Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of dispensing PIP payments on a weekly basis.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Payments of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are made every four weeks in arrears, other than SREL (Special Rules, End of Life) cases, which are paid weekly in advance.
These are set out in legislation.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to consult claimants before making any future changes to (a) Personal Independence Payments, (b) Work Capability Assessments and (c) the Disability Living Allowance.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are working to develop proposals for health and disability reform in the months ahead and will set them out in a Green Paper ahead of the Spring Statement later this year. This will launch a public consultation on the proposals.
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, where appropriate, with disabled people and representative organisations.
Ahead of the formal consultation for the Green Paper, we have already started to explore ways of engaging with disabled people and their representatives, including through stakeholder roundtables and public visits. We look forward to progressing these initiatives over the coming months.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if she will reverse the Government’s decision not to provide pension compensation to women who were born in the 1950s and 1960s.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
We carefully considered the Ombudsman’s findings to ensure our decision was fair and based on the evidence.
We have accepted the Ombudsman’s finding that there was a 28-month delay in sending out letters and for this we have apologised. However, we do not agree with the Ombudsman’s approach to injustice or remedy. Full details of the Government’s decision are available here: Government response to Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s Investigation into Women’s State Pension age communications and associated issues - GOV.UK
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the recommendations of the report entitled Nothing has changed, published by Citizens Advice Eastbourne in January 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to reforming the system of health and disability benefits so that it promotes and enables employment amongst as many people as possible. We will set out our proposals in a Health and Disability Green Paper ahead of the Spring Statement. Whilst there will be no specific assessment made from the report, we are 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. We welcome the views of Citizens Advice Eastbourne and all other stakeholders.