Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much their Department has spent on translating documents into languages other than (a) English and (b) other native UK languages in each year since 2023; and what these languages were.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Spend:
Year | Total |
2023 | £ 707,777.12 |
2024 | £ 882,118.00 |
2025 | £ 546,323.38 |
|
|
Languages:
Albanian | Hebrew | Croatian |
Amharic | Tamil | Somali |
Arabic | Urdu | Italian |
Bahasa Indonesia | Nepali | Catalan |
Bengali | Farsi (Persian) | Swedish |
BSL (British Sign Language) | Somali | Portuguese (Brazilian) |
Bulgarian | Romanian | Lithuanian |
Croatian | Japanese | Serbian |
Czech | Norwegian | Ukrainian |
Danish | Ukrainian | Norwegian |
Dari | Welsh | Estonian |
Dutch | Bulgarian | French |
Estonian | Traditional Chinese | Thai |
Farsi (Persian) | Bengali | Farsi (Persian) |
Finnish | Latvian (Lettish) | Hungarian |
French | French | Romanian |
German | German | German |
Greek | Swedish | Turkish |
Gujarati | Pashtu | Bahasa Indonesia |
Hebrew | Dari | Dari |
Hindi | Vietnamese | Vietnamese |
Hungarian | Hungarian | Russian |
Icelandic | Catalan | Hebrew |
Indian Punjabi | Icelandic | Gujarati |
Italian | Italian | Urdu |
Japanese | Estonian | Indian Punjabi |
Korean | Hindi | Welsh |
Kurdish / Kurdish Sorani | Sinhalese | Korean |
Kurdish Kurmanji | Slovenian | Georgian |
Latvian (Lettish) | Turkish | Danish |
Lithuanian | Portuguese | Portuguese |
Macedonian | Bosnian | Oromo ( Afan) |
Malay (Malaysian) | Kurdish / Kurdish Sorani | Albanian |
Maltese | Amharic | Kazakh |
Norwegian | Dutch | Czech |
Oromo ( Afan) | Bahasa Indonesia | Kinyarwanda |
Pakistani Punjabi | Indian Punjabi | Pakistani Punjabi |
Pashtu | Gujarati | Malay (Malaysian) |
Polish | Polish | Polish |
Portuguese | Lithuanian | Bulgarian |
Portuguese (Brazilian) | Braille (Unified English) | Macedonian |
Romanian | Danish | Greek |
Russian | Portuguese (Brazilian) | Traditional Chinese |
Serbian | Castilian | Nepali |
Simplified Chinese | Simplified Chinese | Bosnian |
Sinhalese | Croatian | Kurdish / Kurdish Sorani |
Slovak | Slovak | Slovak |
Somali | Pakistani Punjabi | Pashtu |
Spanish | Spanish | Spanish |
Swedish | Greek | Latvian (Lettish) |
Tamil | BSL (British Sign Language) | Simplified Chinese |
Thai | Russian | Japanese |
Tigrinya | English (Easy Read) | Slovenian |
Traditional Chinese | Thai | Bengali |
Turkish | Finnish | Finnish |
Ukrainian | Arabic | Arabic |
Urdu | Czech | Dutch |
Vietnamese | Serbian | Sinhalese |
Welsh | Albanian | BSL (British Sign Language) |
| Flemish | Tagalog (Filipino) |
| Galician | Tamil |
| Korean | Tanzanian Swahili |
| Macedonian | Uzbek |
| Malay (Malaysian) |
|
| Sindhi |
|
| Spanish (LatAm) |
|
| Tagalog (Filipino) |
|
| Tanzanian Swahili |
|
| Tigrinya |
|
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing specific (a) Sikh and (b) Jewish options for a person’s ethnic group in data collection conducted by her Department.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public bodies usually collect ethnicity data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the independent Office for National Statistics.
The current harmonised standard is based on the 2011 Census questions used across the UK; those questions were updated for the 2021 and 2022 Censuses. The current standard does not include specific “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories for a person’s ethnic group.
The ONS is reviewing the harmonised standard to ensure this remains appropriate and meets the needs of both data users and respondents. This will include a public consultation later this year.
We await the outcome of this review.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much the Pensions Ombudsman has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Pensions Ombudsman operates a hybrid working model. Therefore, the provision of equipment for staff to use when working at home is made in line with Health and Safety legislation and workplace adjustment requirements.
