Helen Whately: Written Answers (392)

Written Question

Social Security Benefits: Children

Tuesday 25th November 2025

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 he has made of the potential impact of removing the two-child benefit cap on incentives to work.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Child Poverty Strategy will set out the decisive action this Government is taking to tackle child poverty and make sure children are given the best start in life.

The commitments we’ve made at the 2025 spending review and beyond are just the latest step of our Plan for Change to put extra pounds in people’s pockets – a downpayment on our Child Poverty Strategy, building on our expansion of free breakfast clubs, our national minimum wage boost and our reduction in the cap on Universal Credit deductions through the Fair Repayment Rate.

Written Question

Social Security Benefits: Children

Tuesday 25th November 2025

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 discussions he has had with (a) the Prime Minister, (b) the Chancellor of the Exchequer and (c) other Cabinet colleagues on lifting the two-child benefit cap.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Child Poverty Strategy will set out the decisive action this Government is taking to tackle child poverty and make sure children are given the best start in life.

Written Question

Social Security Benefits: Children

Tuesday 25th November 2025

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 estimate he has made of the cost of changing the two-child benefit cap to a) three, b) four and c) five children.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Child Poverty Strategy will set out the decisive action this Government is taking to tackle child poverty and make sure children are given the best start in life.

Written Question

Social Security Benefits: Children

Tuesday 25th November 2025

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 estimate he has made of the cost of lifting the two-child benefit cap.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Child Poverty Strategy will set out the decisive action this Government is taking to tackle child poverty and make sure children are given the best start in life.

Written Question

Employment: Advisory Services

Tuesday 25th November 2025

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 work coaches there were in each English district in each month since July 2024.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The tables below provide Work Coach data by English District from July 24 to August 25.

DISTRICT	Jul-24	Aug-24	Sep-24	Oct-24	Nov-24
Avon Somerset & Gloucester	390	400	390	400	400
Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire	340	350	360	380	380
Berkshire Bucks & Oxford	420	420	440	470	460
Birmingham & Solihull	690	700	700	690	690
Black Country	530	530	520	520	510
Cheshire	160	160	160	160	160
Cumbria & Lancashire	540	540	550	540	540
Default DWP National	30	20	20	30	20
Devon & Cornwall	320	340	340	350	360
Dorset Wiltshire Hampshire & Iow	660	680	690	690	690
Durham & Tees Valley	370	370	370	370	360
East Anglia	520	510	510	520	530
East London	780	790	830	870	870
Essex	390	390	400	400	400
Greater Manchester	980	980	990	1,010	1,030
Kent	440	450	450	440	430
Leicestershire & Northamptonshire	420	410	410	410	430
Lincolnshire Nottinghamshire & Rutland	550	540	540	540	530
Mercia	520	510	500	490	480
Merseyside	480	470	480	470	480
North East Yorkshire & The Humber	370	370	380	380	380
North London	700	690	620	630	630
Northumberland Tyne & Wear	460	450	450	440	440
South London	840	850	970	1,010	990
South Yorkshire	400	400	400	390	390
Staffordshire And Derbyshire	520	520	510	510	500
Surrey & Sussex	510	500	480	490	500
West London	660	660	680	710	710
West Yorkshire	780	790	800	810	810
Grand Total	14,740	14,800	14,940	15,120	15,110

DISTRICT	Dec-24	Jan-25	Feb-25	Mar-25	Apr-25
Avon Somerset & Gloucester	390	410	430	420	420
Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire	370	380	390	390	400
Berkshire Bucks & Oxford	350	350	480	470	470
Birmingham & Solihull	570	560	710	700	700
Black Country	470	470	520	520	520
Cheshire	160	150	160	160	150
Cumbria & Lancashire	510	510	520	520	520
Default DWP National	1,500	1,500	20	30	20
Devon & Cornwall	350	350	360	360	350
Dorset Wiltshire Hampshire & Iow	650	670	710	710	720
Durham & Tees Valley	350	350	350	350	350
East Anglia	420	420	540	530	540
East London	750	760	890	850	860
Essex	370	370	410	410	410
Greater Manchester	970	970	1,020	1,030	1,000
Kent	400	400	440	440	440
Leicestershire & Northamptonshire	390	390	440	440	440
Lincolnshire Nottinghamshire & Rutland	490	500	530	530	520
Mercia	450	450	480	470	470
Merseyside	390	390	460	450	440
North East Yorkshire & The Humber	370	370	390	390	380
North London	550	560	640	620	640
Northumberland Tyne & Wear	430	420	400	400	400
South London	900	920	1,050	1,060	1,060
South Yorkshire	370	370	380	390	380
Staffordshire And Derbyshire	440	430	520	520	510
Surrey & Sussex	380	380	500	510	510
West London	660	660	710	710	720
West Yorkshire	770	770	800	800	790
Grand Total	15,150	15,200	15,230	15,170	15,130

