Asked by: Carla Denyer (Green Party - Bristol Central)
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 address the 18% of people who are dying annually in poverty in Bristol Central, as identified in Marie Curie's Dying in Poverty 2025 report.
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. Support is available through the social security system to those who are unable to work, are on a low income or have additional costs as a consequence of a long-term health condition or disability, but are not eligible for pensioner benefits because of their age.
For those nearing the end of their life, the Government’s priority is to provide financial support quickly and compassionately. The main way this is applied is through the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL) which enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain welfare 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 SREL claimants will receive the higher LCWRA rate, no matter when they make their claim.
Asked by: Richard Baker (Labour - Glenrothes and Mid Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of financial insecurity of people at the end of life.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The UK Government is committed to providing a financial safety net for those who need it. Support is available through the welfare system to those who are unable to work, are on a low income or have additional costs as a consequence of a long-term health condition or disability but are not eligible for pensioner benefits because of their age.
For those nearing the end of their life, the UK Government’s priority is to provide financial support quickly and compassionately. The main way this is applied is through the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL) which enables people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to Universal Credit (UC) and New Style Employment and Support Allowance. The Universal Credit Act 2025, also ensures that all SREL claimants will receive the higher UC Health rate, no matter when they make their claim.
Disability Benefits are devolved in Scotland and policy responsibility sits with the Scottish Government.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what is the number of Universal Credit households with dependent children reporting fewer than (a) 16, (b) 30 and (c) 35 hours of work per week.
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.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit claimants with dependent children are in the light touch or working conditionality groups.
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.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to lift any other elements of the benefit cap beyond scrapping the two-child limit.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The benefit cap limits the total amount of benefits a working age household can receive and is applied through Universal Credit and Housing Benefit. The benefit cap aims to incentivise work as, where possible, it is in the best interest of children to be in working households. The Department provides a range of support for people to prepare for, move into and progress in work. We are delivering a step-change in employment and skills support for parents, enabling parents to balance work and caring responsibilities through high quality, flexible jobs, and improving access to childcare so parents are better able to work. There are no plans to change the benefit cap policy.
Alongside employment support, the Department supports families in work through an exemption from the benefit cap for households earning at least £846 each month. There is also protection for the most vulnerable as those who are caring or are severely disabled are exempt from the benefit cap.
Removing the two child limit is the fastest and most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty over this Parliament and estimated to alone lift 450,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament. It builds on major action we’ve already taken including expanding Free School Meals for over half a million children, investing £39 billion in social and affordable housing, £13.2 billion in the Warm Homes Plan, and rolling out Best Start Family Hubs backed by £500 million.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to increase levels of household savings.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Everyone should have access to affordable and appropriate products for their financial wellbeing. The government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and ensuring individuals and households have greater financial security.
This is why the government offers several ways to help people save and increase their financial resilience. The overall ISA allowance of £20,000 ensures that savers can put significant sums away in a tax-free savings account. For those who save outside of an ISA, the Personal Savings Allowance provides up to £1,000 of tax-free savings interest for basic rate taxpayers, and £500 for higher rate taxpayers.
The Help to Save scheme supports financial resilience for working people on low incomes by encouraging consistent, long-term saving and helping them build a financial buffer to plan and prepare for the future. The scheme is currently available to working individuals in receipt of Universal Credit, ensuring it remains targeted at its intended population.
As announced at Autumn Budget 2025, the government will make the Help to Save scheme permanent and, from April 2028, will expand eligibility to include all Universal Credit claimants who receive the child element, the caring element or both.
Asked by: Chris Vince (Labour (Co-op) - Harlow)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to reduce inequalities experienced by children in poverty.
Answered by Bridget Phillipson - Minister for Women and Equalities
Tackling child poverty is a moral mission for this Government. Your background should not determine what you can go onto achieve in life
Our recently published landmark Child Poverty Strategy sets out the steps we are taking to reduce child poverty in the short term, as well as putting in place the building blocks we need to change the course we’re on and create long-term change
The Government is investing in the future of our children and introducing a fundamental change by removing the two child limit on Universal Credit. This will lift 450,000 children out of poverty, rising to around 550,000 alongside other measures set out in our Strategy, such as the expansion of free school meals. These interventions will lead to the largest expected reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of Universal Credit starts in each of the last 5 years were (a) new benefit claimants and (b) claimants transitioning from legacy benefits through managed migration.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This information is not readily available. However, as detailed in the DWP Statistical Work Programme and the Universal Credit statistics release strategy, the Department is developing a method to denote UC claimants given a migration notice from the Move to Universal Credit programme, and updates on this will be shared in the DWP Statistical Work Programme.
As we continue the Move to Universal Credit (UC) programme, the department is moving people from legacy benefits to UC, leading to an expected rise in the UC caseload.
Latest Official Statistics show that, up to end of September 2025, almost 1.9 million individuals have made a claim to UC following receipt of a migration notice.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what service standards on timeliness are in place for making decisions on Work Capability Assessments; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce these waiting times.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is one part of the process for making a UC or ESA benefit entitlement decision. Health Care Practitioners undertake the Work Capability Assessment and following this functional assessment make a recommendation to the department. Thereafter, a DWP Decision Maker reviews this recommendation and makes the decision on benefit entitlement.
We monitor customer journey times for WCAs, deploying additional staff if required, prioritising urgent cases and addressing backlogs. We consistently prioritise assessments for new claims to minimise waiting times.
Due to unforeseen high levels of WCAs required in late 2024, a backlog of reassessment cases built up from individuals reporting a change in their condition before May 2025. We are working with suppliers to increase capacity for clearing this backlog, including the acceleration of the recruitment of assessors. There are no backlogs within the DWP Decision Making stage.
The UC WCA statistics remain under development with Phase 2 having been completed in September 2024. WCA clearance times will be introduced during phase 4 (there are no timelines). Details of this strategy can be found on gov.uk at the below link. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-wca-statistics-release-strategy/universal-credit-work-capability-assessment-statistics-release-strategy.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for every year since 2017, what proportion of Universal Credit claimants with dependent children are (a) in work and (b) not in work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Table 1 provides the proportion of Universal Credit households with children, broken down by in work or not in work.
Notes:
1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 1%.
2. Figures are for households receiving Universal Credit in assessment periods ending at any point in the calendar year.
3. Figures are for Great Britain (GB) only and include only households where Universal Credit was in payment.
4. Figures represent Universal Credit full service claims only, which are only available from 2019 onwards.
5. Due to differences in methodology, there may be slight differences from published statistics.
Table 1: Proportion of UC households with children, broken down by in work or not in work, for every calendar year since 2019
Calendar Year | Proportion of UC households with children | |
In work | Not in work | |
2019 | 69% | 31% |
2020 | 70% | 30% |
2021 | 71% | 29% |
2022 | 72% | 28% |
2023 | 72% | 28% |
2024 | 70% | 30% |