Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of changes to the eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Payment on (a) cold-related illness and (b) hospital admissions amongst older adults in Wiltshire.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
A specific assessment relating to older adults in Wilshire has not been produced. The Department for Work and Pensions published an equality analysis of the changes to eligibility for the winter fuel payment last summer, which is available at the following link:
The Government has continued to take action to support vulnerable households with cost-of-living pressures, including extending the Household Support Fund until March 2026, thereby providing local authorities with an additional £742 million of funding.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department made local-level equality impact assessments on the changes in Winter Fuel Payment eligibility.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
In line with the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty, an Equality Analysis was produced and considered as part of the ministerial decision-making process. This was published on 13 September and is available online: Equality Impact Assessments produced for targeting Winter Fuel Payment - GOV.UK
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 7 April 2025 to Question 43065 on Pension Credit, if she will make an assessment of the accuracy of her Department’s impact assessment on the decision to remove the winter fuel payment.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
In line with the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty, an Equality Analysis was produced and considered as part of the ministerial decision-making process. This was published on 13 September and is available online: Equality Impact Assessments produced for targeting Winter Fuel Payment - GOV.UK . The Department will continue to monitor outcomes for pensioners.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
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 accuracy of her Department’s impact assessment on the decision to remove the winter fuel payment.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
In line with the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty, an Equality Analysis was produced and considered as part of the ministerial decision-making process. This was published on 13 September and is available online: Equality Impact Assessments produced for targeting Winter Fuel Payment - GOV.UK. The Department will continue to monitor outcomes for pensioners.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff in her Department are responsible for (a) processing and (b) responding to Freedom of Information Act requests; and if she will make an estimate of the annual cost to the public purse of this work.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not keep this information centrally and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs. This is because, whilst all Freedom of Information (FOI) requests are cleared by a central team, depending on the nature of the request, any member of the Department’s staff could potentially be involved in: processing; locating information for; or drafting, a response to a FOI request.
DWP Departmental spend is published here: DWP: departmental spending over £25,000 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to respond to the Freedom of Information Act request by Mr Langton of 21 December 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Mr Langton’s Freedom of Information request was made electronically and was received by the Department on 21 December 2024. The request has been given the reference FOI2024/105315. The statutorily defined deadline to respond to any Freedom of Information request is to do so on or before the 20th working day following receipt of the request. The deadline for this request is 23 January 2025 and we aim to respond on or before that date.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2024 to Question 16633 on Department for Work and Pensions: Freedom of Information, if he will publish a breakdown of refugees in receipt of Universal Credit in 2023 by nationality.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is exploring the feasibility of developing suitable official statistics related to the immigration status of non-UK / Irish Universal Credit customers including refugees.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of changes to the eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Payment on (a) primary care, (b) hospitals and (c) Pharmacy First.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know that patients are struggling to access their general practice (GP), especially throughout the winter period when demand is higher. We committed to restoring the front door of the National Health Service by shifting the focus of the NHS out of hospitals into the community. We know that when patients are not able to get a GP appointment, they end up in accident and emergency, which is worse for the patient, and more expensive for the taxpayer. That is why it is key that we increase the capacity of GP appointments. We have already committed to recruiting over 1,000 newly qualified GPs from October 2024 through an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which will increase the number of GP appointments delivered.
In line with the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty, the Department for Work and Pensions produced an equality analysis as part of the ministerial decision-making process. This was published on 13 September 2024, and is available at the following link:
The Department for Work and Pensions will continue to monitor and review the impact of the policy, using this to inform any future decisions.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish her Department’s response to FOI2024/88818.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As the Freedom of Information (FOI) request, FOI2024/88818, was submitted via WhatDoTheyKnow.com (WDTK), the FOI is already publicly available for anyone to access.
The FOI can be accessed on WDTK via the following link:
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Basildon on 21 October (HL1282), how many substantive disclosures have been issued, since the general election, by the Department for Work and Pensions in response to Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) requests on Civil Service workplace occupancy across the department; and whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of each FOI disclosure, redacting the name of the applicant.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since the General Election on 4th July 2024, the Department for Work and Pensions has received and responded to one Freedom of Information (FOI) request relating to Civil Service workplace occupancy across the department.
We will place a copy of this FOI, FOI2024/58197 in the House libraries.