Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government intends to review the effectiveness of the special rules for end of life.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The primary way the Department supports people nearing the end of life is through special benefit rules which are known as the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). These enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment or serve waiting periods and in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit. The system is kept under review to ensure it is meeting its objectives.
The latest figures show new claims to Personal Independence Payments (PIP) in Great Britain) under the Special Rules are being cleared in 3 working days on average. The Government is committed to ensuring that the fast-tracked access to benefits via SREL is maintained, while keeping under review how we can continue to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the delivery of the current system.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to help improve the financial security of people with a terminal diagnosis.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is committed to providing a financial safety net for those who need it.
The primary way the Department supports people nearing the end of life is through special benefit rules which are known as the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). These enable people who have 12 months or less to live to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment or serve waiting periods and, in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit. The Special Rules apply across Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Personal Independence Payment and Universal Credit. The rules are also used elsewhere, for example the Early Access to Financial Assistance Scheme, administered by the Pension Protection Fund.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the recommendations of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hospice and End of Life Care’s report entitled Inquiry into the financial impact of a terminal diagnosis, published on 9 September 2025; and what steps he will take in response to those recommendations.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department supports people nearing the end of life through the Special Rules for End of Life. These enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment or serve waiting periods, and in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit.
The Universal Credit Act 2025, ensures that all Special Rules for End of Life claimants will receive the higher LCWRA rate, no matter when they make their claim.
The Department values the insights and perspectives provided by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hospice and End of Life Care and has noted the recommendations made in the report.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he will ask the Pensions Commission to consider the potential merits of allowing people of working age living with a terminal illness to claim state pension.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government recognises the importance of ensuring that individuals who are terminally ill are treated with compassion and dignity. The Terms of Reference for the Pensions Commission, which set out the scope for the Commission, were published on the 21st July. The Commissioners will consider what is required in the long term to deliver financial security in retirement through a pensions framework that is stronger, fairer and more sustainable. The Commissioners will engage with a wide range of issues relevant to their terms of reference and will publish their findings in due course.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to support entry-level employment opportunities for young people in the hospitality sector.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I recognise that the hospitality sector offers significant entry-level opportunities for young people. My department is working closely with UKHospitality, the trade body for the sector, to deliver Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) to 26 areas across the country. These SWAPs offer training, work experience and a guaranteed job interview to those ready to start a job, and participants that complete the programme gain the Hospitality Skills Passport which provides proof that a person is qualified to perform their job effectively and safely, giving them a universal entry standard into the sector.
A number of these SWAPs have already been delivered, most notably in coastal areas with high levels of deprivation such as Blackpool and Margate.
From April 2021 to June 2025 DWP delivered a total of 30,180 Hospitality SWAP starts across the country.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to support disabled households with the cost of living in Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Extra costs disability benefits, including Personal Independence Payment (PIP), are individual benefits paid to all qualifying members of a household. They provide a contribution towards the extra costs that may arise from a long-term disability or health condition. These benefits are non-contributory, non-means-tested, can be worth up to £9,747.40 a year, tax free and are paid in addition to any other benefits or income received. Receiving a qualifying rate of an extra costs disability benefit could also act as a ‘passport’ to extra money or higher amounts of other means-tested benefits, such as Universal Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit and Housing Benefit. It can also provide access to council tax reductions and a Disabled Person's Railcard.
We know for those who can, work is the best route out of poverty. The Government is investing in the biggest employment support package for disabled people and those with a health condition in a generation. Our Pathways to Work Guarantee will ensure there is an offer of work, health and skills support for disabled people and those with health conditions claiming out of work benefits.
Disabled people may also benefit from the wide range of measures we have announced to support those in low-income families and households, including an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of this parliament, a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1 billion a year (including Barnett impact), and extending the £3 bus fare cap. We have increased the national minimum wage for those on the lowest incomes and introduced a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions, helping around 1.2 million UC households retain more of their award, 700,000 of these households include children. We are also expanding the Warm Home Discount Scheme to give more eligible households £150 off their winter energy bills. All households on a qualifying means tested benefit will be eligible for the Discount, bringing around 2.7 million households into the scheme and pushing the total number of households that will receive the discount this winter up to around 6 million.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential merits of integrating health and social care services with access to welfare advice.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As announced in the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions’ statement on Welfare Reform on 30 June, we are investing an additional £300 million over the next 3 years, enabling us to go further and faster on our new planned investment in work, health and skills support offers. This means our Pathways to Work Guarantee is now backed by an investment of £2.2 billion by 2030. This brings our total investment in employment support for disabled people and those with health conditions to £3.8 billion over this Parliament.
As part of our mission driven Government, regular cross-Government collaboration takes place at both Ministerial and official level. The Government is committed to supporting disabled people and people with health conditions and has a range of support available so individuals can stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. Measures include joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies, Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care and WorkWell, as well as support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants.
