Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure the perspectives of older people are included in her Department's policy decision-making.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We know that work helps everyone, including older people, play active and fulfilling roles in society while building financial security for retirement. That is why we are reforming
employment support to ensure it helps everyone who needs it.
This includes creating a new Jobs and Careers service that will enable everyone, regardless of age, to access support to find good, meaningful work, and help them progress in work or increase their earnings.
We are also committing to the establishment of ‘collaboration committees’ to further develop the reforms set out in our Pathways to Work Green Paper. These will bring together groups of people for specific work areas, including older people, collaborating with civil servants to provide discussion, challenge, and recommendations.
We have asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead an independent “Keep Britain Working” review as a part of the plan to Get Britain Working again. In recognition of employer's vital role, his review is considering recommendations to support and enable employers to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces, support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence, and recruit and retain more disabled people and people with health conditions. This includes the perspectives of older people themselves, as well as engaging with the Centre for Ageing Better.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of (a) Statutory Maternity Pay and (b) Maternity Allowance.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Government spends approximately £3 billion a year on parental payments.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is required by law to undertake an annual review of benefits and State Pensions, including Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance. This is based on a review of trends in prices and earnings growth in the preceding year.
From April 2025, the rate for Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance increased by September 2024's CPI figure of 1.7%, from £184.03 to £187.18 per week.
Parental pay is only one element of the support available for parents. Depending on individual circumstances, additional financial support, for example, Universal Credit, Child Benefit and the Sure Start Maternity Grant (a lump sum payment of £500) may also be available.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published in March 2025, whether people with a terminal illness who do not have a claim under the Special Rules for Terminal Illness will be eligible for the additional premium in Universal Credit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department supports people nearing the end of life through the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). These rules enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment or serve waiting periods, and in most cases, to receive the highest rate of benefit.
The SREL have been extended to apply to people who have 12 months or less to live, rather than 6 months or less to live, so that people receive vital support through the Special Rules six months earlier, increasing the number of people able to access benefits through the Special Rules.
The Pathways to Work Green paper announced that the Government is considering the appropriate rules for those in specific circumstances, such as being at end of life. It also announced that, after April 2026, the Government plans to protect the incomes of those with the most severe, life-long health conditions, who have no prospect of improvement and will never be able to work.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what the value will be of the additional premium in Universal Credit for people with the most severe, life-long health conditions with no prospect of improvement.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As set out in the Green Paper, we will ensure that those with the most severe, life-long health conditions, who will never be able to work will see their incomes protected. We will also ensure this group face no future reassessment. We will set this out in the forthcoming Bill.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether people with a terminal illness who do not have a claim under the Special Rules for Terminal Illness will be exempt from work-related activity requirements following the abolition of the Work Capability Assessment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are currently consulting on how we should determine which individuals or groups of individuals should be exempt from the requirement to participate in conversations or any work-related requirements following the abolition of the Work Capability Assessment.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether people with a claim under the Special Rules for Terminal Illness will be exempt from work-related activity requirements following the abolition of the Work Capability Assessment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are currently consulting on how we should determine which individuals or groups of individuals should be exempt from the requirement to participate in conversations or any work-related requirements following the abolition of the Work Capability Assessment.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published in March 2025, whether people with a claim under the Special Rules for Terminal Illness will be eligible for the additional premium in Universal Credit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department supports people nearing the end of life through the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). These enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment or serve waiting periods, and in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit.
The Pathways to Work Green paper is clear that in taking forward reforms, the Government is considering the appropriate rules for those in specific circumstances, such as being at end of life. It is also clear that after April 2026, the Government is proposing that those with the most severe, life-long health conditions, who have no prospect of improvement and will never be able to work, will see their incomes protected.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of Universal Credit have a terminal condition but do not have a claim under the Special Rules for Terminal Illness.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information is not available. The Universal Credit system is usually only informed of a terminal illness diagnosis through an application for the Special Rules for End of Life.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to widen the scope of the consultation for the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Pathways to Work Green Paper set out our plans and proposals for reform to health and disability benefits and employment support. This includes some urgently needed reforms to PIP eligibility and UC rates that are not subject to consultation but on which Parliament will fully debate and vote. We included these changes in the Green Paper to allow readers to see the proposals in wider context and so they can provide more informed views.
The Green Paper does consult on many key elements of the reform package, including employment support and access to work, which are at the centre of our plans to improve the system for disabled people. We hope that a wide range of voices will respond to the consultation, and we are holding a programme of public consultation events across the country to help facilitate input.
We are also developing other ways to facilitate the involvement of stakeholders and disabled people in our reforms. In addition to the consultation itself, we will establish ‘collaboration committees’ that bring groups of people together for specific work areas and our wider review of the PIP assessment will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, CP 1297, published on 18 March 2025, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who would lose entitlement to Personal Independence Payments by health (a) condition and (b) impairment.
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.