Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress she has made on reforming the welfare system for people with mental ill-health.

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

The Government believes there is a strong case to change the system of health and disability benefits across Great Britain so that it better enables people to enter and remain in work, and to respond to the complex and fluctuating nature of the health conditions many people live with today.

We will be working to develop proposals for reform in the months ahead and will set them out for consultation and engagement in a Green Paper in spring 2025.

This Government is committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of all that we do, so we will consult on these proposals with disabled people and representative organisations.

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 impact of the assessment process for Personal Independent Payment on the mental health of those assessed; and if she will reform that process.

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

DWP and our assessment providers are committed to providing a quality, sensitive and respectful service, with an approach aimed at continual improvement.

We recognise that attending a consultation can be a stressful experience for some people, which is why where there is sufficient available evidence, Personal Independence Payment assessments are carried out via a paper-based review. Where an assessment is required, claimants are encouraged to include another person where they would find this helpful, for example, by reassuring them or helping them during the consultation. The person chosen is at the discretion of the claimant and might be, but is not limited to, a parent, family member, friend, carer or advocate.

The Department’s Health Transformation Programme (HTP) is modernising benefit services to improve customer experience, build trust in our services and the decisions we make, and create a more efficient service.

The Government believes there is a strong case to change the system of health and disability benefits across Great Britain so that it better enables people to enter and remain in work, and to respond to the complex and fluctuating nature of the health conditions many people live with today.

We will bring forward a Green Paper in spring 2025. We will listen to and engage with disabled people as we develop proposals for reform in this area and across the employment support system.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help protect young people from the potential dangers of social media.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Our priority is the effective implementation of the Online Safety Act so that children benefit from its wide-reaching protections.

The Act requires all services in scope to take steps to protect users, including children, from illegal content and criminal behaviour. In addition, services likely to be accessed by children are required to risk assess their service and provide safety measures, including the use of highly effective age assurance, to protect children from harmful content.

Ofcom has duty to promote media literacy to help the public understand the nature and impact of where harmful content and online behaviour affects certain groups.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what training her Department provides to its staff on supporting people who have experienced trauma.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The DWP has a dedicated Trauma Informed Approach Integration Programme and we are at the start of an ambitious journey. Our integration programme applies the six core pillars of the approach; safety, trustworthiness, choice, empowerment, collaboration and cultural consideration within the framework of, our colleagues, our customers, our culture and the context of our interactions (whether that is physical, telephony, digital or postal). Alongside internal and external experts, we have established an eight-stage roadmap for implementation. We anticipate we will have completed the eight stages of design by 2030, making trauma informed approaches fundamental to our business-as-usual approach.

With response to the query around what training is provided, as part of a wider trauma informed training framework we have piloted an introductory module for all colleagues to develop awareness of the pervasive impacts of trauma and to develop the skills required for trauma informed interactions with customers. This product is currently in iteration to align with the wider trauma informed framework of learning that becomes more intensive depending on the colleague’s role. This module is part of a wider roll out within the framework which will be coproduced with customers, colleagues and experts. Supplementary learning products will also be made available to support embedding trauma informed principles into our business-as-usual approach.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department is implementing a trauma-informed approach across all its services.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Trauma Informed Approach recognises the pervasive impacts that trauma may have on an individual’s life; these impacts can span social, emotional, physiological, neurological and spiritual functioning. The impacts of trauma can make interacting with services a difficult and potentially retraumatising experience, the trauma informed approach is a way of trying to avoid and mitigate this risk whilst creating a safe and empowering environment for all colleagues and customers. The approach has six core pillars: safety, trustworthiness, choice, empowerment, collaboration and cultural consideration (Office for Health Improvements and Disparities, 2022).

The DWP has a dedicated Trauma Informed Approach Integration Programme and we are at the start of an ambitious journey. Our integration programme applies the six core pillars of the approach within the framework of, our colleagues, our customers, our culture and the context of our interactions (whether that is physical, telephony, digital or postal). The design of the programme has been informed by close working with operational teams across the department and is being tested in our Trauma Informed ‘Pulse points’ and innovation hubs. Alongside internal and external experts, we have established an eight-stage roadmap for implementation across the DWP with a core focus on co-production with colleagues, customers and stakeholders. We anticipate we will have completed the eight stages of design by 2030, making trauma informed approaches fundamental to our business-as-usual approach.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure local plans are in line with national housing targets.

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

The government have implemented a new mandatory standard method for assessing housing needs which aligns with our ambition to build 1.5 million new homes in this parliament.

Delivering on that ambitious milestone requires local planning authorities to plan for sufficient homes, as well as commercial development and wider infrastructure, through their local development plans.

Local plans clearly spell out to developers and communities where development will and will not take place, bringing certainty to all parties. They are also the mechanism through which local communities can have their say in how homes are built.

The government inherited a planning system in which only 31% of local planning authorities have adopted plans in the last five years. That is not sustainable, and I am clear that it is unacceptable for local planning authorities to not make a local plan.

We are determined to drive local plans to adoption as quickly as possible, to progress towards our ambition of achieving universal plan coverage and ensure plans contribute positively to our ambition of delivering 1.5 million homes. To that end, we have implemented transitional arrangements and have committed to providing funding to authorities that are at advanced stages of plan making but who will need to revise their draft plans.

We want to work in partnership with local planning authorities to deliver for their communities, but where they fail to do so the Deputy Prime Minister will make use of the intervention powers available to her to get local plans in place.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason her Department has set a limit for the amount of income that someone in receipt of carer's allowance can earn.

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

The primary purpose of Carer’s Allowance is to provide a measure of financial support to those who’s ability to work is constrained by providing care for someone else for at least thirty-five hours per week. The eligibility conditions for the benefit use income as a proxy for ability to work.

We know that some carers are keen to maintain contact with the labour market, so we want to encourage carers to combine some paid work with their caring duties wherever possible.

This is why the Government has announced that from April 2025 the weekly Carer’s Allowance earnings limit will be pegged to the level of 16 hours work at the National Living Wage (NLW) and in future it will increase when the NLW increases. This means that unpaid carers will be able to earn up to £196 per week net earnings and still receive Carer’s Allowance compared to £151 now.