Building on our WorkWell, Employment Advisers in Talking Therapies and Connect to Work programmes, we will ensure people with a health condition have access to the holistic support they need. In the Government’s Pathways to Work green paper, we further committed to developing a support guarantee, so that disabled people and those with a health condition get the work, health and skills support they need to access and thrive in employment. We will further pilot the integration of employment advisers and work coaches into the neighbourhood health service, so that working age people with long term health conditions have an integrated public service offer. A patient’s employment goals will be part of care plans, to support more joined up service provision.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
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 of state pension integration practices on (a) lower-paid and (b) female pensioners; and if she will take steps to review (i) guidance and (ii) legislation to help ensure (A) fairness and (B) transparency.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The aim of “integrated” pension schemes is to provide a more predictable and stable pension income over time where a person’s occupational pension comes into payment before their State Pension. This is achieved by paying a higher pension before the person reaches State Pension age, which is subsequently reduced when their State Pension comes into payment. The Government is aware of the concerns raised by members of these schemes, especially in terms of the possible disproportionate impact on women.
The reduction applied to lower-paid and female pensioners in an integrated scheme may be a greater proportion of the overall entitlement than it is for higher-paid and male pensioners. This is due to societal and labour market issues during their working lives, which has resulted in these groups having, on average, lower earnings and therefore receiving a lower pension from the scheme.
It is extremely important that people have good, clear information about their occupational pension scheme, so that they can make informed decisions about their retirement. Trustees are required to provide relevant information to members of a pension scheme, including information about how integration will affect their pension benefits. If someone does not think that their scheme has been sufficiently clear about the way integration will affect their pension, they should use the scheme’s internal dispute resolution service, which every scheme is required to have. If they are not satisfied with the outcome, they can take the matter to the Pensions Ombudsman.
The precise design of pension benefits is a matter for employers and trustees and is not covered in Department for Work and Pensions legislation. Pension scheme rules on the calculation of benefits are many and varied and are a matter for employers and scheme trustees to decide.; however, these pensions have been paid in accordance with the scheme rules and within the law.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that employers provide disabled people with the support they need to stay in work in (a) Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency and (b) the rest of England.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Access to Work aims to support the recruitment and retention of disabled people into employment. It is a personalised discretionary grant that provides support with workplace adjustments beyond an employer’s obligation as outlined in the Equality Act 2010.
As part of our Plan for Change, and as set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper published in March, we are consulting on the future of Access to Work and how to improve the programme to help more disabled people into work and support employers ensuring value for money for taxpayers. We will review all aspects of the Scheme following the conclusion of the consultation and carefully assess the impact of any proposed changes.
In our Get Britain Working White Paper, published November 2024, we committed support for employers to recruit, retain and develop staff. As part of that, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade have asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead ‘Keep Britain Working’, an independent review to consider how best to support and enable employers to recruit and retain more people with health conditions and disabilities, promote healthy workplaces, and support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence. Sir Charlie Mayfield will deliver a final report with recommendations in the autumn.
At national level, DWP promotes the Disability Confident Scheme which encourages employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. It provides employers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace and to take positive action to address the issues disabled employees face.
We recognise the need to make the scheme more robust, and we will work with employers, disabled people, and disabled people’s organisations to realise its full potential.
In addition, DWP's current offer to employers includes a digital information service, (www.support-with-employee-health-and-disability.dwp.gov.uk/), which provides tailored guidance for employers to support employees with health and disability to remain in the workplace. This includes guidance on disclosures and having conversations about health and disabilities, plus guidance on legal obligations, including statutory sick pay and making reasonable adjustments.
The St Albans and Hemel Hempstead Jobcentres provide support to constituents in Harpenden and Berkhamstead. Disability Employment Advisers work with employers to ensure they are aware of the support available. An example of this is the work undertaken by Disability Employment Adviser Leaders in collaboration with Hertfordshire County Council, through Inclusive Job fairs raising employer awareness of Disability Confident and Access to Work. If the employer is not already signed up to Disability Confident, we encourage them to do so. Our Jobcentres offer retention support to constituents already in employment when they either become disabled or their health deteriorates to such an extent it impacts on their ability to carry out their role at work. The Jobcentre Teams will support the customer and the employer to get the appropriate support/ adjustments in place to ensure the constituent stays in employment.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 55944, what steps her Department plans to take to support people with complex and overlapping health conditions who are subject to the current PIP assessment criteria before the reforms proposed in her Department's Green Paper entitled Pathways to Work, last updated on 18 June 2025, are implemented.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper that changes will be made to the eligibility criteria for the daily living component of PIP. Claimants will need to score a minimum of four points in at least one daily living activity. This change does not alter the Department’s approach to supporting vulnerable claimants or those with complex needs through the assessment process.
We are exploring ways to improve the experience of people using the health and disability benefit system. This includes digitalising the transfer of medical information using evidence from other services to reduce the need for functional assessments for those with very severe conditions, and improving communication with claimants who are expected to remind on disability for life.
We have also launched a comprehensive review of the PIP assessment process, which I am leading. Through the review, we want to make sure the PIP assessment is fit for the future. We are currently in the first phase of this work, engaging with disabled people, organisations who support them and other experts to shape the scope, timings and approach. This will inform development of the Terms of Reference which will be published as soon as they are drawn up.