Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department uses artificial intelligence to automate decision making about access to public services.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department uses automated decision-making in some areas, as described in our Personal Information Charter, but AI is not used to automate decision-making about access to our services. Customers are told when an automated decision has been made in relation to their case, along with information on the steps they would need to take if they want to exercise their right to ask for a human to review that decision.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to increase (a) translation and (b) levels of information support on the benefits system for disabled refugees.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Under the Equality Act 2010, DWP must make suitable provision to communicate with claimants where English is not their first language or who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. DWP provide Telephone Interpreting, Face-to-face interpreting, BSL interpreting service, Video Remote Services, and written translation to meet this requirement. The Language Service Provision is on-demand, and our supplier is suitably resourced to meet our various language demands against our Performance Expectations. We have a designated Language Services team that work closely with our supplier to ensure current service delivery is met and accounted for, and to ensure future demand is anticipated and planned for accordingly.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help ensure that Jobcentre Plus services meet the needs of disabled refugees.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
DWP works with partners and services to meet the needs of disabled refugees. This includes working with Migrant Help, the Refugee Employment Network; Home Office refugee liaison officers; referring to alternative provisions including English language provision; and sign posting to the Home Office Refugee Employability Programme.
The Department is committed to promoting a just, equal, and inclusive society, ensuring independence and control for all customers, including disabled individuals and those with complex needs.
DWP provides a range of support to help refugees and those on Afghan and Ukraine Schemes to settle in the community and find work, including access to mainstream Jobcentre services which provide individually tailored benefit and work support.
Jobcentres also work locally with partners and employers to support this group into work. Connect to Work, part of the Government’s Get Britain Working strategy, will provide support to disabled people, people with health conditions and those with complex barriers to employment, including refugees and those on resettlement schemes, to get into work.
The Government is dedicated to championing the rights of disabled people and involving them in designing our reforms. All new Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisors receive training to support all claimants, with specialist support available from Disability Employment Advisers to tailor assistance for disabled customers. These advisers also offer direct support to those with long-term health conditions needing bespoke assistance
In addition, the Department will launch a new coaching academy to enhance the skills of Work Coaches and provide further support to customers, including those with disabilities. This initiative will be evaluated and reviewed regularly to ensure training remains relevant and effective.
Additional Work Coach Support provides disabled people and people with health conditions, with increased one-to-one personalised support from their work coach to help them move towards, and into work. Support is now available in all Jobcentres across England, Scotland and Wales. This personalised support from Work Coaches aims to enable disabled people to access employment, wider support including our employment programmes earlier.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
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 proposed welfare reforms on people with bipolar disorder.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As I made clear in my statement to the House, Hansard, 1 July, col 219, any changes to PIP eligibility will come after a comprehensive review of the benefit, which I am leading, and which will be co-produced with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, clinicians, experts, MPs and other stakeholders, so a wide range of views and voices are heard. This review aims to ensure that the PIP assessment is fair and fit for the future. The review is expected to conclude in autumn 2026.
In relation to Universal Credit changes, existing claimants at the point of change in April 2026 will continue to receive at least the same amount of benefit as under the current rules, if there are no changes in their circumstances. For future claimants we are not able to assess the impact of the changes at this level as the readily available data on health conditions is not sufficiently detailed.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of claims for Disability Living Allowance were processed within the 50 working day target between April 2024 and April 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The most recent information on processing times for Disability Living Allowance for children was published in the DWP annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK (ARA) on 22nd July 2024. This shows that in 2023/24 DWP cleared 3.5% of Disability Living Allowance for children claims within the planned 40 working day timescale. The next publication of the ARA will include the percentage of claims processed in the Financial Year 2024 to 2025, which is due for publication in the summer.
Although, DWP has seen improvements in processing times across many service lines during 2023-24, continued high demand has meant that the Department’s ability to process claims consistently in a timely manner across all its services has come under considerable pressure, with performance remaining below standard in some areas including in Child DLA where demand has increased in recent years and is significantly higher than pre-pandemic volumes. During 2020-21 DWP deferred reviewing existing cases to focus on processing new claims. Since then, the high volumes of both new claims and the deferred renewal work has resulted in longer processing times. Additional resources have been deployed and cases are being cleared in date order to ensure fair customer service.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time was for a Personal Independence Payment reassessment after a claimant has reported improved health in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
PIP clearance times for New Claims and Reassessments can be found in the latest Personal Independence Payment statistics to January 2025 - GOV.UK.