Universal Support (US) programme 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. US phase two is due to start in Autumn 2024 when IPSPC and WHP are due to come to an end.

WHP Pioneer data will start to be published from May 2024 and we are committed to publishing IPSPC programme data in due course. The interim and final evaluation reports for US phase one covering WHP Pioneer and IPSPC, will also be published.

Universal Support (US) programme 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. US phase two is due to start in Autumn 2024 when IPSPC and WHP are due to come to an end.

WHP Pioneer data will start to be published from May 2024 and we are committed to publishing IPSPC programme data in due course. The interim and final evaluation reports for US phase one covering WHP Pioneer and IPSPC, will also be published.

The Universal Credit system is regularly tested to ensure it meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and all issues logged are resolved. This is outlined in our Accessibility Statement on GOV.UK found here.

Furthermore, the Department continuously tests the usability of the Universal Credit system and includes participants who are neurodiverse in that testing. It does not publish assessments made on the accessibility of the system for these customers.

The number of civil servants employed to administer Access to Work at the end of the month for the 18 months up to and including December 2023 were;

July 2022 – 345.61

August 2022 – 339.09

September 2022 – 330.69

October 2022 – 339.69

November 2022 – 337.26

December 2022 – 335.26

January 2023 – 361.52

February 2023 – 398.52

March 2023 – 386.52

April 2023 – 403.42

May 2023 – 406.63

June 2023 – 426.63

July 2023 – 441.50

August 2023 – 464.27

September 2023 – 491.57

October 2023 – 493.85

November 2023 – 495.89

December 2023 – 493.85

As of 30 January 2024, there were 487.48 full time equivalent civil servants employed to administer Access to Work.

Please note that the data supplied is from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics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 Department does not hold the data requested. The process for transferring claims from Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to Adult Disability Payment (ADP) has been designed and agreed with the Scottish Government in order to facilitate a safe and secure process. Most cases transferring from PIP to ADP are designed to take between 13 weeks and 16 weeks and 6 days to transfer, aligning with pay cycles. However, the time it takes for ADP to be put into payment following a case transfer trigger is a matter for the Scottish Government.

The Department does not hold the data requested. The process for transferring claims from Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to Adult Disability Payment (ADP) has been designed and agreed with the Scottish Government in order to facilitate a safe and secure process. Most cases transferring from PIP to ADP are designed to take between 13 weeks and 16 weeks and 6 days to transfer, aligning with pay cycles. However, the time it takes for ADP to be put into payment following a case transfer trigger is a matter for the Scottish Government.

No such assessment has been made. Although there is no upper age limit to claiming Carer’s Allowance, it cannot normally be paid with the State Pension. It has been a long-held feature of the UK’s benefit system, under successive Governments, that where someone is entitled to two benefits for the same contingency, then whilst there may be entitlement to both benefits, only one will be paid to avoid duplication for the same need.

Although entitlement to State Pension and Carer’s Allowance arise in different circumstances, they are nevertheless designed for the same contingency – as an income replacement. Carer’s Allowance replaces some income where the carer is not able to work full time due to their caring responsibilities, while State Pension replaces income in retirement. For this reason, social security rules normally operate to prevent them being paid together. However, if a carer’s State Pension is less than Carer's Allowance, State Pension is paid and topped up with Carer's Allowance to the basic weekly rate of Carer's Allowance, which is currently £76.75.

Where underlying entitlement of Carer’s Allowance occurs (all entitlement conditions are met, but the overlapping benefit rule prevents payment), additional financial support may be available through Pension Credit, notably including the additional amount payable to carers. This additional amount is currently £42.75 a week – over £2,200 a year - and around 100,000 carers receive it as part of their Pension Credit award. It is paid to recognise the additional contribution and responsibilities associated with caring and means that lower income pensioners with caring responsibilities can receive more than other lower income recipients of Pension Credit. If a pensioner’s income is above the limit for Pension Credit, they may still be able to receive Housing Benefit.

The Government is committed to action that helps to alleviate levels of pensioner poverty. The State Pension is the foundation of state support for older people. In April 2023 the State Pension was increased by 10.1% and, subject to parliamentary approval, will be increased by a further 8.5% increase from April 2024. In 2021/22, there were 200,000 fewer pensioners in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10. As far as pensioner carers are concerned, additional financial support is already available, focussed on those in most need.

We are providing support to households to help with the high cost of living worth £104 billion over 2022-23 to 2024-25. This includes, subject to Parliamentary approval, raising working age benefits by 6.7% and State pensions by 8.5% from April next year on top of this year’s 10.1% uprating for all State pensions and benefits.

To support low-income households with increasing rent costs, the government will also raise Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents for private renters from April 2024. This will benefit 1.6m low-income households by on average £800 a year in 24/25.

We are also, from April, increasing the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 years and over by 9.8% to £11.44 representing an increase of over £1,800 to the gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage.

We estimate that in 2024/5 around 20 million families will benefit from the uprating of DWP and HMRC benefits in Great Britain. This will include around 8 million pensioner and around 11 million working age families and around 1 million mixed age couples.

