Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish the (1) timeline, and (2) plan, for the merger of the National Careers Service with Jobcentre Plus; and what estimate they have made of the financial implications this merger will have on the budget of (a) the Department for Work and Pensions and (b) the Department for Education.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Bringing together the National Careers Service with Jobcentre Plus in England and the creation of a new Jobs and Careers Service will form a key part of our plans to transform our employment support, as we set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper.

We will deliver this transformation using a test and learn approach, allowing us to gather evidence based on small-scale tests, iterate the service design, and scale up interventions that meet success criteria. Through this approach, lessons from our small-scale tests will be taken into consideration as part of our plans to bring the two services together.

At the Autumn Budget, the government announced £55m to take forward the first steps of building, testing and trialling the new service in 2025/26. Departmental budgets for the next Spending Review period will be outlined by the Chancellor in due course.

As a start to our commitment to better integrate employment support and careers advice in England, we have launched a data sharing agreement between the Department for Education (DfE) and DWP. This will encourage ‘join-up’ of our services and promote a more streamlined process for our customers ahead of the new service. We will continue to work closely with the DfE as we develop the new service, including careers advisers, who will be able to share their experiences, views and ideas around how we deliver careers services in the future.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure careers services remain operationally effective following the merger of the National Careers Service with Jobcentre Plus.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The National Careers Service provides free, up to date, impartial careers information and advice for citizens aged 13+, plus in-depth careers guidance from 19+, and can help people make informed decisions on learning, training, and work at all stages in their career.

As we set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper, we are reforming Jobcentre Plus, and in England bringing it together with the National Careers Service, to help get more people into work and help them get on at work, including through greater focus on skills and careers. We are starting a test and learn approach to develop the new service, ensuring that we develop a service that is locally tailored and embedded, designed to meet the different needs of local labour markets, local people and local employers.

As a start to our commitment to better integrate employment support and careers advice in England, we have launched a data sharing agreement between the Department for Education (DfE) and DWP. This will encourage ‘join-up’ of our services and promote a more streamlined process for our customers ahead of the new service. We will continue to work closely with the DfE to develop the new service, including career advisers, who will be able to share their experiences, views and ideas around how we deliver careers services in the future.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to communicate with vulnerable people about planned welfare reform, particularly in regard to providing clarity and alleviating concerns.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We have set out proposals to reform the health and disability benefits proposals in the Pathways to Work Green Paper published on 18 March 2025. A full suite of accessible versions is available including Audio, British Sign Language, Braille, Large Print and Easy Read.

The consultation will close on 30 June 2025, to ensure that everyone has sufficient time to engage with and respond to the consultation.

We want to improve and refine our plans by consulting on certain measures as described within the paper. We are committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people and people with health conditions at the heart of everything we do.

The Green Paper is an important staging post on a journey of reform, building on the vision and approach set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper in November 2024. It sets out our vision, strategy and proposals for change. We would like to hear views from a wide group of people, in particular disabled people and people with health conditions and disability organisations and encourage responses to the consultation through the online form, email and post.

We are also running a number of accessible virtual and face-to-face events on the Green Paper to hear from stakeholders, including disabled people and their representative organisations, directly. More information on these events and registration are available on GOV.UK.

In the Green Paper, we have also announced that we will set up collaboration committees to develop parts of our reforms further. This will involve bringing together disabled people and other experts with civil servants around specific issues to collaborate, provide ideas, challenge, and input into recommendations.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication on 26 March of Spring Statement 2025: policy costings, how many corrections to benefit claims they have forecasted, and how they made these estimates.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Table 1 shows the estimated corrections to benefit claims associated with the costing entitled “Welfare Fraud and Error: Recruit over 500 new counter fraud and error staff from April 2025”. This costing is described on page 15 of the Spring Statement 2025: Policy Costings document which accompanied the publication of the Spring Statement.

Table 1. Forecast corrections to benefit claims

Caveats:

• Numbers are rounded to the nearest 10,000.
• Corrections to benefit claims includes both overpayments and underpayments.

The methodology underpinning this forecasts is outlined on page 15 of the Spring Statement 2025: Policy Costings document which accompanied the publication of the Spring Statement.

The cost base

The cost base for this measure is estimated using DWP data on performance of current fraud and error programmes and current and forecasted levels of fraud and error in DWP benefits, including national statistics on DWP fraud and error.

Costing

The costing is estimated by taking the performance of the Verify Earnings and Pensions Service and the General Matching Service and applying this to forecasted levels of DWP benefit expenditure. This produces the savings achieved from correcting payments that were incorrect in the past, as well as correcting payments that would have otherwise been incorrect in the future without DWP’s intervention.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication on 26 March of Spring Statement 2025: policy costings, how they identified benefit payments that would otherwise be incorrect without the employment of an additional 500 fraud and error staff.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

It is the customer’s responsibility to report change of circumstances impacting their entitlement to benefit to the Department for Work and Pensions. By providing additional resource to action data alerts we are taking action to more promptly detect and correct under, and overpayments.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication on 26 March of Spring Statement 2025: policy costings, what the (1) purpose, and (2) cost, of the 500 additional new fraud and error staff will be; and where these staff will be recruited from.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

At the Spring Statement 2025, it was announced that DWP will provide additional resourcing to action data alerts which will enable the Department to detect and correct under- and over-payments. The cost of these staff actioning these data alerts comes from a package of £80m out to 29/30 to support this measure and expected to generate AME savings of £245m by 29/30. Recruitment options are being considered but will likely include some redeployment of existing operational staff.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will provide mayoral strategic authorities with clear guidance about what constitutes a suitable investment for pension funds, in accordance with regulatory requirements, when those authorities submit proposals to investment pools.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The government intends to provide guidance in due course to strategic authorities and to Local Government Pension Scheme funds and asset pools, including on working together to increase local investment.

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