Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2025 to Question 60481 on Disability: Candidates, how much funding has been allocated to support the Access to Elected Office programme during the Spending Review period.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is this government’s ambition to see more disabled people in public office. We have been clear that we will champion disabled people’s rights and work closely with them so that disabled people’s views and voices are at the heart of decision-making.
The new fund is currently in development and the funding allocation is subject to the current Spending Review process. More information about the fund will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he will take steps to ensure that (a) disabled people who receive means-tested benefits and (b) young people are represented on the Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Timms Review will be co-produced with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, clinicians, experts, MPs and other stakeholders, to ensure that expertise from a wide range of perspectives is drawn upon.
On 30 October, I announced that I would co-chair the Review alongside Sharon Brennan and Dr Clenton Farquharson CBE. Together, they bring a wealth of expertise and experience on health and disability issues, as well as the co-production process.
We will oversee a steering group which will lead the co-production process. To ensure lived experience is at the heart of its work, the majority of the steering group will be disabled or representatives of disabled people’s organisations. Members will be recruited via an open and accessible expression of interest (EOI), which has been designed to ensure the steering group reflects a broad range of perspectives, including lived experience of disability and professional expertise. The EOI is now live and will run until 30 November.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that there is social security expertise on the steering group for the Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Timms Review will be co-produced with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, clinicians, experts, MPs and other stakeholders, to ensure that expertise from a wide range of perspectives is drawn upon.
On 30 October, I announced that I would co-chair the Review alongside Sharon Brennan and Dr Clenton Farquharson CBE. Together, they bring a wealth of expertise and experience on health and disability issues, as well as the co-production process.
We will oversee a steering group which will lead the co-production process. To ensure lived experience is at the heart of its work, the majority of the steering group will be disabled or representatives of disabled people’s organisations. Members will be recruited via an open and accessible expression of interest (EOI), which has been designed to ensure the steering group reflects a broad range of perspectives, including lived experience of disability and professional expertise. The EOI is now live and will run until 30 November.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department will wait for the outcome of its independent investigation of youth inactivity before deciding whether to proceed with proposals to prevent under-22s from accessing the health element of Universal Credit, in the context of the Pathways to Work Green Paper.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Nearly one million young people - approximately one in eight 16 to 24-year-olds - are currently not in education, employment, or training (NEET). Further to this, the number of young people claiming Universal Credit (UC) Health Element and Employment and Support Allowance has increased by more than 50% in the last five years, with 80% of young people on the UC Health element currently citing mental health reasons or a neurodevelopmental condition among declared health conditions.
We need to look at this problem holistically, which is why we have launched an independent report to investigate the persistently high numbers of young people out of work, education and training led by former Health Secretary Alan Milburn. The report will examine why increasing numbers of young people are falling out of work or education before their careers have begun - with a particular focus on the impact of mental health conditions and disability.
We consulted on raising the age someone can access the UC Health Element to 22 in the Green Paper ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working. We are considering responses and will provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress he has made on the review of the Personal Independence Payment assessment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Timms Review will be co-produced with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, clinicians, experts, MPs and other stakeholders, to ensure that expertise from a wide range of perspectives is drawn upon.
On 30 October, I announced that I will co-chair the Review alongside Sharon Brennan and Dr Clenton Farquharson CBE. We will oversee a steering group responsible for leading the co-production process, setting the Review’s strategic direction, priorities and workplan. The group will be made up of a majority of disabled people or representatives of disabled people’s organisations and will be recruited through an open and transparent Expression of Interest (EOI) process. The EOI is now live and will run until 30 November.
The Review will report to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for final decisions in autumn 2026, with an interim update expected ahead of that.
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, whether he has made an estimate of the annual cost to the public purse of young people in supported housing working reduced hours due to the interaction between Housing Benefit and Universal Credit taper rates.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No such assessment has been made. People on a low income living in Supported Housing receive Universal Credit for help with their daily living costs and Housing Benefit for help with their housing costs. Customers living in Supported Housing are also able to access higher levels of housing support through Housing Benefit.
We are considering options to improve work incentives for residents of supported housing and temporary accommodation, while taking into account the views of stakeholders. Any future decisions on housing support will be made in the round, prioritising measures that best meet Government objectives within the current fiscal environment.
It remains the department’s priority to ensure that those who can work are supported to enter the labour market and to sustain employment.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to reduce the time taken by her Department to make decisions relating to disability benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
To reduce decision times for disability benefits, we have deployed additional staff and we continue to prioritise urgent cases while monitoring demand and addressing backlogs where necessary. These actions have led to faster processing of new claims, with clearance times for Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children reducing significantly. We have also increased staffing in Access to Work (AtW) and we are prioritising urgent applications. This is alongside reviewing our policy framework to explore opportunities to further reduce processing times for AtW applications. We are also allocating additional resource to disputes activity to improve processing times for Mandatory Reconsiderations and Appeals across PIP and DLA.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much Lancashire County Council has received in adult skills funding since 1 July 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Lancashire County Council do not receive either Adult Skills Fund (ASF) or Advanced Learner Loans from the Department for Education, nor do they receive an ASF allocation from any Strategic Authorities who have devolved ASF. It should be noted that Lancashire County Council is not the only council in Lancashire, and the other councils may receive an ASF allocation. Funding is not devolved in Lancashire, and therefore providers are directly funded by the Department.
Lancashire County Council has received Skills Bootcamps allocations from the Department for Education in Financial Year 24-25 and Financial Year 25-26. The allocated amount for Lancashire in Financial Year 24-25 was £6,442,906, and in Financial Year 25-26 it was £7,034,047.09 (including an element for additional construction). Skills Bootcamps funding allocations: 2025 to 2026 - GOV.UK
The total grant allocated represents the maximum amount allocated. The Department for Education does not expect areas to spend their full allocation. Areas typically spend about 50% to 60% of their allocation due to the payment milestone approach.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken to help ensure the adequacy of Access to Work grants to fund the support requirements of employers offering placements.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Funding has been secured to continue the scheme for the entire Spending Review period.
In the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we consulted on the future of Access to Work and how to improve the scheme so that it helps more disabled people in work. Since Access to Work was first designed, the style, scope and cost of the support that people require has changed significantly, yet Access to Work has stayed broadly the same.
We are considering responses to the consultation and will set out our plans in due course. The findings from this will inform the chosen future direction of Access to Work. Once this is established, we will consider timelines and work closely with stakeholders to ensure an appropriate transition.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he will make it his policy to (a) carry out ongoing evaluation of the co-production process and (b) ensure that a final evaluation (i) includes anonymous feedback from participants and (ii) is published alongside the final report of Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This is the first time that the Government has undertaken co-production on this scale, and we are ready to listen, learn and refine our approach to support this work to succeed.
We are in the process of procuring co-production expertise to facilitate the work of the steering group. We will draw upon this expertise to support the DWP to evaluate the success of the co-production process.
The Review will be co-produced with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, clinicians, experts, MPs and other stakeholders. It will therefore be for the Review’s steering group to provide direction on the form the evaluation should take, and on content of the Review’s recommendations.