Danny Kruger

The Department does not centrally record whether PIP claimants are in receipt of adult social care support.

No estimate has been made.

The latest figure for the number of Work Coaches expressed as Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) in the Department is 17,160 as at the end of March 2025.

Notes:

• The number of Work Coaches has been derived from DWP's Activity Based Model (ABM). This model gives an estimated Full Time Equivalent (FTE), based on a point in time estimate by Line Managers, as recorded on our internal systems each month.
• Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 FTE.
• The number of Work Coaches refers to staff involved in conducting regular engagement with claimants, hence the data does not include Work Coach Team Leaders or Disability Employment Advisers.
• The number of staff employed is unpublished management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.

In March 2025 there were 1,662,380 Universal Credit (UC) customers in the Searching for Work conditionality regime, and at the end of March 25 the number of full time equivalent (FTE) Work Coaches was 17,160.

Not all UC claimants have a Work Coach. We have provided the number of customers in the Searching for Work conditionality regime as most of this group do.

The average number of people assigned to each Work Coach is not a metric used by the Department and the Department has complex models to estimate the resource required in Jobcentres at a national level. These models cover activities across all DWP customer groups and job roles.

The Department continually impacts and assesses the service being offered to customers. Staff numbers, including the number of Work Coaches, and demand for Jobcentre services are reviewed on an ongoing basis, in line with the latest economic and benefit forecasts.

Notes on the figures:

Work coach FTE figures are management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and are not quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They are not routinely published, but as the Department holds the information, we have released it in this PQ to answer the question asked.

Work Coach figures include both Universal Credit Work Coaches and Existing Benefit Work Coaches. They do not include Work Coach Team Leaders and Disability Employment Advisers.

The number of Universal Credit claimants includes those who have started Universal Credit (completed the Universal Credit claim process and accepted their Claimant Commitment) and have not had a closure of their claim recorded for this spell, up to the 'count date', and is correct as of the second Thursday in March 2025. This figure is provisional and may be subject to revision in future releases of the data.

Inclusion in a specific Labour market regime is based on an individual's circumstances on the count date.

FTE data is correct as at the end of March 25. These figures were derived from the Department’s Activity Based Model (ABM), which provides Full Time Equivalent (FTE) figures based on point in time estimate by Line Managers. They cover only FTE of staff with paid employment.

All figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 and cover Great Britain.

The Pathways to Work Green Paper announced our plans to bring forward reforms to the Personal Independent Payment (PIP) eligibility criteria. We are consulting on how best to support those who are affected by the eligibility changes and we will work closely with DHSC and others to consider how people’s health and eligible care needs could be met outside the benefits system. As we develop our detailed proposals for change, we will work with local partners to consider their important role and how the reforms could affect them.

We also intend to launch a wider review of the PIP assessment which I will lead. 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.

All health professionals who carry out PIP assessments receive comprehensive training in disability analysis which includes evaluation as to how medical conditions affect claimants in their day-to-day activities, as well as awareness training in specific conditions. The department works extensively with assessment providers to make improvements to guidance, training and audit procedures to ensure a quality service. All core training and guidance material for health professionals undergoes both clinical and policy quality assurance.

On 18 March we announced our plans to introduce a new eligibility requirement in Personal Independence Payment (PIP) so that people must score a minimum of four points in one daily living activity in PIP to be eligible for the daily living component. All health professionals and DWP case managers will receive training and guidance on these changes to eligibility criteria before they are implemented.

The Department is committed to assessing people for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) as quickly as possible to ensure they receive the support they are entitled to in a timely manner. PIP assessments are currently carried out via a range of channels. As set out in the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, we are committed to doing more face-to-face assessments, while preserving alternative health assessment channels to meet the specific needs of people who require a different channel, for example as a reasonable adjustment.

Further details on this commitment, along with other measures designed to improve the PIP assessment are set out in the Green Paper. We will set out further detail of the proposals for reform of the health and disability system following a full 12-week consultation period where responses are fully considered.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information already published alongside the Spring Statement. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

We anticipate that we will assess effectiveness of Pathways to Work measures in the usual way, including through evaluation of their implementation and the impacts that they have on employment, incomes, benefit receipt and other indicators. We will publish more information on our evaluation strategy in due course.

Claimants of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) who are nearing the end of their life will be unaffected by the reforms to the PIP assessment criteria. Claims made under the special rules for end of life are automatically awarded the enhanced rate of the daily living component without having to take part in an assessment and without having to meet the required period condition. The majority of claimants are also awarded the mobility component.

Decisions made by a decision maker on entitlement to benefit generally confer a right of appeal.

The outcome of any WCA will lead to a decision about the customer’s capability for work, which would have appeal rights. If the customer disagrees with that decision, they may request a Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) and can lodge an appeal if they remain dissatisfied following the MR process.

The Work Capability Assessment is not working and needs to be reformed or replaced. We are committed to reforming the system of health and disability benefits so that it promotes and enables employment among as many people as possible. The system must also work to support disabled people to live independently. It is also vital to ensure that the system is financially sustainable in the long term.

We are working to develop proposals for reform in the months ahead and will set them out in a Green Paper ahead of the Spring Statement later this year.

I refer the Hon Member to the Statement of 12 November (Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament)

In 2024, the previous government announced fit note trailblazers to be included in some of the 15 WorkWell pilot areas across Integrated Care Boards in England.

Due to the timings of the General Election the trailblazers were not launched.

The learning from the Fit Note Trailblazers will be applied to three of the eight inactivity trailblazers that are NHSE led health and growth accelerators, where £45 million has been specifically allocated to three integrated care boards to improve population health outcomes and reduce health-related economic inactivity as part of the Get Britain Working Plans.

