benefits available for people with disabilities.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are a wide range of studies and estimates for the extra cost of disability. As such, there is no objective way of deciding what an adequate level of the extra costs disability benefits should be, and everyone has different requirements reflecting their own circumstances and priorities.
DWP pays close attention to the evidence base on the extra costs faced by disabled people; including academic research, analysis by Scope, and DWP’s own commissioned research.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of benefits for disabled people.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The extra costs disability benefits, Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment (PIP), provide a contribution towards the extra costs that may arise from a long-term disability or health condition.
The extra costs benefits are non-contributory, non-means-tested and can be worth over £9,500 a year, tax free. Individuals can choose how to use their benefit, in the light of their individual needs and preferences. The benefit can also be paid in addition to any other financial or practical support someone may be entitled to such as Universal Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, NHS services, free prescriptions, help with travel costs to appointments or the Blue Badge scheme. The benefits have been consistently uprated in line with inflation since they were introduced and were, like other benefits, increased by 6.7% from 8 April 2024.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 reduce unemployment among people aged 50 to 65 in Newbury constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Improving employment outcomes for people of all ages will play an important part in the government’s economic growth and opportunity missions. We are reforming jobcentres, so they match people, including older workers, to the right job and combine employment skills and career focused support.
This new jobs and careers service will transform our ability to support people into work and help people get on at work across Great Britain. We will set out more details about this and other labour market reforms through our forthcoming White Paper to Get Britain Working.
The Government is delivering a package of support to help older workers, including those in Newbury, to remain in and return to work.
Our jobcentres provide tailored support for older workers, including a review of health, finances and skills. In addition, over seventy 50Plus Champions are working in Districts across Great Britain, to drive local activity for older workers.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending funding settlements for the Household Support Fund beyond one year.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We recognise that certainty helps Local Authorities to design and deliver sustainable plans for local welfare assistance. Committing to funding the Household Support Fund until 31 March 2026 will allow them to plan their approach with greater certainty.
No decision has been made at this stage on funding beyond the end of March 2026. As with all other government programmes, any such funding will be considered in the round at Phase 2 of the Spending Review.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 lifting the two-child benefit cap on funding for local authorities.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 preventing Job Centres from distributing food vouchers on levels of access to foodbanks.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Under the previous administration, the Government introduced a new food charity signposting slip to replace the one previously used, removing personal data to better comply with our departmental obligations, including our GDPR responsibilities, and to improve our signposting process. The new slip does not change our DWP policy, and our Jobcentres continue to provide customers with guidance to find additional support, including signposting to emergency food support when appropriate.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance her Department provides to parents on Universal Credit on using the Flexible Support Fund to cover upfront childcare costs.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
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 that the Universal Credit customer incurs in relation to childcare when starting work or increasing their hours is not a barrier to taking up this work.
The Government website ‘Childcare Choices’ is a key source of childcare information for parents. It advises that UC customers might be eligible for upfront childcare costs, and to speak to their work coach. We also issue guidance to Jobcentre Plus work coaches on the eligibility and awarding criteria for the Flexible Support Fund and upfront childcare costs.
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 UC award, which they can use to pay for the next month's costs, thereby easing UC customers into the UC childcare costs payment cycle.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 the claim career allowance eligibility rules on individuals already receiving existing benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Carer’s Allowance cannot normally be paid with another income replacement benefit. It has been a long-held feature of the GB benefit system, under successive Governments, that where someone is entitled to two benefits for the same contingency, then whilst there may be entitlement to both benefits, only one will be paid to avoid duplication for the same need. This includes Carer’s Allowance and State Pension.
Carer’s Allowance replaces income where the carer has given up the opportunity of full-time employment to care for a severely disabled person and is unable to undertake full time employment due to their caring responsibilities, while State Pension for example replaces income in retirement. For this reason, social security rules operate to prevent them being paid together, to avoid duplicate provision for the same need.
Where Carer’s Allowance cannot be paid, the person will keep underlying entitlement to the benefit. In addition to Carer’s Allowance, carers on low incomes can claim income-related benefits, such as Universal Credit and Pension Credit. These benefits can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities through the carer element and the additional amount for carers respectively. Currently, the Universal Credit carer element is £198.31 per monthly assessment period. The additional amount for carers in Pension Credit is £45.60 a week.