Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether Government is entering into dialogue with trade unions so members can be consulted with regards to Defined Benefit surplus.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Government has consulted with trustees, member representative groups, trade unions and other stakeholders in developing the regulations that will allow well-funded defined benefit schemes to release surplus, subject to member safeguards. The Pension Schemes Act 2026 and draft regulations are clear on the requirements for member notification before release.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in Redditch are in receipt of cost of living support payments.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There have been no further Cost-of-Living payments since those issued in the financial year 2023/24. The Cost-of-Living Payments were intended to relieve the immediate financial pressures caused by the rapid rise in cost of living. There are no plans to reintroduce these payments.
The Department for Work and Pensions has published an Impact Assessment on the Cost-of-Living Payments. Further information can be found here.
The Government is working to address cost-of-living pressures facing families across the country through targeted measures including raising the minimum wage for workers aged 21 and over, which increased by 4.1 per cent to £12.71 an hour.
The removal of the two-child limit introduced as part of the Child Poverty Strategy will lift 450,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this Parliament, rising to around 550,000 alongside other measures set out in the Strategy.
These interventions will lead to the largest expected reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began. We have also confirmed over £600 million for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme for the next three financial years.
On 1 April 2026, we introduced a new Crisis and Resilience Fund in England. This fund aims to enable local authorities to provide preventative support to communities including support with food, as well as assisting people when faced with a financial crisis.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking through the Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service to identify AI-generated employment scams.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department takes the risk posed by increasingly sophisticated scams enabled by artificial intelligence very seriously. DWP works closely with partners such as Action Fraud to prevent fraudulent activity online and suspected fraud and scams can also be reported via their Action Fraud website.
Within Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service, emerging fraud risks are identified through our intelligence functions and supported by data and analytics to help detect and respond to those risks. We do not disclose detailed operational methods, as this could undermine the Department’s ability to prevent and detect fraud.
Outside of this, fraud and error rates within the department are at the lowest since the pandemic. We’re determined to continue to drive down fraud and since Autumn Budget 2024, the Department has committed to deliver £14.6bn in gross savings by 2030‑31 through strengthened fraud, error and debt measures. This includes bolstering our fraud controls, including periodic redeclarations and targeted case reviews in Universal Credit, expanded Pension Credit checks, increased staffing and the introduction of the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of levels of child poverty linked to the cost of living crisis in Redditch.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is working to address cost-of-living pressures facing families across the country through targeted measures including raising the minimum wage for workers aged 21 and over, which increased by 4.1 per cent to £12.71 an hour.
The removal of the two-child limit introduced as part of the Child Poverty Strategy will lift 450,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this Parliament, rising to around 550,000 alongside other measures set out in the Strategy.
These interventions will lead to the largest expected reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began. We have also confirmed over £600 million for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme for the next three financial years.
On 1 April 2026, we introduced a new Crisis and Resilience Fund in England. This fund aims to enable local authorities to provide preventative support to communities including support with food, as well as assisting people when faced with a financial crisis.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of food insecurity levels among households in Redditch.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on the number of households experiencing food insecurity by constituency is not availa-ble due to sample sizes.
Statistics on the number of individuals living in households that are food insecure by region in the UK are published annually in the “Family Resources Survey” publication in “table 9_2” of “Household food security tables” at Family Resources Survey: financial year 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.
The latest statistics published in March 2026 are for the financial period 2024/25. The latest available data can also be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
We are committed to tackling poverty and ending mass dependence on emergency food parcels. Food poverty is a complex issue which will be best addressed through activity right across Government and, in contributing to that, DWP is developing its policy and analytical work and is making those links.
DEFRA published the Good Food Cycle in July which identified ten priority outcomes needed to build a thriving food sector while tackling a range of food related challenges. Improving food price affordability and access, in particular targeting costs that lead to food price inflation and supporting those who most need access to healthy affordable nutrition, is a key priority.
On 1 April 2026, we introduced a new Crisis and Resilience Fund in England. This fund aims to enable local authorities to provide preventative support to communities including support with food, as well as assisting people when faced with a financial crisis.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the cost of living crisis on low-income households in Redditch.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is working to address cost-of-living pressures facing families across the country through targeted measures including raising the minimum wage for workers aged 21 and over, which increased by 4.1 per cent to £12.71 an hour.
The removal of the two-child limit introduced as part of the Child Poverty Strategy will lift 450,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this Parliament, rising to around 550,000 alongside other measures set out in the Strategy.
These interventions will lead to the largest expected reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began. We have also confirmed over £600 million for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme for the next three financial years.
On 1 April 2026, we introduced a new Crisis and Resilience Fund in England. This fund aims to enable local authorities to provide preventative support to communities including support with food, as well as assisting people when faced with a financial crisis.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many registered food banks were created between 2010 and 2024.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold official statistics on the number of registered food banks created between 2010 and 2024.
Food banks are independent organisations, often run by charities, faith groups, or community organisations, and are not regulated or registered centrally by the Government.
We are committed to tackling poverty and reducing mass dependence on emergency food parcels. To inform this work, DWP officials have engaged with a range of organisations to better understand the complex food support landscape.
To further support struggling households, we are providing £742 million to extend the House-hold Support Fund (HSF) in England until 31 March 2026, enabling local authorities to continue to provide vulnerable households with immediate crisis support towards the cost of essentials, such as energy, water and food.
Starting from 1 April 2026, we have announced a further £842 million a year (£1 billion including Barnett consequential) to reform crisis support with the new Crisis and Resilience Fund, supporting our wider mission to reduce child poverty by reducing dependence on food parcels, preventing homelessness and making sure people can access urgent support when they need it.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
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 merits of placing job centre staff in supported housing sites.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Jobcentre staff provide outreach in a range of community and service settings. This is a valuable way of reaching people who experience difficulties accessing support and promotes partnership working to benefit our customers.
Co-location planning between jobcentres and partners such as housing providers is place-based according to local needs and circumstances. This type of joint working will be strengthened by the localised approach of our plan to Get Britain Working.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of reviewing how student loans for maintenance are taken into account when calculating Universal Credit entitlement.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
No assessment has been made.
The primary source of financial support for students must come from the system of student loans and grants designed for their needs. Where a student can acquire a maintenance loan (whether applied for or not) the amount will be considered as income in Universal Credit (UC) and will be taken into account when calculating the overall UC entitlement.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people claiming the health top-up on Universal Credit are aged between 18 and 21 years old.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
Quarterly statistics for the number of People on Universal Credit with a health condition or disability restricting their ability to work in Great Britain are published on Stat-Xplore. The latest release provides figures up to December 2024 which can be broken down by ‘Age (in bands and single year)’ and ‘Stage of UC Health’ (selecting ‘Limited capability for work and work-related activity’).
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.