Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
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 implications for her policies of the proportion of standard daily living awards that would fail on renewal under the proposed four-point rule for the Personal Independence Payment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
By 2029/30, we estimate that after behavioural responses, 320,000 claimants will have lost entitlement to the standard daily living component as a result of the 4-point policy change. More information on the impact of the proposed PIP changes on current and future claimants can be found in Table 4A of the Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms – Impacts.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Note:
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the proposed cut to (a) the Universal Credit health element and (b) PIP on survivors of domestic abuse.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information required to make such an assessment is not readily available. This is because to identify survivors of domestic abuse would require manual processing of claimant information, and the information would only be available where it is included in departmental records.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for her policies of the report by Amnesty International entitled Social Insecurity Report, published on 25 April 2025.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The UK Government takes its international obligations seriously and values the insights provided by Amnesty International and notes their recommendations.
The UK Government is committed to tackling poverty across the UK. Good work can significantly reduce the chances of people falling into poverty so this will be the foundation of our approach. The proposals in our plan for Making Work Pay and our Get Britain Working White Paper and our urgent work to bring forward our Child Poverty Strategy reflect our commitment to delivering lasting change.
Alongside this as announced in our Pathways to Work Green Paper we will establish a new guarantee of support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the two child limit on survivors of domestic abuse.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No such assessment has been made.
DWP is fully committed to the prevention of abuse and ensuring that victims/survivors get the support they need when they need it. Supporting victims and survivors of domestic abuse can help bring down barriers to help citizens towards work.
DWP Jobcentres are a safe space with domestic abuse trained Work Coaches who provide support to victims/survivors of domestic abuse, for example assisting with new Universal Credit claims, work-related easements, special provisions for temporary accommodation, same day advances, and signposting to expert third-party services.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether people who receive notifications of their Personal Independence Payment award being reviewed before the implementation of the proposed changes to the eligibility criteria will be assessed in relation to the existing criteria if that review is not completed until after their implementation.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have committed to introduce a new requirement that, in addition to the existing eligibility criteria, 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. There will be no immediate changes. Our intention is that the changes will apply to new claims and award reviews that are undertaken from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval.
For those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, we are consulting on how best to support this group, including how to make sure health and eligible care needs are met.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
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 receiving Personal Independence Payment and no longer eligible due to the introduction of the four point requirement on a single descriptor on the daily living activities assessment criteria in (a) full time and (b) part time work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No estimate has been made. The information requested on (a) full time and (b) part time work is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The June 2024 Green Paper Modernising support for independent living: the health and disability green paper - GOV.UK included an estimate that around 16% of PIP claimants are in work.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made as to the number of people in receipt of Personal Independence Payments who are in (a) full time and (b) part time work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No estimate has been made. The information requested on (a) full time and (b) part time work is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The June 2024 Green Paper Modernising support for independent living: the health and disability green paper - GOV.UK included an estimate that around 16% of PIP claimants are in work.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant of the Answer of 7 March 2025 to Question 42058 on Poverty: Children, whether her Department plans to make an assessment of the potential impact of the measures in the Green Paper: Pathways to Work, published on 18 March 2025 on (a) the number of children in relative poverty and (b) the societal health inequalities of children.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government's impact assessment regarding Health and Disability Reform is available at Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms – Impacts.
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: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant of the Answer of 7 April 2025 to Question 42958 on Pathways to Work and her Department's Green Paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working published on 18 March 2025, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of that Green Paper on the number of (a) children and (b) adults in relative poverty in each region in the 2029-30 financial year.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made on this basis.
The government's impact assessment regarding Health and Disability Reform is available at Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms – Impacts.
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: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of children who live in a working household who are in (a) absolute and (b) relative poverty after housing costs.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Statistics on the number of children in absolute and relative poverty after housing costs in the UK are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication at Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab). The latest available data can also be found on Stat-Xplore (https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/) in the Households Below Average Income dataset. The latest statistics were published on 21 March 2025 and are for the financial period 2023/24.