Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people used Access to Work support in 2024; for what reasons; and what the cost to the public purse was of this.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The most recent complete financial year of data available in the published Access to Work official statistics is 2023/24: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2024 - GOV.UK.
In 2023/24, around 61,630 people received a payment for any Access to Work provision and total expenditure across all provision was £257.8 million.
We have interpreted reasons for using Access to Work as being the primary medical condition reported by the individual. In 2023/24, the largest Access to Work customer group in terms of number of payments, by primary medical condition was those with a ‘Mental health condition’, who account for 27% (16,560) of the total number of customers. Those with the primary medical condition ‘Learning disability’ are the second most common group and make up 11% of customers (6,720 people). Those who are ‘Deaf or hard of hearing’ are in receipt of the highest proportion (30%) of total Access to Work expenditure.
The Department intends to publish data for the financial year 2024/25 in the next official statistics publication which has a provisional publication date of September or October 2025.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 February 2025 to Question 30518 on Department for Work and Pensions: Translation Services, what the spend in social security benefits was on people receiving those interpretation services by language of interpretation.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This information is not collected by DWP, and thus is not available.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish a list of mental health conditions that qualify for the access to work scheme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There is no list of mental health conditions that qualify for the Access to Work Scheme. Access to Work is available for all disabled people and those with a health condition who require workplace adjustments that go beyond what would normally be expected from an employer through their duty to provide reasonable adjustments as outlined in the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2025 to Question 28401 on Translation Services, what the spend was on interpretation for people contacting his Department excluding (a) British Sign Language and (b) all native languages in 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The spend on interpretation for people contacting her department excluding (a) British Sign Language and (b) all native languages in 2024 was £6,345,260.60
For clarity and transparency of spend:
Spoken Face to Face interpretation in 2024 = £393,690.08
For additional information
Total British Sign Language Interpreting costs Face to Face = £1,505,061.80
Total Additional costs for native UK language interpretation (e.g., Welsh or UK dialect) = £14.40
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total cost of Universal Credit benefits accessed by refugees was in 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. The Department is exploring the feasibility of developing suitable official statistics related to the immigration status of non-UK / Irish Universal Credit customers.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish the total cost to the public purse for the provision of diversity, equality and inclusion courses for staff in her Department in 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the Department for Work and Pensions diversity with regard to employees is defined as valuing difference, diversity, and inclusion, ensuring fairness and opportunity for all. This includes promoting diversity, inclusion, and equality of opportunity, respecting differences and external experiences, and welcoming the views and challenges of others.
DWP is committed to being an inclusive employer and is committed to creating an environment where everyone belongs and can be at their best, and our workforce is representative of the customers and communities that we serve. To support with these ambitions, we have invested a total of £69,198 in supporting our employees with specific equality and diversity related training needs and external memberships within the 2023-2024 financial year.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average (a) waiting time for people calling and (b) time people spent on hold for her Department was in 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below shows the Average Speed of Answer and Total Hold Time, in an hours, minutes and seconds (hh:mm:ss) format, for all people calling DWP during the calendar year, 2024.
Calendar Year | Average Time to Answer (hh:mm:ss) | Average Hold Time (hh:mm:ss) |
2024 | 00:07:33 | 00:00:24 |
DISCLAIMER
Please note this information is derived from the Department’s management information, designed solely for the purpose of helping the Department to manage its business. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. As DWP holds the information internally, we have released it. However, it is possible information held by DWP may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was spent on translation in Jobcentres in 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The total spent on translation in Jobcentres in 2024 was £882,118. This figure includes International Pension Service.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was spent on (a) translation and (b) interpretation for people contacting her Department in 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
A) The spend on translation for people contacting the Department in 2024 was £882,118.
B) The spend on interpretation for people contacting the department in 2024 was £6,345,275. This includes access costs such as BSL etc.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
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 impact of low skilled immigration worker visa grants on job opportunities for low skilled domestic workers.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This would be a matter for UK Visas & Immigration and the Home Office.