Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the expected number of young people who will receive an offer of (a) education, (b) training, (c) an apprenticeship, or (d) guaranteed paid work through the Youth Guarantee in its first year.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) has been rising for too long, which is why we are tackling this crisis of opportunity with new energy and determination.
At Budget the government announced that £820 million has been committed to the Youth Guarantee over the next three years to support all young people aged 16 to 24 to earn or learn. This includes the previously announced Jobs Guarantee, which is guaranteeing six-months of paid work for every eligible 18-21 year old who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for 18 months. Under the Jobs Guarantee we will fund 100% of the wages for the six months (up to 25hrs/week at the relevant minimum wage), as well as the additional employment costs and a budget for wrap around support. Further details on the Youth Guarantee will be announced shortly.
More broadly this government is supporting employers to offer apprenticeships to young people. In August we introduced new foundation apprenticeships for young people in targeted sectors which are underpinned by an employer incentive payment of up to £2,000 to contribute to the extra costs of supporting someone at the beginning of their career. In addition, as the Chancellor announced at the Budget, this government will now fully fund SME apprenticeships for eligible people aged 16-24, to boost small business starts and prioritise funding to young people, starting from the next academic year.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what measures he will use to assess the success of the Youth Guarantee in reducing youth unemployment over the next five years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) has been rising for too long, which is why we are tackling this crisis of opportunity with new energy and determination.
At Budget the government announced that £820 million has been committed to the Youth Guarantee over the next three years to support all young people aged 16 to 24 to earn or learn. This includes the previously announced Jobs Guarantee, which is guaranteeing six-months of paid work for every eligible 18-21 year old who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for 18 months. Further details on the Youth Guarantee will be announced shortly.
We are also working with eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers across England which are testing innovative approaches to identify and deliver localised support to young people who are NEET or at risk of becoming NEET. We will use the learning from these Trailblazers to inform the future design and development of the Youth Guarantee as it rolls out across the rest of Great Britain. The Department will be commissioning an evaluation, starting in December 2025, which is expected to build evidence on the effectiveness of the programme at achieving employment outcomes, reducing levels of economic inactivity, increasing participation in education and training, and effectiveness of systems integration.
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 assessment the Government has made of the potential impact on levels of poverty of the proposed merger of contributory Employment and Support Allowance into Universal Credit health-related payments.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the Pathways to Work Green Paper we announced that we would be establishing a new, simple and clear Unemployment Insurance benefit through the reform of contributory working age benefits. Following recent consultation, officials are considering the responses and developing the policy for this new benefit, including the duration of entitlement.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of additional households that would become subject to the Household Benefit Cap following the removal of the two-child limit on the Universal Credit Child Element.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
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, with reference to the report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation entitled Guarantee our Essentials: reforming Universal Credit to ensure we can all afford the essentials in hard time, published on 4 March 2025, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an essentials guarantee for welfare recipients.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A Universal Credit award is made up of a standard allowance rate to provide towards basic living costs, paid according to age and household unit. Additional amounts are added to provide for individual needs such as housing, disability, and childcare costs.
We’ve taken important steps to support people with their living costs. The Universal Credit Act legislates to rebalance Universal Credit by bringing in, for the first time ever, a sustained above inflation increase to the standard allowance for all claimants. This will benefit around 4 million households and is estimated to be worth around £760 annually in cash terms by 2029/30 for a single household aged 25 or over (£250 above inflation) or over £1195 (£400 above inflation) for a couple where one is aged 25 or over with children by 2029/30.
We will also be uprating most working age benefits, across Great Britain in 2026/27, subject to parliamentary approval, in line with the Consumer Prices Index for the year to September 2025 – an increase of 3.8%.
The Government is also taking action to reduce child poverty through the removal of the two child limit. Removing the two child limit is the fastest and most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty over this Parliament and estimated to alone lift 450,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many additional people will be eligible for the Help to Save scheme in the West Midlands from 2028.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is expanding the Help to Save scheme to Universal Credit claimants who receive either the carer’s element or the child element. This will enable more low-income households to build savings, supported by a government bonus, to improve their financial security.
Whilst no estimate has been made of potential take-up of the scheme on a regional basis, up to an additional 1.5 million households could benefit from the scheme from April 2028.
This is an estimate of the number of non-working households who are estimated to be in receipt of the child element and/ or carer element on Universal Credit in April 2028. It is derived from the DWP’s Policy Simulation Model which is a microsimulation model that is based on data from the Family Resources Survey and DWP benefit forecasts. Eligibility estimates are therefore subject to some uncertainty.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in relation to Housing Benefit being tapered at a faster rate than pay, what impact this has had on young people in supported accommodation; and whether he has evaluated the subsequent loss to the Exchequer.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There has been a longstanding work disincentive arising from the interaction between Universal Credit and Housing Benefit for young people living in supported accommodation. The Autumn Budget 2025 included an announcement to introduce four new earned income disregards into Housing Benefit for residents in Supported Housing and Temporary Accommodation. This will remove a significant barrier to entering work or increasing hours, ensuring that work pays and these residents are better able to achieve financial independence.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in the context of the transition from Employment Support Allowance to Universal Credit, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of this transition on people with workplace injuries who have built up their National Insurance contribution.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Customers who are claiming New Style Employment Support Allowance (NS ESA) based on their National Insurance contributions, for example following a workplace injury, will not be transitioned from NS ESA to Universal Credit.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to require Jobcentres to report on the number of claimants moved into a) full-time work, b) part-time work and c) training and skills provision.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP do not publish statistics on the total number of customers who are supported by Jobcentres into different types of work or training.
However, we have recently published analysis on into-work rates, including at the local authority and Jobcentre Plus district level, which can be found here: Get Britain Working: Labour Market Insights October 2025 - GOV.UK. The into-work rate is the proportion of Universal Credit ‘searching for work’ conditionality regime customers who have earnings in one assessment period who did not have earnings in the preceding assessment period.
The average into-work rate for the 12 months to June 2025 in Great Britain was 7.4%. Over the same period the into-work rate for the local authorities Basildon and Thurrock were 7.4% and 8.2% respectively. For the Essex Jobcentre Plus district it was 8.5%.
The DWP have published management information on SWAPs starts and employment outcomes since April 2021, which can be found here: Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) Management Information, April 2021 to September 2025 - GOV.UK. In financial year 2024/25, there were 86,730 starts on Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs).
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants were supported by Jobcentres into work in the last 12 months.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP do not publish statistics on the total number of customers who are supported by Jobcentres into different types of work or training.
However, we have recently published analysis on into-work rates, including at the local authority and Jobcentre Plus district level, which can be found here: Get Britain Working: Labour Market Insights October 2025 - GOV.UK. The into-work rate is the proportion of Universal Credit ‘searching for work’ conditionality regime customers who have earnings in one assessment period who did not have earnings in the preceding assessment period.
The average into-work rate for the 12 months to June 2025 in Great Britain was 7.4%. Over the same period the into-work rate for the local authorities Basildon and Thurrock were 7.4% and 8.2% respectively. For the Essex Jobcentre Plus district it was 8.5%.
The DWP have published management information on SWAPs starts and employment outcomes since April 2021, which can be found here: Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) Management Information, April 2021 to September 2025 - GOV.UK. In financial year 2024/25, there were 86,730 starts on Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs).