Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support people with disabilities into work in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Good work is good for health, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. Backed by £240 million investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched in November 2024 is driving forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity.
Disabled people are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems.
Existing measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers (DEAs) in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants, as well as 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. We are also rolling out Connect to Work, our supported employment programme for anyone who is disabled, has a health condition or is experiencing more complex barriers to work.
DEAs in the Jobcentres supporting the constituency deliver in-depth Work Ability conversations, focusing on strengths, suitable work options, workplace adjustments and confidence building. Additionally, part of the constituency is served by the WorkWell West pilot in the NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board.
We set out our plan for the “Pathways to Work Guarantee” in our Pathways to Work Green Paper and are building towards our guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for disabled people and people with health conditions on out of work benefits. The guarantee is backed by £1 billion a year of new, additional funding by the end of the decade. We anticipate the guarantee, once fully rolled out, will include: a support conversation to identify next steps, one-to-one caseworker support, periodic engagement, and an offer of specialist long-term work health and skills support.
Additionally, we have developed a digital information service for employers, oversee the Disability Confident Scheme and continue to increase access to Occupational Health. Bath Jobcentre organised a Disability Confident job fair which was held at the Guildhall in October with Disability Confident employers, further job fairs targeting disabled people are currently in planning.
In recognition of employers’ vital role in addressing health-related economic activity, we appointed Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead the independent Keep Britain Working Review. The Report was published on 5 November. In partnership with the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Health and Social Care, we are rapidly designing the Vanguard phase to test new employer-led approaches to support individuals to stay in work and develop a Healthy Workplace Standard, putting Sir Charlie’s key recommendations into action.
The 10 Year Health Plan, published in July, builds on existing work to better integrate health with employment support and incentivise greater cross-system collaboration, recognising good work is good for health. The Plan also states the Government’s intention to break down barriers to opportunity by delivering the holistic support that people need to access and thrive in employment by ensuring a better health service for everyone, regardless of condition or service area. It outlines how the neighbourhood health service will join up support from across the work, health and skills systems to help address the multiple complex challenges that often stop people finding and staying in work.
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: 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 assessment his Department has made of trends in (a) pensioner poverty and (b) child poverty across the UK.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Statistics on the number of pensioners living in absolute and relative poverty in the UK are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication, the latest available being Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2024 - GOV.UK. The table showing the percentage of pensioners in relative poverty over time by region is published as “table 6.10ts” of “pensioners- hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2023-24-tables”.
Statistics on the number of children living in absolute and relative poverty in the UK are pub-lished annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication, the latest available being Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2024 - GOV.UK. The table showing the percentage of children in relative poverty over time is published as “table 4.1tr” of “children-trends-hbai-1994-95-2023-24-tables”.
Statistics on the number of children living in absolute and relative poverty on a before housing costs basis at local level are published annually in the “Children in low income families: local area statistics” publication, the latest available being Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to 2024 - GOV.UK.
The latest statistics published on 27 March 2025 are up to and including 2023/24. The latest available data can also be found on https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. Guidance on how to use it can be found here: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/User-Guide.html.
Asked by: Daniel Francis (Labour - Bexleyheath and Crayford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade on the number of wheelchair accessible vehicles that are purchased through the Motability Scheme are produced in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Secretary of State regularly meets with colleagues across government to discuss a range of issues.
Motability Operations, an independent commercial company which delivers the Motability Scheme, will continue to prioritise customer needs, ensuring vehicles remain affordable and that support for wheelchair accessible vehicles and specialist adaptations remain at the heart of the Scheme.
Motability Operations has announced plans to support the government’s Modern Industrial Strategy. The number of British-made vehicles purchased by the Scheme will reach 25% by 2030, with an ambition of 50% of vehicles registered on the Scheme being made in the UK by 2035.
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: 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: 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.
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