Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how her Department plans to monitor the effectiveness of the Crisis and Resilience Fund for reducing reliance on emergency food parcels.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The new Crisis and Resilience Fund will be introduced from 1 April 2026. This represents the first ever multi-year settlement for locally delivered crisis support. This longer-term funding approach enables local authorities to provide preventative support to communities, and to support our ambition to end mass dependence on emergency food parcels.
We will be working closely with local authorities and external stakeholders on the detailed design of the Crisis and Resilience Fund, including on how we monitor effectiveness of the scheme. We will issue further information on our planned approach in due course.
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: 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: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of removing the Direct Pay option on levels of compliance with child maintenance payments among non-resident parents.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Reforms will introduce a single service where all payments will be monitored enabling the Child Maintenance Service (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.
There is no evidence to suggest that cases currently working well under Direct Pay will cease to function. These families can move to a family-based arrangement or opt into Collect and Pay if 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: 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: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish an updated assessment of the potential impact of the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill on levels of poverty.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Updated analysis on the potential impact of Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill on levels of poverty will be published shortly.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to (a) simplify the benefits system and (b) increase its accessibility for claimants.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our wide-ranging package of reforms to health and disability benefits, set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, will improve experiences of the system for those who need it.
We are simplifying the system by abolishing the WCA and instead using the PIP assessment to determine what financial support people receive on Universal Credit. Going through the WCA is complex, time consuming and stressful for customers, especially if they also have to go through the PIP process. It is right that we move to one assessment and do not put millions of people through two, similar and lengthy functional assessments.
We are taking further action to get the basics right and improve the experience for people who use the system of health and disability benefits. This includes exploring ways to improve trust and transparency in Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Work Capability Assessments through reviewing our approach to safeguarding, recording assessments to increase trust in the process, and moving back to having more face-to-face assessments while continuing to meet the needs of people who may require different methods of assessment.
We have also launched a review of the PIP assessment, which I am leading. Through the review, we want to make sure the PIP assessment is fair and fit for the future in a changing world and helps support disabled people to achieve better health, higher living standards and greater independence. We have committed to co-produce the review with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, clinicians, experts, MPs and other stakeholders, so a wide range of views and voices are heard.
Asked by: Lola McEvoy (Labour - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the guidance on people who will be protected from reassessment of PIP due to their long term severe conditions will be published.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to providing security and dignity for those who will never be able to work, and removing unnecessary stress, anxiety and uncertainty from the Social Security System. Subject to Parliamentary approval, the Welfare Bill legislates to formally protect those with the most severe, lifelong health conditions, who meet the Severe Conditions Criteria, from being called for reassessment for Universal Credit. The Severe Conditions Criteria applies to eligible customers in receipt of Universal Credit rather than those in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
If a customer’s condition changes, they will continue to have the ability to request a reassessment via the existing change of circumstances process.
Regarding PIP, we are launching a wider review of the PIP assessment to ensure that it is fair, fit for the future and helps support disabled people to achieve better health, higher living standards and greater independence. There is no equivalent SCC in PIP, however we are considering how to protect those people who meet the SCC when the WCA is abolished and PIP becomes the passport to the new UC Health element.
Asked by: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the award rate for Work Capability Assessment was (a) in-person, (b) not in-person and (c) across all modes in each of the last 10 years; and whether her Department has made a comparative assessment of award rates for (i) in-person assessments and (ii) other modes of assessment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested on decisions is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
However, relevant available information on health professional recommendations has been provided in response to a previous Parliamentary Question:
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-02-13/31637
The Health Assessment Channels Trial, conducted by the department between May 2022 and March 2023, compared the monetary impact of each Work Capability Assessment channel, focussing on initial claimants eligible for all channels (in-person, telephone or video). The trial found that the proportion of claimants awarded the health element after being allocated an in-person assessment did not differ considerably from the proportion awarded after being allocated a remote channel. We are working on publishing the full results of the trial in due course.