DISTRICT	May-25	Jun-25	Jul-25	Aug-25
Avon Somerset & Gloucester	410	410	410	400
Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire	400	400	390	400
Berkshire Bucks & Oxford	470	470	480	480
Birmingham & Solihull	710	700	710	710
Black Country	510	510	500	510
Cheshire	150	150	150	150
Cumbria & Lancashire	520	510	520	520
Default DWP National	10	20	40	10
Devon & Cornwall	360	350	340	340
Dorset Wiltshire Hampshire & Iow	700	690	680	670
Durham & Tees Valley	350	340	330	330
East Anglia	530	520	520	520
East London	870	880	880	870
Essex	410	400	400	400
Greater Manchester	1,000	980	1,000	980
Kent	430	430	430	420
Leicestershire & Northamptonshire	450	440	440	430
Lincolnshire Nottinghamshire & Rutland	520	510	510	500
Mercia	480	480	490	490
Merseyside	440	440	440	450
North East Yorkshire & The Humber	380	370	370	370
North London	640	640	640	630
Northumberland Tyne & Wear	400	400	390	380
South London	1,050	1,030	1,010	970
South Yorkshire	380	370	370	370
Staffordshire And Derbyshire	510	510	500	490
Surrey & Sussex	510	510	510	500
West London	760	790	790	770
West Yorkshire	780	770	760	760
Grand Total	15,150	15,030	14,980	14,800

The table below provides Work Coach data by English District for September and October 25.

DISTRICT	Sep-25	Oct-25
Avon, Somerset & Gloucestershire	400	390
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire	390	370
Birmingham & Solihull	710	690
Black Country & Coventry	620	600
Cheshire & Lancashire	580	570
Cumbria & Tees	300	290
Default DWP National	20	20
Devon & Cornwall	340	330
Dorset Wiltshire Hampshire & Isle Of Wight	660	640
East London	860	880
East Midlands	550	540
Essex	400	390
Greater Manchester	960	960
Hertfordshire	210	210
Kent	420	420
Leicestershire, Cambridgeshire & Rutland	440	440
Merseyside	450	460
Norfolk & Suffolk	320	320
North & Mid Wales And The Marches	130	130
North East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire	520	520
North London	640	650
Northumberland, Durham, Tyne & Wear	500	500
South London	900	880
South Midlands	450	440
South Yorkshire	380	370
Surrey & Sussex	500	490
The Shires	500	490
West London	850	830
West Yorkshire	760	750
Grand Total	14,750	14,600

Notes:

Work Coach Full Time Equivalent (FTE) data supplied is from July 2024.
The number of Work Coaches has been derived from DWP's Activity Based Model (ABM). This model gives an estimated 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.
Work coaches include both UC Full-Service Work Coaches and Existing Benefits Work Coaches.
The answer to the previous question omitted staff assigned to a “Default DWP National” location. This is not included as standard on requests asking for site specific data, as it cannot be established which sites these staff are attributed to
Due to a system anomaly in Dec-24 and Jan-25 there were a higher number of staff assigned to the “Default DWP National” location so they have been included within the dataset. For consistency staff with this location have been included for other months too.
From September 25 the District structure was revised, and this change is reflected in the second data table.
The district North & Mid Wales and The Marches consist of sites in Wales and England; for the purpose of this response only the England site figures are counted for this district.
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.

Written Question

Universal Credit

Tuesday 25th November 2025

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 data his Department holds on the number of people who have newly claimed Universal Credit in each of the last 5 years, broken down by (a) health-related reasons for claiming and (b) the searching-for-work conditionality group.

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.

However, monthly statistics for the number of People on Universal Credit in Great Britain are published regularly on Stat-Xplore. This data is available by conditionality regime and claim duration.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract information and can refer to the Universal Credit Official Statistics: Stat-Xplore user guide.

Written Question

Universal Credit

Tuesday 25th November 2025

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 proportion of Universal Credit starts in each of the last 5 years were (a) new benefit claimants and (b) claimants transitioning from legacy benefits through managed migration.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

This information is not readily available however, as detailed in the DWP Statistical Work Programme and the Universal Credit statistics release strategy, the Department is developing a method to denote UC claimants given a migration notice from the Move to Universal Credit programme, and updates on this will be shared in the DWP Statistical Work Programme.

Written Question

Property Management Companies

Friday 21st November 2025

Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when his Department's consultation on legislative and policy options to reduce the prevalence of private estate management arrangements will be published.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement published on 21 November 2024 (HCWS2440).

Written Question

Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024

Friday 21st November 2025

Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when the new consumer protections for residential freeholders contained in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 will be implemented.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement published on 21 November 2024 (HCWS2440).

Written Question

Employment: Advisory Services

Tuesday 18th November 2025

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, with reference to the Answer of 20 October to Question 78358, whether the 1,000 redeployed Pathways to Work advisers are part of the existing work coach data referenced in that Answer.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Answer of 20 October to Question 78358 did include the 1,000 redeployed Pathways to Work advisers.