Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to introduce financial support for family’s impacted by brain tumours following the concerning findings in the Brain Tumour Charity’s recent report; and what plans his Department has to increase support for the charities who help families impacted by brain tumours.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To ensure people living with brain tumours have care which addresses their financial concerns, NHS England has committed to ensuring that every person diagnosed with cancer has access to personalised care. This includes needs assessments, a care plan, and health and wellbeing information and support. Through the provision of information, personalised care empowers people to manage their care and the impact of their cancer, including the financial impact on their families.
The Department for Work and Pensions provides a range of benefits and support for families with people with a range of health conditions and disabilities, including for those impacted by high grade or life limiting brain tumours. These include Universal Credit, Employment Support Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Carer's Allowance, and Access to Work. The Pathways to Work Green Paper was built on the principle that the Government should support those who can work to do so, while protecting those who can’t, and we have already made significant progress bringing forward proposals from the Green Paper to transform the support we offer.
To support charities, including those who help families impacted by brain tumours, the Department of Health and Social Care has a Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Health and Wellbeing Programme. This is a mechanism through which the Department, NHS England, and the UK Health Security Agency work together with VCSE organisations to:
In addition, the National Cancer Plan, which is due to be published shortly, has featured significant ongoing engagement with charities, covering topics such as how to improve the experience of people living with cancer. The plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, including support for people living with brain tumours and their families.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the cost of living on the adequacy of benefit levels in the most recent review period.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Social Security Administration Act 1992 requires the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to review State Pension and benefit rates each year to see if they have retained their value in relation to the general level of prices or earnings. Where the relevant State Pension or benefit rates have not retained their value, legislation provides that the Secretary of State is required to, or in some instances may, up-rate their value. Following this review, State Pension and benefit rates are increased in line with statutory minimum amounts and others are increased subject to Secretary of State’s discretion.
This statutory annual review has now concluded, and a Written Statement was published on the 26 November setting out the proposed new State Pension and benefit rates for 2026-27. As we have set out, we will be uprating most working age benefits across Great Britain in 2026/27, subject to parliamentary approval, in line with the Consumer Prices Index in the year to September 2025 – an increase of 3.8%.
Asked by: Carla Denyer (Green Party - Bristol Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to address the 18% of people who are dying annually in poverty in Bristol Central, as identified in Marie Curie's Dying in Poverty 2025 report.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is committed to providing a financial safety net for those who need it. Support is available through the social security system to those who are unable to work, are on a low income or have additional costs as a consequence of a long-term health condition or disability, but are not eligible for pensioner benefits because of their age.
For those nearing the end of their life, the Government’s priority is to provide financial support quickly and compassionately. The main way this is applied is through the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL) which enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain welfare benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment or serve waiting periods, and in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit.
The Universal Credit Act 2025, ensures that all SREL claimants will receive the higher LCWRA rate, no matter when they make their claim.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of excess winter deaths.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
A very wide range of factors impact changes in mortality – and details of excess deaths can be found across several sets of government statistics. Causes are multiple – including cold homes, fuel poverty, respiratory infections, and pressures on health and social care systems, and as such, multiple government departments offer relevant support.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) leads on winter preparedness measures each year and on public health strategies; The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) addresses energy affordability and housing efficiency through schemes such as the Warm Home Discount and Warm Homes Plan, which help reduce cold exposure and fuel poverty; and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) provides financial support to vulnerable households through a range of pensions, benefits and payments. Together these measures work to mitigate risks associated with cold temperatures.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 November 2024 to Question 88403 on Social Security Benefits: Foreign Nationals and with reference to the Universal Credit statistics, 29 April 2013 to 12 June 2025, published on 15 July 2025, what progress his Department has made on producing Immigration and Nationality statistics for (a) Universal Credit and b) other benefits.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since first publishing the Universal Credit statistics by immigration status and nationality group on 15 July 2025, the Department has published regular updates, with the latest, published on 11 November 2025, covering statistics to October 2025.
