Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 22 April 2025 to Question 44809 on Local Housing Allowance: Wales, what (a) metrics, (b) data points and (c) analysis were used to determine the impacts of Local Housing Allowance rates referenced his Answer; and whether the effect on the number of households becoming homeless was factored into that analysis.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The impacts referenced in the previous answer were determined using a wide variety of metrics, data and analysis. These included:
As covered in the previous answer, the causes of homelessness are multi-faceted and interact dynamically. This makes it very difficult to isolate the relative importance of individual factors such as individual benefit rates. But interactions with key measures such as Temporary Accommodation were considered with input from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
At Autumn Budget the Government prioritised a downpayment on poverty, by introducing a Fair Payment Rate for Universal Credit (UC) customers with deductions to retain more of their benefit award. We have invested £1bn in extending the Household Support Fund and maintaining Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) at current levels (including Barnett impacts) for 2025/26.
We continue to work across Government on the development of the Homelessness and Rough \Sleeping strategy in England. Housing and homelessness policy is devolved to Wales.
Any future decisions on LHA policy will be taken in the context of the Government’s missions, goals on housing and the fiscal context.
DHPs are available from local authorities and can be paid to those entitled to Housing Benefit or Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to publish an assessment of the potential impact of the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, on Wales.
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. Future publications will include some information on people in Wales affected.
These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’(opens in a new tab).
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: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support employers to employ more (a) people with sight loss and (b) disabled people.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Health and Social Care are committed to supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, including people with sight loss, with their employment journey.
The Disability Confident Scheme encourages employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. A digital information service for employers, (Support with Employee Health and Disability), has been developed to offer guidance on making reasonable adjustments, supporting employees to remain in work, and understanding legal requirements.
Earlier this year, we formed an independent academic panel, building on the Buckland Review, to enhance neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work. The panel's recommendations are expected to include actions for employers to support neurodivergent individuals in recruitment and daily workplace practices.
In addition to this work, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade have launched the Keep Britain Working Review. This review will consider how to support and enable employers to recruit and retain more disabled people and people with health conditions; promote healthy workplaces and support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how her Department will determine which claimants will be exempt from the new baseline expectation of engagement or work-related requirements once the Work Capability Assessment is scrapped.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We recognise that some people may not be able to engage with new baseline expectations. We are consulting on how we should determine who should be subject to attend meetings only rather than also have wider conditionality requirements, and how we should determine which individuals or groups of individuals should be exempt from requirements completely.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the Welsh Government on the potential impact of the spare room subsidy on homelessness in Wales.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Secretary of State has not had discussions with the Welsh Government specifically about the Removal Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS) and homelessness in Wales. Housing is devolved to the Welsh Government and social security is reserved to the UK Government.
The causes of homelessness are multi-faceted and often complex, they interact dynamically making it very difficult to isolate the relative importance of individual factors.
The RSRS policy applies to claims for housing support where the household living in a social rented property with more bedrooms than their household’s bedroom entitlement.
Easements are available allowing an additional bedroom to support disabled people and carers, the families of disabled children, foster carers, parents who adopt, parents of service personnel and people who have suffered a bereavement. The deduction does not apply to pensioners in receipt of Housing Benefit.
Further, those unable to meet the shortfall in their rent can seek a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) from their local authority. DHPs can be paid to those in receipt of qualifying housing support who face a shortfall in meeting their rental housing costs.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
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 not uprating local housing allowance rates on homelessness in Wales.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The causes of homelessness are multi-faceted and often complex, they interact dynamically making it very difficult to isolate the relative importance of individual factors. Responsibility for housing and homelessness is devolved to the Welsh Government, while social security is reserved to the UK Government.
At last year’s Autumn Budget, the Secretary of State’s decision to maintain Local Housing Allowance (LHA) at current levels for 2025/26 was taken after a range of factors were considered, including rental data, the impacts of LHA rates, the fact that rates were increased in April 2024, and the wider fiscal context. The April 2024 one-year LHA increase cost an additional £1.2bn in 2024/25, and approximately £7bn over 5 years.
Any future decisions on LHA policy will be taken in the context of the Government’s missions, goals on housing, and the fiscal context.
For those who need further support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities. DHPs can be paid to those entitled to Housing Benefit or Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of the Daily Living Element of Personal Independence Payment do not score more than four points in any of the daily living activities, by subcategory of psychiatric disorder.
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.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of the Daily Living Element of Personal Independence Payment do not score more than four points in any of the daily living activities (a) in total and (b) by category of disability.
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.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of the Daily Living Element of Personal Independence Payment do not score more than four points in any of the daily living activities, by category of disability.
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.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to meet disabled people to discuss the proposals set out in the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 26 March 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have set out proposals to reform the health and disability benefits proposals in the Pathways to Work Green Paper published on 18 March 2025. A full 12-week consultation will begin from the point all accessible versions are published on GOV.UK. We would like to hear views from a wide group of people, in particular disabled people and people with health conditions and disability organisations, and encourage responses to the consultation through the online form, email and post.
We also intend to run a number of accessible virtual and face-to-face events on the Green Paper to hear from stakeholders, including disabled people and their representative organisations, directly. More information on these events and registration will be advertised on the consultation pages on GOV.UK in due course.
In the Green Paper, we have also announced that we will set up collaboration committees to develop parts of our reforms further. This will involve bringing together disabled people and other experts with civil servants around specific issues to collaborate, provide ideas, challenge, and input into recommendations.