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 plans his Department has to help support the national rollout of community-led employment programmes such as JobsPlus following the conclusion of the current pilot phase.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Jobs Plus is a community-based model with strong potential to tackle inactivity and unemployment. The department is testing the model in ten social housing communities across England to generate evidence on place-based support. The pilots will be evaluated to assess their effectiveness in helping people enter and remain in work.
We will carefully consider what we have learnt from these pilots as we develop our future employment support offer.
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 assessment his Department has made of the value of expanding the number of JobsPlus sites across the UK, following the ten current pilot sites across England.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Jobs Plus is a community-based model with strong potential to tackle inactivity and unemployment. The department is testing the model in ten social housing communities across England to generate evidence on place-based support. The pilots will be evaluated to assess their effectiveness in helping people enter and remain in work.
We will carefully consider what we have learnt from these pilots as we develop our future employment support offer.
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 assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the JobsPlus programme which is being delivered through ten pilot sites across England.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Jobs Plus is a community-based model with strong potential to tackle inactivity and unemployment. The department is testing the model in ten social housing communities across England to generate evidence on place-based support. The pilots will be evaluated to assess their effectiveness in helping people enter and remain in work.
We will carefully consider what we have learnt from these pilots as we develop our future employment support offer.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the youth unemployment rate was in the most recent period for which data is available in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is published and available at:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp
Guidance for users can be found at:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/home/newuser.asp
The estimated youth unemployment rates can be found by selecting “Query data” on the NOMIS home page and selecting “Annual Population Survey/Labour Force Survey” and then “annual population survey (Dec 2004 to Jun 2025)” in the lists of data sources. The Geography will need to be set for the relevant countries/regions. The Variable will need to be set to “Unemployment rate - aged 16-24”. The latest date is automatically selected.
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 assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of place-based employment support programmes such as JobsPlus in addressing levels of economic inactivity and unemployment.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Jobs Plus is a community-based model with strong potential to tackle inactivity and unemployment. The department is testing the model in ten social housing communities across England to generate evidence on place-based support. The pilots will be evaluated to assess their effectiveness in helping people enter and remain in work.
We will carefully consider what we have learnt from these pilots as we develop our future employment support offer.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what capacity his Department has made available for Work Capability Assessments in the next six months; and what the backlog of cases is.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
During the second half of 2024, DWP experienced a much higher level of demand for new Work Capability Assessments (WCA) than envisaged. As a result, 34,000 reassessments built up from individuals reporting a change in their condition before May 2025. We have worked with suppliers to rapidly increase capacity to clear this, including by accelerating the recruitment and training of additional assessors. As of 31 January 2026, 14,000 of these cases remain, and we expect the remainder to be cleared in the coming months.
In the meantime, claimants awaiting a reassessment will continue to receive their current rate. Where a reassessment leads to entitlement to a higher rate of benefit, that rate will be backdated accordingly.
Please note:
Asked by: Luke Murphy (Labour - Basingstoke)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of trends in the availability of flexible, remote or hybrid working on mothers with childcare responsibilities, including in Basingstoke; whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of (a) school hours, (b) school holidays and (c) the availability of informal childcare on women’s participation in the labour market; and whether his Department plans to take steps to help encourage employers to offer flexible roles that enable parents to (i) maintain employment, (ii) develop skills and (iii) reduce reliance on out-of-work benefits.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We’re delivering a modern deal for working parents through the Employment Rights Act. Improving access to flexible working to allow parents to fit work around their family life, and employers will be expected to agree flexible working requests unless there is a clear and reasonable reason why they can’t.
Access to childcare support is essential in enabling parents to move into or progress in employment. Eligible Universal Credit (UC) customers can be reimbursed up to 85% of their registered childcare costs each month up to the maximum amounts (caps). The UC childcare offer can be used alongside the Department for Education’s early years and childcare entitlements in England to help cover costs of childcare during school holidays and before or after the school day, and there are similar offers in the Devolved Nations.
To deliver our long-term ambition, the Department for Education is leading a cross-government review of early education and childcare support to design and deliver a simpler system that maximises benefits for child development and parents’ ability to work or work more hours.
We are also investing up to £289m in Wraparound Childcare places before and after school, and during the school holidays, rolling out Free Universal Breakfast Clubs in every primary school, and spending over £200m each year on free Holiday Childcare places for our most disadvantaged children. These policies will ensure that parents have access to affordable, quality childcare so they can work, study, and train.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
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 help protect benefit claimants from being charged high fees by private companies for assistance with Personal Independence Payment applications.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are aware that some private companies provide advice on how to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP), including some who may charge a fee for their services.
For those claiming PIP, we provide detailed guidance and information. We would also encourage individuals to seek advice from sources such as charities and Citizen’s Advice, which offer reliable and trustworthy guidance without charge.
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 the expenditure on the Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment is, including payments to external contractors and panel members.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Members of the Timms Review steering group will be paid at a rate of £300 a day, with an expected time commitment of up to 5 days a month. The Review’s two external co-chairs, who were appointed in October 2025, are paid at a rate of £400 a day, with the same expected time commitment. In addition to their fees, members of the steering group and the co-chairs will be reimbursed for any reasonable expenses, including travel, accommodation and the costs of any accessibility requirements required in the course of their work on the Review.
This approach is to remove financial barriers to participation, ensuring no one is excluded due to cost, and is based on strong feedback from disabled people and other experts.
The Department also put in a contract with The Public Service Consultants (PSC) to support the Review. This is the first time that the Government has undertaken co-production on this scale, and we want to ensure we have the expertise to get it right. The contract was signed by the Department on 29th December 2025. To date, there have been no payments through this contract to them as external contractors.
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 much has been paid in fees and expenses to external members appointed to the Timms Review.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Members of the Timms Review steering group will be paid at a rate of £300 a day, with an expected time commitment of up to 5 days a month. The Review’s two external co-chairs, who were appointed in October 2025, are paid at a rate of £400 a day, with the same expected time commitment. In addition to their fees, members of the steering group and the co-chairs will be reimbursed for any reasonable expenses, including travel, accommodation and the costs of any accessibility requirements required in the course of their work on the Review.
This approach is to remove financial barriers to participation, ensuring no one is excluded due to cost, and is based on strong feedback from disabled people and other experts.
The Department also put in a contract with The Public Service Consultants (PSC) to support the Review. This is the first time that the Government has undertaken co-production on this scale, and we want to ensure we have the expertise to get it right. The contract was signed by the Department on 29th December 2025. To date, there have been no payments through this contract to them as external contractors.