Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her letter on the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, dated 26 June 2025, whether the exemption from reassessment for existing Personal Independence Payment claimants will apply to people whose claim is under review.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As I set out in the House of Commons on 1 July 2025, this Government has listened to the concerns raised by Members from across the House regarding the proposed changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
Clause 5 of the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill would have amended the legal framework underpinning PIP assessments, specifically by changing the eligibility criteria through adjustments to the activities and descriptors used to determine entitlement.
In light of the concerns raised, I confirmed during the debate that we are going to remove clause 5 from the Bill in Committee.
(Hansard, 1 July, col 219)
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
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 support people living with multiple sclerosis in Woking constituency; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of reforms to (a) disability benefits and (b) Personal Independence Payments on people with multiple sclerosis.
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’.
Estimates of the impact of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) reforms are made for England and Wales only and not at region or any lower-level geographic area. The department does not forecast benefit receipt at a regional level or below, nor have estimates of the behavioural impacts of the policy been produced at these levels.
I attended on 10 June a roundtable discussion with the MS Society on “Supporting people with MS to thrive in and out of work.” We are committed to working with people with MS on the design of our programme of employment support, which will receive an additional £1 billion per year of funding by the end of this Parliament
The number of people currently on PIP who did not score 4 points in one category in their last assessment should not be equated with the number who are likely to lose PIP in future. It’s important to make a clear distinction between the two, not least because we don’t want constituents to be unnecessarily fearful about their situation, when we understand many are already anxious. Someone who did not score 4 points in an activity in a previous assessment may well score 4 points in a future assessment as conditions change over time.
There will be no immediate changes to PIP eligibility. Our intention is that changes will start to come into effect from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. After that date, no one will lose PIP without first being reassessed by a trained assessor or healthcare professional, who assesses individual needs and circumstance. Reassessments happen on average every 3 years. The OBR predicts that 9 in 10 of those on PIP daily living at the point any changes come in will still be receiving PIP by the end of the decade.
We are consulting on how best to support those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, including ensuring health and care needs are met.
We have also announced a wider review of the PIP assessment to make it fair and fit for purpose, which I will lead. We are bringing together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this. We will provide further details as plans progress.
Even with these reforms, the overall number of people on PIP and DLA is expected to rise by 750,000 by the end of this parliament and spending will rise from £23bn in 24/25 to £31bn in 29/30.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether people on legacy Employment and Support Allowance receive the same inflation increase as people on other benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is a single benefit with two strands, contribution-based ESA, ESA C (which was rebadged New Style ESA (NS ESA)), and income-related ESA (ESA IR).
Legacy ESA is made up of a contributory (ESA C) and income-related strand (ESA IR).
New claims to legacy ESA (i.e. ESA C and ESA IR) are no longer available. Only new claims to NS ESA can be made.
The Secretary of State has an annual Statutory duty to conduct a review of benefits and State pension rates to determine whether they have retained their value in relation to the general level of prices and/or earnings. The review will take place in the Autumn as is the convention.
The Pathways to Work Green Paper included proposals for the future rates of Employment and Support Allowance.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether receipt of compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme impacts entitlement to benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Means tested benefits do not provide a specific disregard for a Criminal Injuries Compensation payment. However, it is very likely, due to the nature of these payments, that they will be regarded as a payment for personal injury and disregarded for 12 months from when the payment is received, or indefinitely if the payment is held in trust.
For Pension Credit, the treatment is similar with the main difference being that there is no requirement for it to be held in a trust.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether people on Universal Credit receive National Insurance Contribution credits.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Class 3 National Insurance (NI) Credits are awarded to those in receipt of Universal Credit (UC). Where UC recipients are also in work or are entitled to NI credits on other grounds, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs will undertake any relevant reconciliation where a mixture of credits have been received.
The full list of credits is listed on Gov.UK - National Insurance credits: Overview - GOV.UK
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have applied for Pension Credit in Woking constituency since 29 July 2024.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Statistics on Pension Credit application volumes, for Great Britain only, were published on 29th May 2025. This includes numbers of applications that were received, awarded and not awarded, and outstanding, from week commencing 3rd April 2023 up to week commencing 19th May 2025: Pension Credit applications and awards: May 2025 - GOV.UK.
The next quarterly release of Pension Credit applications and awards statistics for Great Britian has been announced for late-August 2025: Pension Credit Applications and Awards Statistics: August 2025 - Official statistics announcement - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
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 help support the 2,198 children under the age of 16 living in relative poverty in Woking constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish its strategy as soon as possible. We are exploring all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty.
The strategy will look across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in devolved governments.
The vital work of the Taskforce comes alongside our commitments to triple investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, introduce a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit, improve the adequacy of the standard allowance with the first sustained above inflation rise in the basic rate of Universal Credit since it was introduced and increase the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour to boost the pay of three million workers.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
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 help tackle childhood poverty in Canalside ward in Woking constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish its strategy as soon as possible. We are exploring all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty.
The strategy will look across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in devolved governments.
The vital work of the Taskforce comes alongside our commitments to triple investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, introduce a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit, improve the adequacy of the standard allowance with the first sustained above inflation rise in the basic rate of Universal Credit since it was introduced and increase the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour to boost the pay of three million workers.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are (a) eligible for pension credit and (b) have yet to apply for it in Woking constituency.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Published DWP Pension Credit Take-up statistics estimate that up to 760,000 households who were entitled to receive Pension Credit did not claim the benefit. These statistics are only available at Great Britain level and cannot be broken down to smaller geographical areas. The latest available Pension Credit take-up statistics for Great Britain cover the financial year 2022 to 2023 and are available at: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year ending 2023 - GOV.UK
Latest caseload statistics show that as of November 2024, there were 1,390,749 people in receipt of Pension Credit in Great Britain, of which 1242 were in Woking constituency. This data is available via DWP Stat-Xplore.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what (a) support, (b) benefits and (c) resources her Department provides to (i) humanitarian and (ii) healthcare workers with PTSD who have worked in warzones and are unable to return to work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
For all Universal Credit (UC) customers with health conditions and disabilities additional support is based on the outcome of a Work Capability Assessment (WCA). The outcome may be that they are found to have Limited Capability for Work (LCW), Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) or be found fit for work. An extra amount of UC is awarded if a customer is found to have LCWRA.
Government is committed to reforming the system of health and disability benefits so that it promotes and enables employment among as many people as possible. The system must also work to reduce poverty for disabled people and those with health conditions and support disabled people to live independently. It is also vital to ensure that the system is financially sustainable in the long term.
The Pathways to Work Green Paper, published in March 2025, set out our plans to reform benefits and support for disabled people and people with health conditions. The reforms will ensure the most vulnerable and severely disabled people are protected, so they can live with dignity and security, while supporting those who can work to do so.
This Government is committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of all that we do, so we will consult on these proposals with disabled people and representative organisations.