Data on Pension Credit award amounts is routinely published and made publicly available via DWP Stat-xplore. At May 2024, the average weekly Pension Credit award amount was £82.66. This figure does not include other operational and administrative costs, such as supporting customers and sending letters.

The Department does not hold data on Council Tax discount or the value of all passported benefits.

Pension Credit claimants can receive passported benefits such as:

- Winter Fuel Payment;

- Housing Benefit for those who rent the property they live in;

- support for Mortgage Interest for those who own the property they live in;

- a Council Tax discount for those in England and Wales;

- a free TV licence for those aged 75 or over;

- help with NHS dental treatment, glasses, and transport costs for hospital appointments;

- help with heating costs through the Warm Home Discount Scheme;

- a discount on the Royal Mail redirection service for those moving house.

Information on passported benefits is available at: Pension Credit: Overview - GOV.UK.

No estimate has been made of the average value of these benefits.

We will not be publishing organisational responses to the previous Government’s consultation, as it is for each organisation to choose whether or not to publish its response. Many organisations have already published their own responses.

The Child Poverty Taskforce will publish the child poverty strategy in Spring 2025 and further details on the engagement which helped develop the strategy will be outlined as part of the publication. Working closely with partners across all UK nations and regions is a central part of our approach to develop the strategy, as set out in Tackling Child Poverty: Developing Our Strategy.

The latest available data on pensioner poverty levels by region is published by the Department here Households below average income:Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2023 - GOV.UK

On 19 November, Secretary of State wrote to the Work and Pensions Select Committee to share internal government modelling produced by the Department outlining estimates of the number of pensioners in the UK estimated to move into poverty as a result of the Winter Fuel Payment policy change. This letter is available here Winter Fuel Payments eligibility change - Letter from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions It is not possible to provide regional breakdowns of the poverty impacts of this change.

HM Treasury have published distributional analysis showing the estimated impact of tax, welfare and public service spending decisions on household incomes, across the household income distribution. This can be found here Impact_on_households.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)

The Department is committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to and meeting our objectives of making work pay and tackling poverty. We have already begun this work with the introduction of the new fair repayment rate announced in the Budget. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders as the review progresses to seek views on proposed areas of focus and untapped opportunities in UC. Parliament will be updated on progress and future changes accordingly.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 14 October 2024 to question number 6515. The answer can be found here: Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament.

A consultation on proposed reforms to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) was published by the previous Government on 8 May 2024. These proposed reforms included removing Direct Pay and managing all CMS cases in one service to allow the CMS to tackle non-compliance faster, as well as exploring how victims and survivors of domestic abuse can be better supported. This consultation followed the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Act which received royal assent in July 2023.

The consultation was extended by this Government at the end of July and ran until 30 September 2024. We are analysing the responses we have received, and the Government will publish a response in due course.

The call for evidence was launched under the previous government to seek views on how the current fit note process works and the support required to facilitate meaningful work and health conversations. It closed on the 8 July 2024 and received around 1,900 responses. We are still in the process of thoroughly analysing the responses received. These responses will play a crucial role in shaping our ongoing policy development.

The Department for Work and Pensions is currently conducting an evaluation of the Household Support Fund that ran from April 2023 to March 2024, to understand the benefits of the awards made across England during this period. This will be published in due course.

Management information on the Household Support Fund from April 2023 to March 2024, including details of how funding was spent is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/household-support-fund-4-management-information-for-1-april-2023-to-31-march-2024

We are committed to tackling poverty. We know that good work can significantly reduce the chances of people falling into poverty so this will be the foundation of our approach.

Backed by £240m investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched on 26 November will target and tackle economic inactivity and unemployment and join up employment, health, and skills support to meet the needs of local communities. We are taking the first steps to tackle poverty through our commitments to triple investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, introduce a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit, and increase the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April 2025 to boost the pay of 3 million workers. Alongside this, we are committed to reviewing Universal Credit and we will set out the details in due course.

HM Treasury have published distributional analysis showing the estimated impact of tax, welfare and public service spending decisions on household incomes, across the household income distribution. This can be found here Impact_on_households.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)

We are committed to tackling poverty. We know that good work can significantly reduce the chances of people falling into poverty so this will be the foundation of our approach.

Backed by £240m investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched on 26 November will target and tackle economic inactivity and unemployment and join up employment, health, and skills support to meet the needs of local communities. We are taking the first steps to tackle poverty through our commitments to triple investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, introduce a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit, and increase the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April 2025 to boost the pay of 3 million workers. Alongside this, we are committed to reviewing Universal Credit and we will set out the details in due course.

HM Treasury have published distributional analysis showing the estimated impact of tax, welfare and public service spending decisions on household incomes, across the household income distribution. This can be found here Impact_on_households.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)

The Child Maintenance Service already has a suite of strong enforcement powers at its disposal. These include using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving licence or UK passport, deductions directly from earnings and bank accounts or even commitment to prison.

The Department has explored how curfews could be implemented as an additional enforcement measure to improve compliance. Several enforcement initiatives aimed at improving compliance are currently in train. These initiatives need to be implemented and their effects assessed before we can best see how curfews might fit with them.

The Department plans to enhance effectiveness in collecting arrears payments by delivering changes via regulations, thereby streamlining the enforcement process. This will remove the requirement to obtain a court issued liability order and instead allow the Secretary of State to issue an administrative liability order. The introduction of this simpler administrative process will enable the CMS to take faster action against those Paying Parents who actively avoid their responsibilities.