No one has been assessed as unfit for work as the assessment for Personal Independence Payment does not assess a claimant’s capacity for work or work-related activity.

The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment identifies the needs arising from physical, sensory, mental, intellectual or cognitive issues, or any combination of these. The assessment criteria were developed over a decade ago in conjunction with independent health, social care, and disability experts.

All health professionals performing PIP assessments receive comprehensive training in disability analysis including specific training on mental health conditions and how to identify their impact on claimants’ ability to carry out the activities in the assessment.  Our assessment providers have Mental Health Function Champions (MHFC) to support assessors when reviewing evidence and provide advice to DWP Case Managers. MHFCs are specialist practitioners who have at least 2 years of post-registration clinical experience in a mental health or learning disability role.

No assessment has been made of the potential mental health impact of PIP assessments, although customer experience is something that is continually monitored. It would be extremely difficult to objectively separate the specific impact of assessments on mental health from other contributory factors.

The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment identifies the needs arising from physical, sensory, mental, intellectual or cognitive issues, or any combination of these. The assessment criteria were developed over a decade ago in conjunction with independent health, social care, and disability experts.

All health professionals performing PIP assessments receive comprehensive training in disability analysis including specific training on mental health conditions and how to identify their impact on claimants’ ability to carry out the activities in the assessment.  Our assessment providers have Mental Health Function Champions (MHFC) to support assessors when reviewing evidence and provide advice to DWP Case Managers. MHFCs are specialist practitioners who have at least 2 years of post-registration clinical experience in a mental health or learning disability role.

No assessment has been made of the potential mental health impact of PIP assessments, although customer experience is something that is continually monitored. It would be extremely difficult to objectively separate the specific impact of assessments on mental health from other contributory factors.

No such assessments have been made.

The Government understands the pressures people, including parents, are facing with the cost of living and is taking action to help. Overall, we are providing total support of over £94bn over 2022-23 and 2023- 24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of bills.

From April 2023, everyone who receives a state benefit or pension will have seen their benefit rates increase by 10.1%. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions, the benefit cap levels have also increased by the same amount.

To support parents who are in work, from 1 April, the National Living Wage (NLW) increased by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour for workers aged 23 and over - the largest ever cash increase for the NLW.

We recognise that high childcare costs can affect parents’ decisions to take up paid work or increase their working hours. That is why, as announced at the Spring Budget, we are investing billions in additional childcare support for parents of toddlers, investing in wraparound childcare in schools, and increasing financial support for, and expectations of, parents claiming Universal Credit.

Households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments. The first £301 payments have been issued to 8.3 million households, and two further payments will follow this autumn and in spring 2024. In addition, 6.4 million individuals on eligible ‘extra-costs’ disability benefits have also recently received a further £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment meaning households with more than one disabled person will receive multiple Disability Cost of Living Payments.

For people who require additional support, in England, the Household Support Fund will continue until March 2024. This year long extension allows Local Authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need with the significantly rising cost of living. The guidance for Local Authorities can be found here. Local Authorities have the discretion to design their own local schemes within the parameters of this guidance and grant determination that DWP have set out for the fund. Local Authorities are expected to support households in the most need, and in particular those who may not be eligible for the other support Government has recently made available, however, are nevertheless in need. The Devolved Administrations will receive consequential funding as usual to spend at their discretion.

No such assessments have been made.

The Government understands the pressures people, including parents, are facing with the cost of living and is taking action to help. Overall, we are providing total support of over £94bn over 2022-23 and 2023- 24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of bills.

From April 2023, everyone who receives a state benefit or pension will have seen their benefit rates increase by 10.1%. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions, the benefit cap levels have also increased by the same amount.

To support parents who are in work, from 1 April, the National Living Wage (NLW) increased by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour for workers aged 23 and over - the largest ever cash increase for the NLW.

We recognise that high childcare costs can affect parents’ decisions to take up paid work or increase their working hours. That is why, as announced at the Spring Budget, we are investing billions in additional childcare support for parents of toddlers, investing in wraparound childcare in schools, and increasing financial support for, and expectations of, parents claiming Universal Credit.

Households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments. The first £301 payments have been issued to 8.3 million households, and two further payments will follow this autumn and in spring 2024. In addition, 6.4 million individuals on eligible ‘extra-costs’ disability benefits have also recently received a further £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment meaning households with more than one disabled person will receive multiple Disability Cost of Living Payments.

For people who require additional support, in England, the Household Support Fund will continue until March 2024. This year long extension allows Local Authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need with the significantly rising cost of living. The guidance for Local Authorities can be found here. Local Authorities have the discretion to design their own local schemes within the parameters of this guidance and grant determination that DWP have set out for the fund. Local Authorities are expected to support households in the most need, and in particular those who may not be eligible for the other support Government has recently made available, however, are nevertheless in need. The Devolved Administrations will receive consequential funding as usual to spend at their discretion.

The DWP Youth Offer provides individually tailored work coach support to young people aged 16 to 24 who are in the Universal Credit Intensive Work Search group. This includes the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches for young people with additional barriers to finding work, and Youth Hubs across Great Britain.

