Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham Erdington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to introduce new (a) opportunities and (b) training for PIP claimants who will lose their entitlement to PIP due to the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill in addition to those announced in the (i) Green Paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working, published on 18 March 2025 and (ii) White Paper entitled Get Britain Working, published on 26 November 2024.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has listened and committed to making changes to the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill. We will take forward reforms to PIP in a different way through the Timms review, and only make changes to PIP eligibility, activities and descriptors once the review has completed. The aim of the review is to make sure it is fair and fit for the future in a changing world and helps support disabled people to achieve better health, higher living standards and greater independence.
As announced in the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions’ statement on Welfare Reform on 30 June, we have increased the funding for employment support for disabled people and those with health conditions, investing an additional £300m over the next 3 years. This means our ‘Pathways to Work Guarantee’ is now an investment of £2.2 billion by 2030. This brings our total investment in employment support for disabled people and those with health conditions to £3.8 billion over this Parliament.
In addition to our Pathways to Work Guarantee announced in the Green Paper, our Access to Work Scheme provides practical support to help disabled people get into and stay in work.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham Erdington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people receiving Universal Credit assessed as having Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity died (a) in total and (b) under the Special Rules for Terminal Illness in the last year for which information is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department supports people nearing the end of life through special benefit rules – called 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, serve waiting periods and in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit.
This table shows the total number of Universal Credit claimants who had a Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) award during 2024 broken down by the number with a LCWRA award under SREL and the number who died during the year.
| LCWRA claimants in 2024 | LCWRA claimants in 2024 under SREL |
Total number | 1,858,800 | 17,400 |
Number who died in 2024 | 24,100 | 5,900 |
Percentage who died in 2024 | 1.3% | 34% |
Notes:
Numbers are rounded to 100.
Data is taken from Universal Credit analytical systems but results have not been quality assured to Official Statistics publication standard and are subject to retrospective change.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham Erdington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims for Personal Independence Payment were stopped due to the death of the claimant where they received a Daily Living component but less than four points for each Daily Living activity in their last assessment in the last year for which information is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This information is not readily available.
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.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham Erdington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people died who had been assessed as having Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity under the Normal Rules and received a Daily Living component of Personal Independence Payment but received less than four points for each Daily Living activity in their last assessment in the last year for which information is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This information is not readily available.
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.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham Erdington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people (a) currently at pension age or (b) close to pension age have had their state pensions affected by National Insurance contribution underpayments in error in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Guy Opperman
In May this year, the Department published the report, ‘Fraud and error in the benefit system,’ available on gov.uk [here]. The detailed information requested is not available.