Over the last three years, the following has been contributed to support staff on the days they are not working in the office: £6,868 in in 2022/23, £6,289 in 2023/24 and £2,243 in 2024/25.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
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 impact of data surveillance on recipients of Universal Credit.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made as the DWP does not currently or have any plans to use data surveillance to regulate, police or monitor the actions of individuals or groups in receipt of benefits.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
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 role of data surveillance in welfare policy.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made as the DWP does not currently or have any plans to use data surveillance to regulate, police or monitor the actions of individuals or groups in receipt of benefits.
Asked by: Amanda Hack (Labour - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to publish the (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) 2023-24 Social Fund Annual Reports.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Work on the 2021-22 and 2022-23 Social Fund Annual Reports is underway, and these will be published as soon as possible. The 2023-24 Social Fund Annual Report will follow in due course.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what machine learning models her Department has used to help tackle fraud in the last three years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP uses Machine Learning as an analytical tool in the prevention and detection of fraud and error. There is currently one fraud and error machine learning model in full deployment and others at various stages of development, testing and implementation, focused on the highest areas of loss.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
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 prevent incorrect reductions in benefits due to automatic system sweeps that apply data errors without prior human verification; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of long delays in refunding these incorrect deductions on claimants’ financial security.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A claimant who thinks an incorrect assessment has been made can have the assessment reviewed. The number of data errors is very small. Fewer than 1% of Real Time Information (RTI) disputes processed are upheld in the customer’s favour.
Where system changes result in overpayments, there are safeguards in place which would mean any overpayment would not be actioned until an agent has considered the case and checked for vulnerabilities, prior to the claimant being notified.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2025 to Question 63294 on Personal Independence Payment and Universal Credit, what (a) driving factors and (b) assumptions she uses to model projections for the number of claims for (i) PIP and (ii) health components of Universal Credit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP produces forecasts of benefit payments based on DWP assumptions agreed by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), alongside economic determinants, judgments and assumptions provided by the OBR.
The number of PIP claimants is forecast by considering new claims for the benefit, the rate of successful awards, and the likelihood that claimants leave the benefit, split by age (working age or pension age) and claim type (new claim or reassessment from Disability Living Allowance).
The new claims assumption is informed by recent trends with adjustments made for seasonality and changes in external drivers such as trends in numbers of people with health conditions, the cost of living, and responses to public awareness. Similarly, award rates and exit rates are also based on recent trends.
The Universal Credit caseload forecast combines evidence from the recent past with assumptions and OBR judgements on future trends. The driving factors within the UC Health forecast include observed benefit onflows and changes in circumstances that affect UC eligibility for benefits units, covering not only health but also family make-up, housing status, and earnings, derived from DWP admin data. The key assumptions affecting the UC Health Forecast include the plan to move all legacy claimants to UC by the end of March 2026 and an OBR judgement that onflows will fall from their recent high as real household disposable incomes recover, as described in the November 2023 EFO (see 4.57 CP 944 – Office for Budget Responsibility – Economic and fiscal outlook – November 2023). The drivers and assumptions of the UC Health forecasts were discussed in the OBR’s Welfare Trends Report of October 2024. Additionally, the UC forecast reflects further OBR forecasts and judgements on economic and demographic change (see answer to PQ 63294).
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, pursuant to the Answer of 7July to Question 63294 on Personal Independence Payment and Universal Credit, whether projections of the number of claims for (a) PIP and (b) health components of Universal Credit are based on an extrapolation of recent trends.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP produces forecasts of benefit payments based on DWP assumptions agreed by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), alongside economic determinants, judgments and assumptions provided by the OBR.
The number of PIP claimants is forecast by considering new claims for the benefit, the rate of successful awards, and the likelihood that claimants leave the benefit, split by age (working age or pension age) and claim type (new claim or reassessment from Disability Living Allowance).
The new claims assumption is informed by recent trends with adjustments made for seasonality and changes in external drivers such as trends in numbers of people with health conditions, the cost of living, and responses to public awareness. Similarly, award rates and exit rates are also based on recent trends.
The Universal Credit caseload forecast combines evidence from the recent past with assumptions and OBR judgements on future trends. The driving factors within the UC Health forecast include observed benefit onflows and changes in circumstances that affect UC eligibility for benefits units, covering not only health but also family make-up, housing status, and earnings, derived from DWP admin data. The key assumptions affecting the UC Health Forecast include the plan to move all legacy claimants to UC by the end of March 2026 and an OBR judgement that onflows will fall from their recent high as real household disposable incomes recover, as described in the November 2023 EFO (see 4.57 CP 944 – Office for Budget Responsibility – Economic and fiscal outlook – November 2023). The drivers and assumptions of the UC Health forecasts were discussed in the OBR’s Welfare Trends Report of October 2024. Additionally, the UC forecast reflects further OBR forecasts and judgements on economic and demographic change (see answer to PQ 63294).