Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Personal Independence Payment (a) assessments and (b) reassessments were carried out (i) face-to-face, (ii) remotely and (iii) on paper in each month since July 2024.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the recent Autumn Budget, the government reenforced a commitment it made in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, to increase face-to-face assessments for disability benefits.
All assessment suppliers have contractual requirements to raise the proportion of assessments conducted in person, and are expected to plan and manage recruitment accordingly, with progress regularly reviewed. The department is working closely with suppliers to boost capacity, with a key focus on recruiting suitably qualified health professional to support delivery in assessment centres Through these measures, the department will meet the government priority to increase the proportion of face-to-face Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments to 30% from 5% in 2024.
The number and proportion of PIP assessments carried out by channel of assessment from July 2024 until the most recent month available can be found in the table below, with comparative annual figures from 2019 provided below.
Year | Proportion of PIP assessments undertaken face-to-face |
2019 | 83.4% |
2020 | 19.0% |
2021 | 2.9% |
2022 | 6.5% |
2023 | 7.4% |
2024 | 5.0% |
The information is not available in the breakdowns requested for all four Functional Assessment Service (FAS) suppliers for the time-period requested. We can provide data on the total number of assessments (which includes assessments and reassessments) for all four suppliers and for the time-period requested. Data for July 2024 and August 2024 is for pre-FAS contracts, data for September 2024 is a blend of pre-FAS and FAS contracts, data for October 2024 onwards if for FAS contracts.
Month | Face-to-Face | Telephone | Video | Paper-Based | ||||
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % |
Jul-24* | 5,700 | 5.4% | 75,000 | 71.4% | 3,000 | 2.8% | 19,000 | 18.3% |
Aug-24* | 3,400 | 3.7% | 70,000 | 74.5% | 2,300 | 2.4% | 17,000 | 18.1% |
Sep-24** | 1,300 | 1.7% | 58,000 | 79.9% | 610 | 0.8% | 13,000 | 17.3% |
Oct-24*** | 2,600 | 2.5% | 81,000 | 78.0% | 1,900 | 1.8% | 18,000 | 17.7% |
Nov-24 | 3,600 | 3.9% | 69,000 | 75.1% | 2,900 | 3.2% | 16,000 | 17.8% |
Dec-24 | 3,000 | 4.2% | 54,000 | 75.8% | 2,200 | 3.1% | 12,000 | 17.0% |
Jan-25 | 4,000 | 4.2% | 72,000 | 76.3% | 3,200 | 3.3% | 15,000 | 16.2% |
Feb-25 | 3,600 | 4.2% | 64,000 | 75.6% | 3,100 | 3.6% | 14,000 | 16.5% |
Mar-25 | 4,200 | 4.6% | 69,000 | 75.0% | 3,400 | 3.7% | 15,000 | 16.6% |
Apr-25 | 4,100 | 4.8% | 65,000 | 75.4% | 3,100 | 3.6% | 14,000 | 16.2% |
May-25 | 4,300 | 5.1% | 63,000 | 75.3% | 3,100 | 3.7% | 13,000 | 15.9% |
Jun-25 | 4,700 | 5.5% | 64,000 | 75.2% | 3,000 | 3.6% | 13,000 | 15.7% |
Jul-25 | 4,800 | 5.2% | 70,000 | 76.5% | 3,200 | 3.5% | 13,000 | 14.7% |
Aug-25 | 3,700 | 4.8% | 58,000 | 76.8% | 2,500 | 3.2% | 11,000 | 15.1% |
Sep-25 | 4,400 | 5.0% | 68,000 | 77.5% | 3,300 | 3.8% | 12,000 | 13.8% |
Please Note
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households returned to the benefit cap because of the loss of an exempting benefit other than PIP during (a) the quarter to August 2025, (b) the quarter to May 2025, (c) the quarter to February 2025 and (d) the quarter to November 2024.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households returned to the benefit cap because of the loss of PIP during (a) the quarter to August 2025, b) the quarter to May 2025, (c) the quarter to February 2025 and (d) the quarter to November 2024.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households on Universal Credit have a combined income between £831 and £861 a month after tax and national insurance contributions, broken down by those who are (a) employed and (b) self-employed.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Of the 6.9 million households on Universal Credit in the most recent month for which official statistics are available (August 2025), around 40,000 households had an income of between £831 and £861 from employment and/or self-employment.
Around 7,000 of these households had at least one claimant who was self-employed and around 33,000 did not have a claimant who was self-employed.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Youth Guarantee on the jobs market.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Youth Guarantee aims to increase opportunities for 16-24-year-olds to make them work-ready and equipped to thrive. Success will be measured by improvement in employment outcomes, reduction in economic inactivity, and an increase in participation in education and training. We will monitor these outcomes nationally for all Youth Guarantee participants. This will build on already commissioned evaluation of eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers and a planned full process evaluation of the Jobs Guarantee.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to assess the suitability of people for each job under the Youth Guarantee.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of the wider Youth Guarantee, the Jobs Guarantee scheme will provide six months of paid employment for every eligible 18 to 21-year-old who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for 18 months. The scheme will break the cycle of unemployment by guaranteeing meaningful paid employment opportunities that might otherwise be out of reach.
Appropriate requirements will be built into the scheme, with guidance provided to those delivering the Jobs Guarantee to ensure that opportunities are high quality, fair and deliver the intended outcomes for young people.
A critical part of the Jobs Guarantee will be the provision of wraparound support to ensure that young people are able to take that crucial first step into employment, and to further develop the required skills and experience needed for the move into sustained employment.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure job placements are carried out fully under the Youth Guarantee.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of the wider Youth Guarantee, the Jobs Guarantee scheme will provide six months of paid employment for every eligible 18 to 21-year-old who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for 18 months. The scheme will break the cycle of unemployment by guaranteeing meaningful paid employment opportunities that might otherwise be out of reach.
Appropriate requirements will be built into the scheme, with guidance provided to those delivering the Jobs Guarantee to ensure that opportunities are high quality, fair and deliver the intended outcomes for young people.
A critical part of the Jobs Guarantee will be the provision of wraparound support to ensure that young people are able to take that crucial first step into employment, and to further develop the required skills and experience needed for the move into sustained employment.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the quality of jobs available under the Youth Guarantee.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of the wider Youth Guarantee, the Jobs Guarantee scheme will provide six months of paid employment for every eligible 18 to 21-year-old who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for 18 months. The scheme will break the cycle of unemployment by guaranteeing meaningful paid employment opportunities that might otherwise be out of reach.
Appropriate requirements will be built into the scheme, with guidance provided to those delivering the Jobs Guarantee to ensure that opportunities are high quality, fair and deliver the intended outcomes for young people.
A critical part of the Jobs Guarantee will be the provision of wraparound support to ensure that young people are able to take that crucial first step into employment, and to further develop the required skills and experience needed for the move into sustained employment.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Departmental employees are in the UK on a visa, by their visa status.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information you have requested is not held on central data systems in a reportable format, it would need to be provided by individuals manually collating data from a local source. Gathering this data would therefore incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of proposed changes to the benefits system on family planning.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has not made such an assessment.