Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Birmingham Edgbaston constituency were enrolled on Pension Credit in (a) 2023, (b) 2024 and (c) 2025 to date.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As of November 2023, 2,586 pensioner households were in receipt of Pension Credit in Birmingham Edgbaston constituency.
The latest Pension Credit statistics were published in May 2025 and cover the period up to November 2024. These show that as of November 2024, 2,577 pensioner households were in receipt of Pension Credit in Birmingham Edgbaston constituency. This data is available via DWP Stat-Xplore.
The Pension Credit caseload statistics for 2025 are not available yet. The next iteration of Pension Credit caseload statistics will be released on 12th August 2025 as part of the DWP Benefits Statistics quarterly release. This release will cover the quarterly period up to the end of February 2025.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are enrolled on Pension Credit, by (a) religion and (b) ethnic group.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Latest caseload statistics show that as of November 2024, there were 1,391,728 pensioner households in receipt of Pension Credit. This data is available via DWP Stat-Xplore. This can be broken down into constituency and local authority level as well as by various characteristics such as age, gender and partner indicator. However, this cannot be broken down by religion or ethnic group, as this information is not collected as part of the PC claim process.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
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 introducing specific (a) Sikh and (b) Jewish options for a person’s ethnic group in data collection conducted by her Department.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public bodies usually collect ethnicity data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the independent Office for National Statistics.
The current harmonised standard is based on the 2011 Census questions used across the UK; those questions were updated for the 2021 and 2022 Censuses. The current standard does not include specific “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories for a person’s ethnic group.
The ONS is reviewing the harmonised standard to ensure this remains appropriate and meets the needs of both data users and respondents. This will include a public consultation later this year.
We await the outcome of this review.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data her Department holds on the number of people living in deprivation, by ethnic group.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Statistics on the number of individuals in material deprivation in the UK by ethnic group are published annually. The latest available data can be found on Stat-Xplore (https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/) in the Households Below Average Income dataset. The latest statistics were published on 21 March 2025 and are for the financial period 2023/24.
We are committed to tackling poverty and we know that good work can significantly reduce the chances of people falling into poverty so this will be the foundation of our approach. Our Get Britain Working White Paper, backed by £240 million investment, will target and tackle economic inactivity and unemployment and join up employment, health and skills support to meet the needs of local communities.
Alongside this, we are reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to do, to make work pay and tackle poverty. We have begun this work with our new Fair Repayment Rate which will help around 1.2 million of the poorest households benefit by an average of £420 a year.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to modernise Job Centres in Birmingham, Edgbaston constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This Government’s number one mission is to grow the economy and drive up living standards right across the country as part of its Plan for Change. Building a thriving and inclusive labour market – which spreads the benefits of good work to as many people as possible – is central to achieving that goal.
Linking to the government’s missions of Kickstarting Economic Growth and Breaking Down Barriers to Opportunities, the Department is working to ensure that the DWP estate is more flexible and responsive and can react to the changing demands for services and economic changes. As set out in the ‘Get Britain Working White Paper’, the Department is transforming the Jobcentre Plus network across Great Britain to create a new national jobs and careers service that will enable everyone to access tailored support through an enhanced focus on people’s skills and careers, rather than merely monitoring and managing benefit claims.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to make an assessment of the effectiveness of the Household Support Fund.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The findings of an evaluation of the fourth iteration of the Household Support Fund that ran from April 2023 to March 2024 are published here: Evaluation of the Household Support Fund 4 - GOV.UK.
The evaluation ran from September 2023 to August 2024 and assessed the effectiveness of delivery by Local Authorities and the benefits of the scheme for award recipients.
In addition, management Information from the first to fourth iteration of the Household Support Fun can be found here- Household Support Fund management information - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it is her policy to allow Household Support Fund allocations to be used by local authorities to purchase (a) slow cookers and (b) kettles.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
In England, the Household Support Fund is a scheme providing discretionary support to those most in need towards the cost of essentials, such as food, energy and water and to support with essentials linked to these for example, energy efficient items which reduce bills and the purchase of equipment such as slow cookers.
Local Authorities have the discretion to design their own local schemes within the parameters of the guidance and grant determination that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have set out for the fund. This is because they have the ties and the knowledge to best determine how support should be provided in their local communities.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of availability of adjustments available to dyslexic users of job centres.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Our Work Coaches engage with customers to understand individual needs to ensure they receive communications in an accessible format. For customers with dyslexia, this can include communication on non-white paper, in audio or by email.
Information about our services is accessed through GOV.UK whose standards meeting the WCA 2.0 standard allowing customers using assistance software to access our pages.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason Financial Assistance Scheme payments are (a) treated as earned income and (b) counted against Universal Credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman
A guiding principle for means-tested benefits, under differing Governments such as Universal Credit, State Pension Credit and Housing Benefit, is that they are not paid to people who have sufficient other income available to meet the same need. As occupational and private pensions are paid to provide support to help people meet their living costs, they are taken fully into account in the assessment of entitlement to Universal Credit. Therefore where the Financial Assistance Scheme steps in to replace pension scheme income which has become unfunded, that payments are taken into account in the same way as would have applied to the pension payments when calculating entitlement to means-tested benefits. Financial Assistance Scheme payments are treated as unearned income.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has held recent discussions with (a) Unite the Union and (b) other trade representative bodies on the welfare of bus drivers working on buses without air conditioning.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
We have not had any recent discussions with representatives from Unite the Union or other trade representative bodies on the welfare of bus drivers working on buses without air conditioning.
The Health and Safety Executive has advised that employers (including bus companies) have a legal obligation under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 to make a suitable assessment of the risks to the health and safety of workers and act where necessary to minimise those risks as far as reasonably practicable. This would include the risks from extreme weather events such as heatwaves. If workers have concerns about their working conditions, in the first instance, they should raise any issues with their employer or via worker representatives such as Trade Union Representatives.