Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to establish an alternative disputes resolution process for people affected by changes in state pension age for women.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
We have no such plans.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of automatically exempting armed forces veterans with severe, long-term PTSD from repeat disability assessments.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Currently, Work Capability Assessment re-assessments are prioritised for customers on Employment and Support Allowance and the health element of Universal Credit who report a change in their health condition. Routine department-led reassessments are scheduled according to expected prognosis length for recovery and subject to available assessment capacity.
Individuals who have Limited Capability for Work- and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA), with the most severe and lifelong health conditions or disabilities, whose level of function means that they will always have LCWRA and are unlikely ever to be able to move into work, are not routinely reassessed.
Our wide-ranging package of reforms to health and disability benefits, set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, will improve experiences of the system for those who need it. The functional impact and severity of a condition can significantly vary across individuals, which is why we will continue to ensure that those with the most severe, life-long health conditions, who will never be able to work, will not need to be reassessed.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing mandatory veteran-aware training for benefit assessors.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I have interpreted your question to refer to health professionals (HPs) who conduct Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments and Work Capability Assessments (WCA) for our assessment suppliers on behalf of the department, and not Department for Work and Pensions decision makers who make decisions on entitlement to benefit.
The Functional Assessment Service contracts require assessment suppliers to act in a manner supportive of the Armed Forces Covenant, to ensure the fair treatment of veterans and their families.
PIP assessments and WCAs are not medical consultations and do not require HPs to diagnose conditions or recommend treatment. Instead, they are functional assessments designed to evaluate how an individual’s health conditions or impairments affect their ability to carry out daily living activities and/or their capability for work.
HPs conducting assessments are trained specialists in disability analysis. Their focus is on understanding the functional impact of a claimant’s condition, rather than its clinical diagnosis. All HPs receive specific training on assessing the effects of mental health conditions and are supported by Mental Health Function Champions (MHFCs). MHFCs are experienced professionals with relevant expertise in mental health, cognitive, developmental, and learning disabilities. They are available to provide advice and support throughout the assessment process.
Additionally, HPs have access to Condition Insight Reports and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) guides. These resources offer detailed clinical and functional information on a range of conditions, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, to support HPs in delivering informed assessments.
Furthermore, within the WCA core training and guidance material (CTGM) there is a CPD module titled ‘life post miliary service’. While this does not currently form part of the PIP CTGM, we do intend to make this available across the benefit strands.
On 25 June, I attended an online event with veterans, as one of the series of consultation events on the proposals in the Pathways to Work Green Paper.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions her Department has had with disabled people’s organisations in Wales on the proposed reforms to disability benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of our commitment to hear from members of the public directly, including disabled people and their representatives, we have now held a number of virtual and in person public consultation events, as per the advertised schedule on GOV.UK.
Unfortunately, the Cardiff in person event was postponed from 3 June to 23 June, due to the venue cancelling last minute. We have worked with the Welsh Government to rearrange this event and have reached out to all registered participants directly, including registered members of the public and registered representatives from Welsh charities and other organisations, to rebook their place on a re-scheduled Cardiff event, also offering a priority space on other virtual events. A Wales-only virtual consultation event has now also been arranged and scheduled for 26 June.
Throughout the consultation we are committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people and people with health conditions at the heart of everything we do. We encourage members of the public, including disabled people’s organisations in Wales, to continue to respond to the consultation online, in writing and via email until the deadline on 30 June.
In the meantime, DWP Ministers continue to engage with individuals and groups in Wales. On 22 April, the Minister for Employment visited Denbighshire in North Wales to announce the launch of the Inactivity Trailblazer, as part of wider efforts to tackle inactivity - with funding from the £125m (in for 2025/26) announced in the Get Britain Working White Paper being designated to this area. The Minister for Employment also visited Mold Jobcentre during this visit to Wales.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to carry out an impact assessment on the consequences of proposals detailed in the Health and Disability Green Paper that have not been included within the formal consultation process.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
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: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of (a) Paying Parents and (b) Receiving Parents using the Child Maintenance Service disclosed domestic abuse in 2023-24.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Child Maintenance Service (CMS) did not capture the data requested on proportion of (a) Paying Parents and (b) Receiving Parents using the Child Maintenance Service who disclosed domestic abuse in 2023-24. Therefore, this information is not readily available to provide. To extract this data would involve the manual review of all CMS cases, at a significant cost to the department and taxpayer.
The Department is assessing how it can provide statistics on domestic abuse now the application fee exemption statistics are no longer published. The Department's Chief Statistician will oversee the development of these statistics to make sure they meet the Code of Practice for Statistics.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of child maintenance service cases are being dealt with by the specialist domestic abuse caseworker team.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service takes the issue of domestic abuse extremely seriously and is committed to ensuring victims of abuse get the help and support they need to access and use the service safely and securely.
CMS caseworkers are provided with domestic abuse training to ensure they understand, recognise and respond safely and appropriately to customers who are experiencing domestic abuse, or are survivors of domestic abuse. In July 2024, the training was updated with input from external stakeholders, and covers different types of abuse, including economic, post-separation, coercive and controlling behaviour.
Specialist Case Team is one of the measures CMS have introduced to manage cases with the most challenging or complex domestic abuse concerns. This has minimised the need for parents to recount their history of domestic abuse and caseworkers to deliver support to some of the most vulnerable customers.
As of February 2025, the volume of cases in the Specialist Case Team was 301, this equates to 0.04% of CMS total customer caseload.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number of people living in Wales that have received overpayments of the Carers Allowance.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We don’t measure or report Fraud and Error statistics at a regional level. Our benefit review sample sizes are not large enough to support this level of detail measure or report Fraud and Error statistics at a regional level.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
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 bringing forward legislative proposals to enable unearned (a) income and (b) assets be considered in initial Child Maintenance Service calculations.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has been conducting a review of the child maintenance calculation to make sure it is fit for purpose and reflects today’s social trends. The review will also consider the treatment of unearned income and assets within the automatic calculation.
Unearned income and assets can still be captured through the current variation process up until changes are introduced.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
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 the use of AI in benefit fraud investigations does not discriminate against vulnerable people.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Department does not use AI in its benefit fraud investigations.