It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Statistics for people on Universal Credit at the second Thursday of each month are published monthly on Stat-Xplore. The latest statistics are available in the People on UC dataset for the conditionality regime category of ‘searching for work’, by employment status monthly from April 2015 to March 2024.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

The monthly statistics from April 2019 to December 2023 are provided in the attached spreadsheet. Monthly caseload statistics for the same time period are available in the UC Health caseload dataset on Stat-Xplore.

We publish Work and Health Programme (WHP) statistics quarterly on GOV.UK and they include the number of people who enter employment and gain job outcomes within two years since starting on the WHP. The next release of published statistics is planned for 30 May 2024.

The contract costs for Work and Health Programme over the last 7 financial years are shown in the table below.

Under current contracts the Work and Health Programme will take last referrals on 30 September, with support continuing to July 2026.

The average waiting time for an initial assessment for people on the Access to Work Scheme in the last five years is not available.

However, the Access to Work statistics includes how many applications result in provision being approved from 2007/08 to 2022/23. Please see Table 3 of the Access to Work statistics.

The latest Access to Work statistics can be on the Access to Work statistics on GOV.UK

The Youth Offer launched on the 20 September 2020 and provides support for 16–24-year-olds who are on Universal Credit to help them move into employment. It includes three elements:

• The Youth Employment Programme, which provides young people dedicated intensive Work Coach support in finding & applying for jobs, with additional assistance available for those who have recently begun their Universal Credit claim.
• Youth Hubs, which bring together in one location DWP services with local support provided by youth experts. This ensures that the needs of young people are matched to services that help them tackle barriers to employment.
• Youth Employability Coaches, who are focused on supporting young people furthest from the labour market overcome complex challenges so that they can move into work.

The Youth Offer is a demand led programme and is available to eligible young claimants on Universal Credit.

The most recent data available is up to end of April for Starts on the Youth Offer.

Notes:

1. Eligible claimants who have recently begun their Universal Credit claim, and are actively searching for work, start in the Youth Employment Programme element of the Youth Offer. A Work Coach may later refer them to a Youth Hub, Youth Employability Coach or other employment support as appropriate based on their needs.
2. When a claimant starts on any of the three elements of the Youth Offer, this is recorded as a start on that element, as well as a start on the Youth Offer.
3. A claimant may take part in multiple elements of the Youth Offer. They may start any element of the Youth Offer multiple times. Each of these starts is recorded as a start on the Youth Offer.
4. Claimants do not take part in multiple elements of the Youth Offer simultaneously.
5. Data for Youth Hubs and Youth Employability Coaches is not available prior to April-21.
6. Youth Hub and Youth Employability Coach data is produced from a manual process and although care is taken when processing and analysing Youth Hub and Youth Employability Coach referrals, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system which features manual data. Therefore, Youth Hub and Youth Employability Coach figures are likely to underestimate the number of young people who have started at a Youth Hub and/or with a Youth Employability Coach.

7. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100. Therefore, the individual elements in the table may not sum to the total figure.
8. Figures are subject to retrospective revision.

The average waiting time for a decision on an AtW application for the financial year 2023/24 was 45.1 days.

The DWP is committed to being a more Trauma Informed organisation. We have a dedicated programme which will integrate the six key pillars of the approach as defined by the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (December, 2022) which are safety, trustworthiness, choice, empowerment, collaboration and cultural consideration. Our programme looks at these six pillars within the contexts of application to our colleagues, our customers, our culture, and the context of our interaction- whether that is a physical, telephony, digital or postal interaction. We are learning from best practice demonstrated by organisations such as NHS Education Scotland, Work Services Australia and the Wales ACES Hub to shape the future prioritisation of this work.

