Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support unemployed people not in receipt of benefits to find employment.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service across Great Britain that will enable everyone to access support to find good, meaningful work, and support to help them to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers. The new Jobs and Careers Service will offer employment and careers support for all – not just those on benefits - who want support to find or progress in work.
Supporting our ‘Get Britian Working’ agenda, we have funded several measures to help unemployed people not in receipt of benefits to find employment:
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
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 merits of (a) greater data sharing between (i) work coaches and (ii) careers advisors and (b) improvements to (A) engaging and (B) involving local employers in employability programmes in the context of jobcentre reforms.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP has strengthened its employer engagement strategy through a multi-faceted approach, involving early business input into the JCS design and a rolling programme of engagement events. Local employer engagement is driven by dedicated teams, sector-specific Recruitment Innovation Workshops, tailored recruitment support via account managers, increased use of digital tools and ongoing promotion of inclusive hiring practices for disabled people and those with health conditions.
DWP’s reforms have deepened employer involvement in employability programmes by embedding them into both design and delivery. The Strategic Relationship Team coordinates employer portfolios and ensures feedback shapes services. Work programmes are co-designed with employers to meet recruitment needs through training, work experience, and guaranteed interviews. Integration with the National Careers Service enhances local labour market alignment, while the Get Britain Working White Paper promotes local co-design of employment support with employers and authorities.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
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 adequacy of the availability of job opportunities for people with disabilities.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to reducing the disability employment gap, which currently stands at 28 percentage points, as part of a clear ambition to raise the overall employment rate to 80%.
We announced in the recent Pathways to Work Green Paper that we would establish a new guarantee of support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work, backed up by £1.9billion of new funding by the end of the decade.
We also recognise that employers play an important role in addressing health and disability which is why the Government has asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead “Keep Britain Working”, an independent review of the role of UK employers in reducing health-related economic inactivity and to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces.
Asked by: Lola McEvoy (Labour - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to reform the Child Support Agency to improve the speed and success of claims.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As more customers apply to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) the demand for our service is increasing. To allow us to meet this demand and provide an efficient service we continuously look at the resources we have and where we should focus our efforts to get the greatest value for money and deliver the best service to our customers. We review our overall resource supply twice yearly and take appropriate steps to ensure that staffing levels meet current demands
My Child Maintenance Case (MCMC) online service offers customers the ability to access and update information held on their case and request changes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. CMS has the ability to process simple changes through MCMC, automatically speeding up the time taken to make a change and greatly improving customer outcomes.
Through extensive modernisation to both telephony and digital channels, and by promoting self-service online, the CMS are ensuring customers have greater choice of how and when they contact us. Our service improvements allow customers to use the most appropriate and efficient contact method to quickly resolve their queries and reduce demand on our services.
Through efficient call routing, we have freed up resources to deliver a more responsive service and allow caseworkers more time to better assist customers who need to reach out to us via telephone. We have improved all forms of communication, including greater use of SMS and email as well as improving letter content. Furthermore, we have taken timely action to further train, support and redeploy resource within CMS to where it is needed most.
In the response to the consultation on proposed reforms to the CMS, the Government has set out plans to introduce a single service where all payments will be monitored, enabling the CMS to identify missed, late, or partial payments in real time. This will enable swift enforcement action to restore compliance and increase the amount of money reaching children.
We expect the reforms will make hidden non-compliance within Direct Pay visible, enabling the CMS to intervene earlier to ensure children receive the financial support they are entitled to. Families currently using Direct Pay can either move to a family-based arrangement (with additional support from CMS to do so) or opt into Collect and Pay if that is not appropriate or they require the added security of enforcement.
Where compliance cannot be achieved, the CMS has a range of strong enforcement powers that are designed to get money flowing quickly, prevent the build-up of arrears and ensure children get the financial support they deserve.
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 and what proportion of PIP claims were under review as of 27 June 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Please find the information requested in Table 1 below. We provide figures for 30th April 2025 in line with latest official published statistics Personal Independence Payment statistics to April 2025.
Table 1. Volume of cases and proportion of April 2025 caseload under review on 30th April 2025.
Type of review | Volume of cases under review on 30th April 2025 | Proportion of April 2025 caseload |
Award Review | 380,000 | 10% |
Change of Circumstances | 40,000 | 1% |
All Reviews | 420,000 | 11% |
Notes:
Whilst the regular review cycle of PIP claims means there will always be a substantial amount in progress at any given time, work is under way to reduce the level of work outstanding within the system. Operational capacity is managed to ensure an appropriate balance between the processing of New Claims to PIP, planned Award Reviews, and Unplanned (Change of Circumstance) Reviews.
Where this approach leads to delays in processing Planned Award Reviews, claims are extended where necessary to prevent expiry. Should customers circumstances change whilst awaiting a Planned Review, a Change of Circumstances Review can be requested and will be processed without delay.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of replacing the Work and Health programme that last took applicants in September 2024.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The decision to end the Work and Health Programme was made by the previous Administration.
The Government is committed to reducing the disability employment gap. We have a clear ambition to raise the overall employment rate to 80%. We are delivering the biggest employment support package for disabled people and people with health conditions in more than a generation as part of our Pathways to Work Guarantee, which will provide work, health and skills support for disabled people and those with health conditions claiming out of work benefits. The Pathways to Work Guarantee is backed by £1 billion a year of new, additional funding by 2030 and a total of £2.2 billion over four years.
Separate to this, our new, voluntary, locally led, Supported Employment programme, Connect to Work, is rolling out across England and Wales. Over the five-year duration of the programme, it will provide specialist employment support to over 300,000 disabled people, people with health conditions and those with complex barriers to employment.
This is on top of our Jobcentre core offer, which includes the extended Restart Scheme, Disability Employment Advisers and 1000 Pathways to Work Advisers providing additional work coach support for disabled benefit recipients and those with work-limiting health conditions.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her policy is on whether people receiving Personal Independence Payment would stay within the existing system in instances where their case is reviewed or renewed.
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, 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: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Personal Independence Payment claimants are veterans with service-related health conditions in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not centrally hold data on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants’ previous occupation, so we are not able to determine which claimants are veterans.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
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 armed forces veterans with service-related health conditions are appropriately identified for additional support under the proposed changes to the Universal Credit health element.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is carefully considering the implications for veterans and their families in the welfare Green Paper consultation, and is actively engaging with Armed Forces groups to ensure that veterans with service-related health conditions are appropriately identified and supported under the proposed changes to the Universal Credit (UC) health element.
As part of welfare reform, the DWP has committed to a dedicated consultation process with Armed Forces stakeholders. This includes direct meetings with service charities and veterans' organizations to assess the potential impact of the changes, particularly on Early Service Leavers and those medically discharged from service
Additionally, the DWP continues to support veterans through the Armed Forces Champions network within Jobcentre Plus. These champions are trained to understand the unique challenges faced by the Armed Forces community and help ensure that veterans receive tailored support, including assistance with benefit claims and employment services
The department also utilises service medical board evidence to streamline the assessment process for veterans applying for Universal Credit, reducing the need for face-to-face assessments where appropriate.