In 2024/25, around 5.5 million Universal Credit families are forecast to benefit from uprating with an average annual gain for a family on Universal Credit estimated to be £470 (equivalent to an increase of around £39 per month), however gains will vary depending on the elements received by different family types. An assessment of the benefit uprating policy has been published here.

On average, households in the poorest income deciles are gaining the most in cash terms and as a percentage of net income in 2023-24 as a result of government policies announced at Autumn Statement 2022. This Government has overseen significant falls in absolute poverty since 2009/10. In 2021/22 there were 1.7 million fewer people in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10, including 400,000 fewer children and 1 million fewer working age adults.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ3412.

The Secretary of State has completed his review of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates for 2024/25. As announced by the Chancellor in the recent Autumn Statement, from April 2024 the Government will be investing £1.2 billion increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This results in a significant investment of £7bn over five years and ensures 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit will gain, on average, nearly £800 per year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024/25.

The Secretary of State has committed to reviewing LHA rates annually and the rates for 2025/26 have not yet been reviewed.

For now, the focus is on bringing together the information we hold about the Government estate into one place. This work is being coordinated by the Office for Government Property. Survey work is underway.

This information is not centrally collated and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Ministers will regularly seek to engage with hon. Members, whilst balancing wider Ministerial and Parliamentary responsibilities.

DWP aims to contact customers within 15 working days to clear their complaint or agree how to investigate it if it will take longer.

DWP now triage complaints giving priority to vulnerable claimants who may be at risk, and those with benefit payment issues. We continue to investigate all complaints as quickly as we can and, as part of the triage process, we write or call those customers, where there may be a delay in answering their complaint.

Since 2021, Child Maintenance Service complaints team have seen their response times to complainants steadily improve and are now responding to almost all complaints within the timescale.

The Department does not measure complaints as described in the question and to determine this request, we would need to examine each individual case, which the Department considers to be cost prohibitive to provide.

The DWP can confirm that there have been no sewage leaks reported to the water authorities within the Department’s estate in the last twelve months.

There have been 25 minor sewage leaks across the estate in the period, generally relating to individual toilets and blocked pipes.

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

The Department publishes quarterly Child Maintenance Service (CMS) statistics, with the latest statistics available to the end of December 2022 here.

The quarterly number of Deduction Orders set up and in process can be found in Table 7.1: Enforcement Actions of the National Tables.

Quarterly statistics showing the method of payment for CMS Paying Parents are available on Stat-Xplore here.

Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found here.

Deduction from Earnings Orders (DEO) are applied as a method of payment where the Child Maintenance Service deducts maintenance directly from the Paying Parent’s wages. The DEO is primarily used to enforce payments but can be set up voluntarily. Deduction from Earnings Requests are similar to a Deduction from Earnings Order but used for Paying Parents who are serving members of the Armed Forces. The Child Maintenance Service can only request a deduction to the Ministry of Defence (MOD), unlike civilian employers they cannot order or enforce payment. MOD policy aims to comply with requests however if the Paying Parent is committed to operational duties MOD may suspend the collection of debt.

Child Maintenance Service takes action to ensure the correct method of payment is applied through identifying whether a Paying Parent is in the Armed Forces through its use of Real Team Information (RTI) Data taken from HMRC. This provides up to date information about Pay As You Earn income as the information submitted by employers online is displayed in RTI immediately. To ensure that the correct method of payment is used for a Paying Parent who is serving in the Armed Forces caseworkers are provided with step-by-step procedural instructions and training.

As at December 2022 Child Maintenance Service had 46,205 Deduction from Earnings Orders and 483 Deduction from Earnings Requests in operation.

(source – Published stats – stat-xplore – CMS Paying Parents = method of payments).

The Government established a cross-Government bereavement working group that includes representatives from over ten Government departments. This group is the vehicle by which we are working to ensure how the findings of the UKCB’s report can inform Government policy in the future. We are continuing our dialogue with the Commission Steering Group and are committed to working with the voluntary sector.

The Kickstart Scheme is a COVID19 response to support young people aged between 16 and 24 years who are at risk of long term unemployment. All young people on Universal Credit including those with a disability can take up the offer of a Kickstart Scheme job.

Kickstart is a part of the government’s Plan for Jobs. Young jobseekers with a disability have a number of different routes and support offers available to them alongside Kickstart, including Access to Work, dedicated Disability Employment Advisors, and opportunities through the Work and Health programme.

The Kickstart scheme is part of the wider package available for young people aged between 16 and 24 years old. Prior to any referral to other provision, including Work and Health Programme, DWP Work Coaches will assess if Kickstart is the most suitable support to improve the employment prospects for the young person.

Once a young person has completed a contracted intervention they can be referred to apply for a Kickstart job. The Department is currently reviewing under which circumstances it is appropriate for a young person to benefit from both a contracted employment intervention and the Kickstart Scheme at the same time.