Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that (a) the most vulnerable and (b) other people living in rural constituencies can easily access her Department's support (i) digitally and (ii) through local offices.

All DWP colleagues are trained to support our most vulnerable customers and have access to a wide range of guidance and signposting to support them. Where further specialist help is required, DWP has a national network of Advanced Customer Support Senior Leaders who can provide additional advice and support through the local networks they have built with external partners and organisations. This could include those who can offer digital and other support to access our services.

Through the national DWP Visiting Service the Department provides additional face-to-face support across all service lines to customers who cannot access DWP services in any other way. A visit can be arranged for a customer if they need extra help to claim benefits, for example because they have complex needs, are disabled, are a vulnerable young person making a claim for the first time, have nobody else to support them or cannot claim benefits in any other way. There is also work underway to look at how we can enhance our Visiting service further so that it is even more flexible to support customers differing needs.

In close collaboration with the Advanced Customer Support team, the Digital Group is driving efforts to standardise how the Department captures and records the needs of our most vulnerable customers, introducing consistency in areas such as accessibility markers.

We are also looking at a re-launch of our Strategic Video Service at the end of 2025, to bring more choice for those customers who struggle to access a physical location. In addition, we have developed an external-facing Application Programming Interface (API), which enables Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to obtain real-time confirmation of a customer's entitlement to relevant benefits and allows eligible customers to take up a social tariff for their broadband, supporting low-income families by reducing their costs and enabling them to stay connected.