The integration programme is in its early phases, and we appreciate that it will take time to realise the benefits of changes we implement. We are learning from the continued progress of leaders in the field including programmes such as the Scottish National Trauma Transformation Programme. We recognise that an important aspect of many programmes is policies and procedures and intend to replicate this focus within our own work whilst recognising that the programme does not seek to change what the department does, instead we are impacting how we do this, which will extend to supporting our policy development.

We recognise that any truly trauma informed system is shaped by lived experience experts and we fundamentally believe in the co-production of this programme. This is why we have an extensive network of diverse internal and external stakeholders who are engaged in shaping the programme through ongoing forums and insight activity. We are also currently collaborating with the University of Salford on research which explores how trauma informed the department is through conversations with customers, colleagues and external stakeholders. The outcome of this research will help to shape the future priorities of the programme. Finally, we are currently exploring how we establish our own co-production forums for the programme taking advice from expert stakeholders to ensure we create a safe, empowering space for lived experience experts to whilst establishing trust in the ongoing aims and progress of the programme.

Disability Confident (DC) is one of a range of policies to support disabled people into work and to close the disability employment gap. It is difficult to isolate the direct impact of individual policies on the disability employment gap as numerous, interacting factors are at play, including overall labour market trends and changes to the composition of the disabled population, in addition to the effects of disability employment policies and programmes in themselves.

When an employer signs up to DC, they agree to commitments which encourage employers to think differently about disability and to take positive action to address issues disabled employees face in the workplace. There are currently over 19,000 DC members and they estimate 11.5 million employees in total working in their businesses.

In September 2023, the Department published findings from a survey with members of the DC scheme, conducted by an independent research agency[1]. The research explored the effect that signing up to the DC scheme had on members’ recruitment and retention attitudes towards disabled people.

The DWP and Cabinet officials regularly meet with Ministerial Disability Champions to drive this agenda across Government. The Champions’ role is to ensure disability inclusion is a priority in their Department’s work. They are helping to deliver our commitment to support disabled people in the UK through creating more opportunities, protecting their rights and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect of our society.

[1] The survey was conducted in February to March 2022. In total 1,233 survey interviews were conducted with scheme members.

Universal Support is being delivered in two phases. The expansions to Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC) and the Work and Health Programme (WHP Pioneer) are being rolled out for phase one of the service. The aim of phase one is to provide help to up to 50 thousand more disabled people and those with health conditions who want to work, while learning more lessons about how to scale up support for these groups.

WHP Pioneer data will start to be published from May 2024. We are committed to publishing IPSPC programme data in due course. The interim and final evaluation reports for Universal Support Phase 1 covering WHP Pioneer and IPSPC will also be published.

WorkWell will fund 15 pilot areas to join up the work and health landscape at the local level under one coherent place-based strategy. It will enable pilot areas to design and deliver a new early-intervention assessment and support service and a single, joined-up view and gateway into the services that are available locally to manage their specific needs. Funding includes a National Support Offer to enable the Vanguards to meet their delivery plans and a full evaluation of this pilot programme.

We expect these 15 areas to provide services to approximately 59,000 participants over the course of the two-year delivery period. This is in addition to the wider benefits for local communities across England of improved work and health integration.

The total budget for Universal Support is £1.4 billion which will provide up to 400,000 places during the lifetime of the programme. Once fully rolled out it aims to provide 100,000 places a year. Detailed planning and preparation is underway to determine how places will build to that maximum annual volume.

The average waiting time from application to decision in February 2024 was 40.8 days.

Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.

The information requested if not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Government spends around £30bn annually on housing support. In addition, Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates will be increased from April 2024 to the 30^th percentile of local market rents. This will mean 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit (UC) will gain on average around £800 a year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024-25. This is at a cost of £7bn over five years.

The Secretary of State has committed to review LHA rates annually. That review includes consideration of current rents, as well as the broader fiscal context. LHA rates are not intended to meet all rents in all areas: instead, it ensures that claimants in similar circumstances and area are treated the same.

For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and require additional support Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7 billion to local authorities for households who need additional support with their housing costs.