The Youth Offer is subject to a Process Evaluation, with full findings expected to be shared internally by late 2023. This will inform any improvements or future changes to the Youth Offer policy. The evaluation plans which involve hearing from young people from a range of backgrounds and circumstances and those that work with them, on the services they receive to understand their effectiveness and enable us to make improvements as appropriate.

In addition, the Kickstart evaluation will continue to assess the longer-term outcomes for Kickstart participants after they have completed their six-month jobs. The commissioned process evaluation will conclude in Spring 2023.

The child maintenance calculation is initially based on paying parent’s historic income information received directly from HM Revenue & Customs for the latest complete tax year.

If historic income is not available, or a paying parent’s actual income is at least 25% different from the historic income figure then current income can be used. This is based on evidence from a wide range of credible sources which ensures liabilities remain fair and based on accurate income information. The liability is reviewed annually or at either parents’ request if the income changes by at least 25%.

The Child Maintenance Service, at the end of December 2022 employed 4,747 people, equivalent to 4,046 FTE. This includes colleagues in GB and Department for Communities in Northern Ireland.

Our resourcing levels are regularly reviewed against forecast intake and performance v actuals to ensure a timely and consistent service. Following our most recent Winter forecasting review our request to increase resources directly into our Enforcement segment was approved. An exercise to recruit around 70 staff is currently underway.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has made improvements to enforcement processes to increase effective use of powers. This includes simplifying deductions from earnings, increasing efficiency by reducing the manual intervention required, making better use of deductions from bank accounts therefore increasing the volume of deductions leading to more money being collected quicker for children and working in partnership with HMCT to reduce Court processing times by introducing Virtual Court presenting and electronic exchange of documentation. There is also a Private Members bill sponsored by the Honourable Member for Stroud that removes the requirement to make court applications for liability orders which enable CMS to progress with enforcement action faster and improve efficiency, whilst protecting appeal rights.

The CMS FIU considers all allegations relating to income, either that received from HMRC or from declarations from paying parents, where the information and intelligence indicates that the income used in a CMS assessment has been underdeclared, the FIU carry out a full and thorough investigation and where additional income is found cases are re-assessed and any fraudulent activity considered for referral to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) constantly strives to both maintain and improve contacts and appropriate data sharing agreements with all relevant government departments.

The CMS does this through engaging in a collaborative and positive manner to reinforce existing agreements and establish new channels of communication and contacts within relevant departments and areas.

We have introduced a balanced package of support for people who are affected by the effects of Covid 19. This includes over £6.5 billion of extra support through the welfare system as part of the unprecedented series of measures, announced by the Chancellor, to support businesses and their employees to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

For Jobseeker’s Allowance we have ensured that any periods of sickness experienced by a person who, is infected or contaminated with coronavirus, in self-isolation or caring for a child or qualifying young person in their household who is infected, will not count towards the maximum permitted number of sickness periods applicable to a claimant, whilst in receipt of that benefit. This means entitlement can continue if this causes them to exceed the maximum of 13 weeks in a 12-month period.

We have also introduced a range of additional measures to support legacy claimants deal with the impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic. We made the decision to temporarily suspend the requirement for face-to-face Jobcentre Plus appointments from 19 March for all claimants on Universal Credit, new styles Employment and Support Allowance and Jobseeker’s Allowance, and legacy benefits. Claimants will continue to receive benefits as normal and they will not be sanctioned for not taking part in appointments with Jobcentres.

We also removed waiting days for ESA for claimants affected by Covid-19, so it will be payable from day one of the claim, subject to the claimant satisfying the normal conditions of entitlement.

We have increased the Local Housing Allowance rates for private renters claiming Housing Benefit to the 30th percentile of local rents. As a result, Housing Benefit claimants will gain on average an additional £600 this year in increased housing support. In addition, we have increased the additional earnings disregard in Housing Benefit from £17.10 to £37.10 per week to ensure that the increase of approximately £20 a week we have introduced to the basic element of Working Tax Credit is not clawed back.

The Government has announced a suite of measures that can be quickly and effectively operationalised to benefit those facing the most financial disruption during the pandemic.

These announced measures that have a positive impact on legacy and other working age benefits include:

• Providing more support for benefit claimants in the Private Rented Sector by increasing Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile, helping to alleviate affordability challenges, which will provide additional support for those receiving Housing Support.
• Suspending the requirement for people applying for or receiving benefits to attend jobcentre appointments, which started from Thursday 19 March 2020.
• Allowing disabled and sick claimants who cannot attend a reassessment for Personal Independence Payments, Employment and Support Allowance or Universal Credit to continue to receive their payments while their assessment is rearranged.
• Allowing carers to retain their entitlement to Carer’s Allowance if they have a temporary break in caring as a result of isolation due to, or infection or contamination with, coronavirus disease of either the carer or the person cared for.
• The 1.7% benefit up-rating was implemented in April, ending the benefits freeze, and the state pension rose by 3.9%, as per the triple lock, reflecting last year’s substantial rise in average earnings,

In addition, we have provided local authorities with £500m to support the most vulnerable households in their area who may struggle to meet Council Tax payments.