The Department checks immigration status when assessing eligibility for benefits, but this information is not collated centrally across all benefit lines and hence is not readily available.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential impact of the suspension of child benefit payments on families also receiving other forms of social security support.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made.
Child Benefit, administered by His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC), is not taken into account as income when calculating a Universal Credit award or other means-tested benefits. It is used to assess benefit levels for the purpose of determining whether to apply the benefit cap which limits the amount of social security benefits a working age household can receive. The benefit cap is applied through Housing Benefit and Universal Credit.
The Department will continue to work closely with HMRC on all relevant matters.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of suspended child benefit payments on (a) Universal Credit and (b) other means-tested benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made.
Child Benefit, administered by His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC), is not taken into account as income when calculating a Universal Credit award or other means-tested benefits. It is used to assess benefit levels for the purpose of determining whether to apply the benefit cap which limits the amount of social security benefits a working age household can receive. The benefit cap is applied through Housing Benefit and Universal Credit.
The Department will continue to work closely with HMRC on all relevant matters.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he will take steps to amend the social security payment regulations to enable the direct transfer of (a) Personal Independence Payment and (b) Disability Living Allowance to competitors to Motability.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Motability Foundation is independent of government and regulated by the Charity Commission so is responsible for the terms and the administration of the Scheme.
The department works closely with Motability and is responsible for the disability benefits that provide a passport to the Motability Scheme. We will continue to ensure the Scheme meets the transport needs of disabled people.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the social security system provides (a) supportive and (b) compassionate services for people experiencing (i) poverty and (ii) hardship.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government believes that the best way of helping people experiencing poverty and hardship is through a system that supports them into good work wherever possible. Through the proposals in our Get Britain Working White Paper we will deliver the biggest reforms to employment support in a generation. This will include reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new Jobs and Careers Service across Great Britain that will enable everyone to access good, meaningful work, and support them to progress in work including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers. Our new service will provide personalised support and move away from the one size fits all approach that Jobcentre Plus has today. We will also remove the stigma of going to a Jobcentre, ensuring it is somewhere that people go to receive support, rather than to feel penalised for receiving benefits. At Autumn Budget, we secured £55m to support the first steps to build, test, and trial the new service for 2025/26.
Universal Credit supports people on a low income in or out of work and is claimed by more than 7.5 million people, and we are committed to reviewing it to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty. We are fulfilling this commitment trough specific work on many of Universal Credit's core elements, and the extensive work taking place through the child poverty taskforce, our health and disability reforms and our employment reforms We have already shown our ambition with the changes made to the Fair Repayment Rate, giving 1.2m households an average of £420 per year. In addition, around 4 million households will benefit from the increase in the Universal Credit Standard Allowance from April 2026, the biggest permanent boost to out-of-work support since 1980, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. This increase is estimated to be worth £725 annually by 2029/30 in cash terms - £250 annually above inflation for a single household aged 25 or over.
To further support struggling households, we are providing £742 million to extend the Household Support Fund (HSF) in England until 31 March 2026, enabling local authorities to continue to provide vulnerable households with immediate crisis support towards the cost of essentials, such as energy, water and food. Starting from 1 April 2026, we have announced a further £842 million a year (£1 billion including Barnett consequential) to reform crisis support with the new Crisis and Resilience Fund, supporting our wider mission to reduce child poverty by reducing dependence on food parcels, preventing homelessness and making sure people can access urgent support when they need it.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help support people with disabilities to meet the cost of (a) energy bills and (b) transport (i) to medical appointments and (ii) in general.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I have regular meetings with colleagues across Government on ways to support disabled people meet the additional costs that can arise from a long-term health condition or disability.
My department provides support with the additional generality of costs that can arise through provision of the extra costs disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment. This is supported by provision from other departments: the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero who provide support with energy bills through the Warm Home Discount Scheme; the Department for Transport who provide guidance on concessionary fares and free parking spaces; and the Department for Health and Social Care who provide for the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme for travel costs associated with medical appointments.