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Written Question
Department for Work and Pensions: Equality
Tuesday 29th April 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people work in her Department's (a) Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing team and (b) specialist equalities unit.

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

DWP currently employs 28.74 full time equivalent employees in its Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing teams. The department does not have a specialist equalities unit.

Written Question
Universal Credit: Refugees
Thursday 27th March 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the total cost to the public purse of universal credit payments to households where (a) one and (b) both claimants are refugees in each quarter since 2017.

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

The Department has no current plans to make such an estimate.

However, the Department is exploring the feasibility of developing suitable official statistics related to the immigration status of non-UK / Irish Universal Credit customers.

Written Question
Habitual Residence Test
Thursday 27th March 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of (a) personal independence payments and (b) disability living allowance payments to households containing at least one claimant that passed a habitual residence test in each year since 2015.

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

The Department has no current plans to make such an estimate.

Written Question
Employment and Support Allowance: Habitual Residence Test
Thursday 27th March 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the total cost to the public purse of Employment and Support Allowance payments to households containing at least one claimant that passed a habitual residence test in each year since 2015.

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

The Department has no current plans to make such an estimate.

Written Question
Universal Credit: Habitual Residence Test
Thursday 27th March 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the total cost to the public purse of universal credit payments to households containing at least one claimant that passed a habitual residence test in each year since 2015.

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

The Department has no current plans to make such an estimate.

Written Question
Universal Credit: Habitual Residence Test
Thursday 27th March 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the total cost to the public purse of universal credit payments to households containing at least one claimant with a non-Common Travel Area nationality that passed a habitual residence test in each year since 2015.

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

The Department has no current plans to make such an estimate.

Written Question
Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations
Monday 3rd March 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) successful claim rate and (b) average number of points scored for PIP Assessments were for assessments undertaken (i) in-person, (ii) not in-person and (iii) across all modes in each of the last ten years.

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

The successful claim rate following assessments undertaken (i) in-person, (ii) not in-person and (iii) across all modes is shown below for each of the last ten years.

Calendar Year

Successful claim rate (%)

Assessment in-person (i)

Assessment not in-person (ii)

All modes of assessment (iii)

2015

-

-

64%

2016

-

-

69%

2017

-

-

68%

2018

-

-

65%

2019

-

-

62%

2020

-

-

56%

2021

-

-

51%

2022

42%

53%

51%

2023

44%

56%

53%

2024 (up to October)

44%

57%

55%

Source: PIP Administrative Data.

Notes:

  • Figures are for England and Wales only.
  • This is unpublished data. It should be used with caution, and it may be subject to future revision.
  • The “-“ represents figures that are unavailable, as distinctions cannot be made between assessments conducted in-person or not in-person before 2022, due to PIP administrative data constraints.
  • The successful claim rates are based on claim outcomes at initial decision and do not account for revised decisions following disputes. Claimants may proceed to register a Mandatory Reconsideration if unsuccessful, or lodge an appeal if unsuccessful following Mandatory Reconsideration.
  • The successful claim rate is calculated as the number of claims awarded divided by the total number of claims awarded or disallowed due to failed assessment. This excludes claims disallowed prior to assessment or following failure to attend the assessment.
  • These figures include claims made under normal rules and special rules for terminal illness and include new claims and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to PIP reassessment claims.
  • All modes of assessment include consultations, paper-based reviews and cases without a recorded mode of assessment. Consultations may be in-person, not in-person (telephone, video) or unspecified.
  • After 2021, a negligible number of claims had a consultation that was unspecified with regards to the mode of assessment.
  • DLA to PIP reassessments typically had higher success rates than new claims, but very few of these reassessments have occurred since mid-2020.

The mean number of points scored for the Daily Living and Mobility components following a PIP assessment undertaken (i) in-person, (ii) not in-person and (iii) across all modes is shown below for each of the last ten years.

Calendar Year

Mean number of points scored at PIP assessment

Proportion of claims missing scores

In-person

Not in-person

All modes of
Assessment

Daily
Living

Mobility

Daily
Living

Mobility

Daily
Living

Mobility

2015

-

-

-

-

12

6

0%

2016

-

-

-

-

12

7

0%

2017

-

-

-

-

13

7

3%

2018

-

-

-

-

12

7

5%

2019

-

-

-

-

12

6

6%

2020

-

-

-

-

11

5

4%

2021

-

-

-

-

8

4

7%

2022

5

3

8

5

8

5

8%

2023

5

3

8

5

8

5

9%

2024 (up to October)

5

4

8

5

8

5

8%

Source: PIP Administrative Data.

Notes:

  • Figures are for England and Wales only.
  • This is unpublished data. It should be used with caution, and it may be subject to future revision.
  • The “-“ represents figures that are unavailable, as distinctions cannot be made between assessments conducted in-person or not in-person before 2022, due to PIP administrative data constraints.
  • The mean point scores are based on assessment provider scores at initial decision. They do not account for revised point scores following disputes. Claimants may proceed to register a Mandatory Reconsideration if unsuccessful, or lodge an appeal if unsuccessful following Mandatory Reconsideration.
  • These figures include claims made under normal rules and special rules for terminal illness and include new claims and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to PIP reassessment claims.
  • All modes of assessment include consultations, paper-based reviews and cases without a recorded mode of assessment. Consultations may be in-person, not in-person (telephone, video) or unspecified.
  • After 2021, a negligible number of claims had a consultation that was unspecified with regards to the mode of assessment.
  • The proportion of claims missing scores each year is an indicator of data quality. Mean point scores in years with more missing scores are not fully representative.
  • DLA to PIP reassessments typically had higher points awarded than new claims, but very few of these reassessments have occurred since mid-2020.
Written Question
Department for Work and Pensions: Translation Services
Thursday 6th February 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many calls to her Department were translated in each month since January 2021 for which data is available by language code; and what the cost of that translation was.

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

The Contract value for the 3-year term (9th May 2022 - 8th May 2025) is £23.1m which is inclusive of all calls and face to face services. This includes interpretation translation, British Sign Language, video remote services and staff support (internal British Sign language needs for DWP colleagues).

We are unable to break this down by month as it is commercially sensitive.

Written Question
Migrant Workers: English Language
Tuesday 17th December 2024

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were referred by job centre advisors to a course to improve their English language skills in each year since 2015.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The requested information is not held by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Written Question
Jobcentres and Universal Credit: Telephone Services
Tuesday 10th December 2024

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 2 December 2024 to Question 15704 on Jobcentres and Universal Credit: Telephone Services, how many calls were translated by language code since 2021; and what the cost was of translating calls by language code.

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

Following consultation with the supplier, we consider that the release of the information requested would prejudice commercial interests.