Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much the Pension Protection Fund has spent on public affairs services provided by FleishmanHillard UK since July 2024; and for what purposes.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Fleishman Hillard provided specific support for two activities the Pension Protection Fund would classify as public affairs during the period July 2024 to April 2026 at a total cost of £33,736 excluding VAT.
Asked by: Baroness Stedman-Scott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many non-British national households benefitted from the removal of the two-child benefit cap.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what service targets apply to (a) application processing, (b) renewals, (c) payment processing and (d) complaint handling within Access to Work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
Access to Work is a discretionary grant scheme and does not operate against published service targets for application processing or renewals.
The time taken to process applications and renewals will vary depending on a range of factors, including the complexity of the case and the provision of evidence from customers.
Access to Work operates a Service Level Agreement for payment processing. The current Service Level Agreement is to process payments within 10 working days of receiving the information required to make a payment.
Complaints are handled in accordance with the Department's complaints procedures. The Department aims to provide a full response to complaints within 15 working days.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what consideration he has given to the potential merits of notifying Universal Credit claimants of their eligibility for free school meals via online journal entries.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
The Department is committed to ensuring that people receiving Universal Credit can access the support to which they may be entitled. Eligibility rules for Free School Meals are the responsibility of the Department for Education in England, with eligibility determined using Universal Credit information where appropriate.
The Department keeps its communications with Universal Credit claimants under regular review, including the information provided through digital channels such as the Universal Credit journal. However, no decision has been taken to introduce routine journal notifications relating to potential Free School Meals entitlement.
The journal is primarily used to communicate information relevant to the administration of a claimant’s Universal Credit award and is not generally used to provide speculative notifications about possible entitlement to support administered by other organisations.
Claimants can access information about additional support that may be available alongside Universal Credit, including Free School Meals, through existing guidance and application routes provided by the relevant authorities.
Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
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 financial impact of not uprating the State Pension for recipients living in countries without a reciprocal social security agreement on pensioners in those countries; and whether he plans to review this policy.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
UK State Pensions are payable worldwide, without regard to nationality, and are only uprated abroad where there is a legal requirement to do so, for example in countries with which we have a reciprocal agreement that provides for uprating. There are no plans to change this policy.
National Insurance contributions and credits determine whether, and at what level, a person is entitled to State Pension. They do not determine whether a State Pension paid overseas is uprated each year. Overseas uprating depends on the country in which the pensioner lives and whether the UK has a legal basis for uprating there.
Uprating is based on levels of earnings growth and price inflation in the UK which has no direct relevance where the pensioner is resident overseas.
This approach has been supported by successive governments, over many years with priority given to those living in the UK when drawing up expenditure plans for pensioner benefits, and this policy has been upheld in courts.
Information about the impact on State Pensions of moving abroad is available on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
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 equity of applying different State Pension uprating rules to pensioners based on country of residence for identical levels of National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
UK State Pensions are payable worldwide, without regard to nationality, and are only uprated abroad where there is a legal requirement to do so, for example in countries with which we have a reciprocal agreement that provides for uprating. There are no plans to change this policy.
National Insurance contributions and credits determine whether, and at what level, a person is entitled to State Pension. They do not determine whether a State Pension paid overseas is uprated each year. Overseas uprating depends on the country in which the pensioner lives and whether the UK has a legal basis for uprating there.
Uprating is based on levels of earnings growth and price inflation in the UK which has no direct relevance where the pensioner is resident overseas.
This approach has been supported by successive governments, over many years with priority given to those living in the UK when drawing up expenditure plans for pensioner benefits, and this policy has been upheld in courts.
Information about the impact on State Pensions of moving abroad is available on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of his Department current response times to Members' enquiries.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department recognises that response times to enquiries from Members of Parliament have been impacted by increased volumes and the complexity of cases requiring detailed investigation.
To address this, the Department has deployed additional resources to complaints and correspondence teams, prioritised the reduction of backlogs, strengthened performance monitoring, introduced enhanced senior oversight, and improved case management processes to support faster and more consistent responses.
As a result of these measures, the Department has begun to reduce outstanding backlogs and increase case-handling capacity, helping to improve response times for hon. Members.
Where a complaint requires formal investigation, the Department aims to provide a full response within 15 working days. More complex cases may take longer, but customers are kept informed of progress and expected timescales.
The Department is committed to ensuring that hon. Members receive timely and accurate information on behalf of their constituents and is taking urgent action to restore performance to expected standards.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 risk of fraud associated with the Youth Guarantee.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions takes fraud very seriously and we are taking a robust and rigorous approach to protect public money including across the entire Youth Guarantee. This includes on the Youth Jobs Grant where the Department conducts a comprehensive due diligence process to ensure that employers are legitimate and verifies employment through HMRC's RTI (Real Time Information) feed to ensure that a young person has been employed and paid for the required periods.
Similar rigorous checks apply for the Jobs Guarantee, and the vast majority of payments will be made in arrears, against evidence of actual spend, reducing the risk of fraud occurring. We will closely monitor our fraud risk for the entirety of both programmes. For both schemes, wherever we believe that an employer, or delivery partner, has acted in a way that is contrary to the scheme’s aims or is misusing public money, we will take steps to address this, including recovery of payments we believe may have been obtained through fraud or employers acting in bad faith.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
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 the level of the wellbeing of parents engaged with the Child Maintenance Service, including those experiencing financial hardship and arrears.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is committed to ensuring that it delivers a safe service that is sensitive to the needs of all the parents that use it. It recognises that some parents may face difficult circumstances, particularly at a time of separation.
The CMS takes the interests and safety of its customers very seriously. All colleagues who directly support customers complete mandatory training to help identify and support vulnerable customers.
Caseworkers have access to several tools and procedures to help support customers when they advise they cannot afford to pay child maintenance or are struggling with the cost of living in general and are in financial or emotional crisis. This includes the National District Provision Toolkit and Affordability Hub which provides information to allow caseworkers to signpost to national and local support organisations for debt help and mental health assistance across the UK. Additionally, caseworkers can refer particularly vulnerable customers to the DWP Advanced Customer Support Team.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what mental health support and signposting is available to parents identified by the Child Maintenance Service as experiencing financial distress.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is committed to ensuring that it delivers a safe service that is sensitive to the needs of all the parents that use it. It recognises that some parents may face difficult circumstances, particularly at a time of separation.
The CMS takes the interests and safety of its customers very seriously. All colleagues who directly support customers complete mandatory training to help identify and support vulnerable customers.
Caseworkers have access to several tools and procedures to help support customers when they advise they cannot afford to pay child maintenance or are struggling with the cost of living in general and are in financial or emotional crisis. This includes the National District Provision Toolkit and Affordability Hub which provides information to allow caseworkers to signpost to national and local support organisations for debt help and mental health assistance across the UK. Additionally, caseworkers can refer particularly vulnerable customers to the DWP Advanced Customer Support Team.