Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish an impact assessment on the potential impact of the proposed changes to disability benefits on voluntary organisations before the legislation is introduced.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper has been published here ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’(opens in a new tab).
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children live in households claiming (a) income-based employment and support allowance and (b) new style employment and support allowance.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not held.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of households that claim Universal Credit and are affected by the two-child limit (a) were affected from the start of their claim and (b) were previously affected under a claim for Tax Credits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Of the 380,000 Universal Credit (UC) households affected by the policy in April 2024, 236,000 (61%) were affected in their first assessment period on UC and the rest became affected in a subsequent assessment period. Using slightly different data to allow linking to Child Tax Credit (CTC) data, 106,000 (28%) of households affected on UC in April 2024 had a previous CTC claim at some point and 99,000 (27%) were affected by the two-child policy during their CTC claim.
Figures and percentages provided may not sum to the total due to rounding and use of different data sets.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she has made an assessment of the potential impact of changes to personal independence payments on blind and partially blind people.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many consolatory payments for gross inconvenience resulting from official error were made in each of the last five years; and what the (a) shortest and (b) average length of time for such a payment was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Although we collect data on the number of consolatory payments authorised, we do not systematically hold the information on the type of error (such as official error) and it would be too costly to review all these records. We do not keep a record of timescales taken on consolatory or any other special payments issued.
We have provided the number of consolatory payments authorised for maladministration for the last five years in the table below. We are unable to provide a figure for 2024/25 as this information is still currently being compiled.
Consolatory payments made 2019/2020 onwards | ||
|
|
|
Year |
| No. of consolatory payments authorised |
|
|
|
2019/20 |
| 5,109 |
2020/21 |
| 3,836 |
2021/22 |
| 8,013 |
2022/23 |
| 10,257 |
2023/24 |
| 9,753 |
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data she plans to collect on the impact of changes to the winter fuel allowance.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Following the decision to target Winter Fuel Payments at pensioners on the lowest incomes, the Government took immediate action to maximise the take-up of Pension Credit.
The latest Pension Credit applications and awards statistics were published on 27 February. Details can be found at: Pension Credit applications and awards: February 2025 - GOV.UK. The statistics show that the Department received 235,000 Pension Credit applications in the 30 weeks since the Winter Fuel Payment announcement – an 81% increase on the comparable period in 2023/24 and made 117,800 new Pension Credit awards – a 64% increase or 45,800 extra awards on the comparable period 2023/24.
Winter Fuel Payment statistics are published annually. The next release of Winter Fuel Payment statistics covering winter 2024 to 2025 will be published on 16 September 2025 and will report on recipients and beneficiaries of Winter Fuel Payment. The statistics will also include a measure of the proportion of the pensioner population who are beneficiaries of the Winter Fuel Payment.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
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 potential impact of the Government's welfare reforms on (a) trends in the levels of child poverty and (b) the child poverty reduction strategy.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government's impact assessment regarding Health and Disability Reform is available at Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts.
This Government have inherited unacceptably high levels of child poverty which is why delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is a priority. The Child Poverty Taskforce are progressing urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy and are exploring all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information published here alongside the Spring Statement.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number of individuals that will have their benefit funding reduced under the Government's proposed welfare reforms.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department published an Impact Analysis alongside the Spring Statement on 26 March 2025.
This document contains forecast estimates of the numbers of individuals who will be affected by the proposed welfare reforms.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
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 the planned changes to welfare benefits on (a) families, (b) children and (c) families in poverty.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government's impact assessment regarding Health and Disability Reform is available at Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the child poverty strategy will consider the potential merits of removing the (a) two-child limit and (b) benefit cap.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Child Poverty Taskforce is continuing its urgent work and is exploring all available levers, including considering social security reforms, to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty.