Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025. what estimate she has made of the number of current recipients of Universal Credit health element affected by changes in Universal Credit health rates in (a) Middlesbrough & Thornaby East parliamentary constituency, (b) Middlesbrough local authority, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East; and if she will make an estimate of future recipients of Universal Credit health element affected by changes in Universal Credit health rates in those areas.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the impacts of the “Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper” will be published in due course, with some information already published alongside the Spring Statement.
However, the OBR does not publish impacts of policies at a more localised level.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the aggregate financial value of the proposed changes to Universal Credit health rates for people in (a) Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, (b) Middlesbrough Council, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the impacts of the “Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper” will be published in due course, with some information already published alongside the Spring Statement.
However, the OBR does not publish impacts of policies at a more localised level.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts, published in March 2025, what estimate she has made of the number and proportion of additional people there will be in relative poverty in each Parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has yet been made.
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she had discussions with disabled people's groups on the introduction of the requirement that claimants must score a minimum of four points in at least one daily living activity to be eligible for the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We urgently need reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and promote the interests of disabled people. This means we need to take decisive action to tackle a situation in which PIP claims are set to double from 2 million to over 4.3 million this decade. We are consulting on how best to support those affected by the changes. We will also consider improvements to the PIP assessment. We will launch a wider review of the PIP indicators, which I shall lead, and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this. We will provide further details as plans progress.
We will be bringing forward changes in a Bill so Parliament can fully debate and vote on them.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts, published in March 2025, what estimate she has made of the number and proportion of additional people there will be in relative poverty in (a) Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, (b) Middlesbrough Council, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has yet been made.
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the aggregate financial value of the loss of entitlement to Carer's Allowance following proposed changes to entitlement to the Personal Independent Payment for people in (a) Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, (b) Middlesbrough Council, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has yet been made.
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who will no longer qualify for Carer's Allowance following the proposed changes to entitlements to the Personal Independent Payment in (a) Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, (b) Middlesbrough Council, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has yet been made.
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the aggregate financial value of the proposed changes to Universal Credit Health rates for people in each Parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the impacts of the “Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper” will be published in due course, with some information already published alongside the Spring Statement.
However, the OBR does not publish impacts of policies at a more localised level.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2025 to Question 39848 on Universal Credit: Disability, if she will publish the wider review of the PIP assessment before bringing forward legislation.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The review of the PIP assessment will be a major undertaking which will take time and require extensive engagement. To make sure we get this right, we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process as part of preparing for a review. We will provide further details as plans progress.
Any changes to the PIP assessment would only be introduced following the reforms set out in the Green Paper. In the meantime, the changes to PIP eligibility will be introduced via a Bill so that Parliament can fully debate and vote on these changes.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2025 to Question 39851 on Social Security Benefits: Disability, whether the collaboration committees will discuss new PIP qualification criteria.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We will establish ‘collaboration committees’ to further develop our reforms and we are currently working through which areas the committees will discuss. We particularly want to work with disabled people on how our additional investment in employment support, rising to £1 billion per year by 2029-30, should be deployed.
It will not be possible to have a collaboration committee for every work area in the Green Paper due to the nature of policy development. Where this is the case, we will still ensure that we draw on a wide range of evidence, including the experience of people who have used our services as we develop policy.