Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of earnings threshold rules for Carer’s Allowance on unpaid carers engaged in part-time employment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The weekly earnings limit in Carer’s Allowance (CA) was increased to £196 net earnings in April 2025. This is the largest cash increase ever since CA was introduced in 1976 and the highest percentage increase since 2001. Over 60,000 additional people will be able to receive CA between 2025/26 and 2029/30 as a result. Going forward the earnings limit will be pegged to 16 hours work at National Living Wage (NLW) levels, and in future it will increase when the NLW increases. This will provide more certainty on the hours they can work for those unpaid carers with a job on the NLW.
As my Rt hon friend the member for Leeds West (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) said at the Autumn Budget, we also need to look at the current “cliff edge” earnings rules. A taper, for example, could further incentivise unpaid carers to do some work. It could also reduce the risk of significant overpayments. However, introducing a taper in CA is not without challenges and could significantly complicate the benefit as it currently stands and would mean a major rebuild of the CA computer system. DWP is undertaking some scoping work to see whether an earnings taper in CA might be a feasible option in the longer term. But any taper will be several years away.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to review the structure of the earnings limit for Carer’s Allowance to reduce the risk of significant overpayments resulting from minor threshold breaches.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The weekly earnings limit in Carer’s Allowance (CA) was increased to £196 net earnings in April 2025. This is the largest cash increase ever since CA was introduced in 1976 and the highest percentage increase since 2001. Over 60,000 additional people will be able to receive CA between 2025/26 and 2029/30 as a result. Going forward the earnings limit will be pegged to 16 hours work at National Living Wage (NLW) levels, and in future it will increase when the NLW increases. This will provide more certainty on the hours they can work for those unpaid carers with a job on the NLW.
As my Rt hon friend the member for Leeds West (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) said at the Autumn Budget, we also need to look at the current “cliff edge” earnings rules. A taper, for example, could further incentivise unpaid carers to do some work. It could also reduce the risk of significant overpayments. However, introducing a taper in CA is not without challenges and could significantly complicate the benefit as it currently stands and would mean a major rebuild of the CA computer system. DWP is undertaking some scoping work to see whether an earnings taper in CA might be a feasible option in the longer term. But any taper will be several years away.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of four-weekly State Pension payments on the ability of pensioners to plan financially.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The current State Pension payment regime has been in place since 6 April 2010 for those people who reached pensionable age on or after that date.
However, to make the opportunity of being paid calendar monthly available, there would need to be significant and very costly system changes and not just to systems used by this Department – HMRC would also be affected. It is not something the Department is considering at this time, but it remains an option should there be a review of the method of payments in the future.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department will commit to a review of the frequency of State Pension payments to better support pensioners in managing their budgets.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The current State Pension payment regime has been in place since 6 April 2010 for those people who reached pensionable age on or after that date.
However, to make the opportunity of being paid calendar monthly available, there would need to be significant and very costly system changes and not just to systems used by this Department – HMRC would also be affected. It is not something the Department is considering at this time, but it remains an option should there be a review of the method of payments in the future.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of paying the State Pension on a monthly basis.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The current State Pension payment regime has been in place since 6 April 2010 for those people who reached pensionable age on or after that date.
However, to make the opportunity of being paid calendar monthly available, there would need to be significant and very costly system changes and not just to systems used by this Department – HMRC would also be affected. It is not something the Department is considering at this time, but it remains an option should there be a review of the method of payments in the future.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
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 adequacy of Universal Credit provisions for single parent families.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Poverty Taskforce is working to publish a Child Poverty Strategy which will deliver lasting change. The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, including considering social security reforms, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years.
Benefit rates are reviewed each year, increasing by 6.7% in April 2024 and by a further 1.7% from April 2025, in line with inflation. We have recently announced a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions will be introduced from April 2025, helping approximately 1.2 million households benefit by an average of £420 a year.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many calls to the Disability Service Centre helpline (a) were not answered, (b) involved the caller being on hold for more than 10 minutes and (c) were terminated by the Disability Service Centre following the caller being on hold for more than 10 minutes in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Part (a)
The table below shows the total number of unanswered calls (Calls Abandoned from Agent Queue) for Disability Services, for each of the last 12 calendar months.
