Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department’s current forecast is for its staffing requirements in benefit processing centres for the next financial year.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department continually impacts and assesses the service being offered to customers. Staff numbers are reviewed on an ongoing basis, in line with the latest economic and benefit forecasts.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of Universal Credit claimants awaiting mandatory reconsideration decisions as of the most recent month for which information is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As at end of October 2025, there were 61,000 outstanding mandatory reconsiderations (MR) for Universal Credit (UC).
Notes:
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the availability of specialist disability employment advisers within Jobcentres.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Every Jobcentre has access to a Disability Employment Adviser (DEA). We have over 700 FTE DEAs across our Jobcentre network.
We regularly monitor the number of staff allocated to this role.
DEAs are trained as Work Coaches, followed by additional role specific learning designed to support their role. This learning enables DEAs to treat each claimant as an individual, understand the impact of different disabilities and health conditions, and provide tailored support to help overcome barriers to employment. Our other Jobcentre staff will make referrals to our DEAs for this specialist support where appropriate.
We have a range of specialist support to help individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. DEAs work with the local community to advocate for customers, collaborate with local partners such as employers, voluntary organisations, the NHS and local government services to facilitate support that meets local needs and promote other programmes such as Disability Confident and Work Well.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 impact of the cost of living on the adequacy of benefit levels in the most recent review period.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Social Security Administration Act 1992 requires the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to review State Pension and benefit rates each year to see if they have retained their value in relation to the general level of prices or earnings. Where the relevant State Pension or benefit rates have not retained their value, legislation provides that the Secretary of State is required to, or in some instances may, up-rate their value. Following this review, State Pension and benefit rates are increased in line with statutory minimum amounts and others are increased subject to Secretary of State’s discretion.
This statutory annual review has now concluded, and a Written Statement was published on the 26 November setting out the proposed new State Pension and benefit rates for 2026-27. As we have set out, we will be uprating most working age benefits across Great Britain in 2026/27, subject to parliamentary approval, in line with the Consumer Prices Index in the year to September 2025 – an increase of 3.8%.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Department has made of the impact of recent policy changes on the proportion of disability benefit decisions overturned at appeal.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is committed to monitoring the impacts of its policies.
Information about disability benefit appeal overturns can be retrieved from StatXplore, HMCTS’ quarterly statistics, or the Department’s quarterly PIP statistics. The latter includes information about clearances and volumes at all stages of PIP decision making.
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Tribunals statistics quarterly: July to September 2025 - GOV.UK
Personal Independence Payment statistics to July 2025 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of Universal Credit advances that remain outstanding beyond 12 months.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Most UC advances (new claims, benefit transfer and Budgeting Advances) have a maximum repayment period of 24 months except change of circumstances advances which have a maximum of 6 months.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Department is taking to reduce the backlog of Work Capability Assessments and improve the speed of decision making.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions prioritises assessments for new claims to minimise waiting times and ensure claimants receive the right benefit entitlement as soon as possible. However, due to unforeseen high levels of Work Capability Assessments (WCA) required in late 2024, a backlog of reassessment cases built up from individuals reporting a change in their condition before May 2025. We are working with suppliers to increase capacity for clearing this backlog, including by accelerating the recruitment of assessors.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 increase take-up of Carer’s Allowance among eligible carers.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Carer’s Allowance (CA) offers financial support and recognition to unpaid carers in England and Wales who are unable to work full-time due to their caring responsibilities.
Information and guidance on CA entitlement is available through multiple channels, including Jobcentre Plus offices, gov.uk, and third-party organisations such as Citizens Advice, Carers UK and Carers Trust.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate his Department has made of the average processing time for Personal Independence Payment claims in the latest three-month period.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The most recent available data on the average actual clearance times for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims can be found in Tables 1 and 2 of the latest release of the Personal Independence Payment: Clearance/outstanding times and customer journey statistics for England and Wales. The collection can be found here: Personal Independence Payment statistics - GOV.UK. Then navigate to the latest release.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 average waiting times for Access to Work applications and renewals.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to reducing waiting times for Access to Work. We have increased the number of staff processing Access to Work claims by 27% and applications from customers who are about to start a job or who are renewing are prioritised.
The Green Paper launched a consultation on the future of Access to Work which has now concluded. We are considering responses to the consultation and will set out our plans in due course.