Month Year | Directorate | Calls Abandoned from Agent Queue |
Feb-2024 | Disability Services | 189,821 |
Mar-2024 | Disability Services | 199,623 |
Apr-2024 | Disability Services | 268,374 |
May-2024 | Disability Services | 191,549 |
Jun-2024 | Disability Services | 133,799 |
Jul-2024 | Disability Services | 151,056 |
Aug-2024 | Disability Services | 152,973 |
Sep-2024 | Disability Services | 162,451 |
Oct-2024 | Disability Services | 157,661 |
Nov-2024 | Disability Services | 158,028 |
Dec-2024 | Disability Services | 118,581 |
Jan-2025 | Disability Services | 264,966 |
Part (b) The department does not hold data that enables us to answer this question.
Part (c) The department does not hold data that enables us to answer this question.
There are many reasons why calls to a service line can attract a high call abandonment rate which can include but is not limited to increased hold times. The abandonment of calls is an area that we are unable to fully analyse as there is no data to tell us exactly why a specific customer terminates a call. We are continuously monitoring the service and reviewing our approach to ensure we are able to deliver for our customers.
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: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many calls to the Pension Service helpline (a) were not answered, (b) involved the caller being on hold for more than 10 minutes and (c) were terminated by the Pension Service following the caller being on hold for more than 10 minutes in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Response:
Part (a)
The table below shows the total number of unanswered calls (Calls Abandoned from Agent Queue) for The Pension Service, for each of the last 12 calendar months.
Month Year | Directorate | Calls Abandoned from Agent Queue |
Feb-2024 | Pension Service | 60,495 |
Mar-2024 | Pension Service | 56,400 |
Apr-2024 | Pension Service | 72,485 |
May-2024 | Pension Service | 36,733 |
Jun-2024 | Pension Service | 24,900 |
Jul-2024 | Pension Service | 23,709 |
Aug-2024 | Pension Service | 25,554 |
Sep-2024 | Pension Service | 36,407 |
Oct-2024 | Pension Service | 36,412 |
Nov-2024 | Pension Service | 31,481 |
Dec-2024 | Pension Service | 23,077 |
Jan-2025 | Pension Service | 34,704 |
Part (b) The department does not hold data that enables us to answer this question.
Part (c) The department does not hold data that enables us to answer this question.
There are many reasons why calls to a service line can attract a high call abandonment rate which can include but is not limited to increased hold times. The abandonment of calls is an area that we are unable to fully analyse as there is no data to tell us exactly why a specific customer terminates a call. We are continuously monitoring the service and reviewing our approach to ensure we are able to deliver for our customers.
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: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints submitted to the Pension Ombudsman Service are awaiting adjudication; and whether she plans to provide additional resources to the Pension Ombudsman Service to reduce the backlog.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Currently there are approximately 1,700 cases with The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) awaiting adjudication. Recently we agreed the TPO budget for 2025/26 which includes ongoing funding for additional staff to reduce backlogs.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
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 adequacy of the timeframe for PIP award reviews; whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of waiting times for appeal on PIP applicants; and what steps she is taking to tackle PIP appeal backlogs.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in a timely manner. Reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the Department and we are working constantly to make improvements to our service, including through using a blend of phone, video and face-to-face assessments where an assessment is required and by increasing case manager and assessment provider health professional resource.
Where an existing award of PIP is subject to an award review, we aim to make a decision on that as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to review all available evidence, including that from the claimant. Where we can do so, we are also making decisions without referral to the Assessment Providers to speed up the process.
The Department understands the potential effect of waiting for a tribunal hearing, which is why our aim is to make the right decision as early as possible in the claim journey so that people can get the support they are entitled to, without the need for an appeal.
Appeals are lodged with, and administered by, HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS). A variety of factors can affect the number of cases cleared by the Tribunal including the complexity of the issue in dispute; the availability of panel members assigned to a particular venue; and if an appeal is adjourned (which may be directed by the judge for a variety of reasons, such as to seek further medical evidence). Any increase to the live load is monitored, and investigated, locally.