Written questions by McDonald.

Pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2025 to Question 39851 on Social Security Benefits: Disability, whether the collaboration committees will discuss new PIP qualification criteria.

We will establish ‘collaboration committees’ to further develop our reforms and we are currently working through which areas the committees will discuss. We particularly want to work with disabled people on how our additional investment in employment support, rising to £1 billion per year by 2029-30, should be deployed. It will not be possible to have a collaboration committee for every work area in the Green Paper due to the nature of policy development. Where this is the case, we will still ensure that we draw on a wide range of evidence, including the experience of people who have used our services as we develop policy.

With reference to her Department's publication entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025. what estimate she has made of the number of current recipients of Universal Credit health element affected by changes in Universal Credit health rates in (a) Middlesbrough & Thornaby East parliamentary constituency, (b) Middlesbrough local authority, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East; and if she will make an estimate of future recipients of Universal Credit health element affected by changes in Universal Credit health rates in those areas.

Information on the impacts of the “Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper” will be published in due course, with some information already published alongside the Spring Statement. However, the OBR does not publish impacts of policies at a more localised level. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

With reference to the policy paper entitled Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts, published in March 2025, what estimate she has made of the number and proportion of additional people there will be in relative poverty in (a) Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, (b) Middlesbrough Council, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East.

No assessment has yet been made. Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

What estimate she has made of the number of people who will no longer qualify for Carer's Allowance following the proposed changes to entitlements to the Personal Independent Payment in (a) Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, (b) Middlesbrough Council, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East.

No assessment has yet been made. Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

With reference to the policy paper entitled Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts, published in March 2025, what estimate she has made of the number and proportion of additional people there will be in relative poverty in each Parliamentary constituency.

No assessment has yet been made. Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

Whether she had discussions with disabled people's groups on the introduction of the requirement that claimants must score a minimum of four points in at least one daily living activity to be eligible for the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment.

We urgently need reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and promote the interests of disabled people. This means we need to take decisive action to tackle a situation in which PIP claims are set to double from 2 million to over 4.3 million this decade. We are consulting on how best to support those affected by the changes. We will also consider improvements to the PIP assessment. We will launch a wider review of the PIP indicators, which I shall lead, and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this. We will provide further details as plans progress. We will be bringing forward changes in a Bill so Parliament can fully debate and vote on them.

If she will make an estimate of the number of future (a) applicants and (b) recipients for the health element of universal credit in Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency as a result of the green paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published alongside the Spring Statement. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

If she will make an estimate of the change in number of recipients of the health element of universal credit in Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency as a result of the green paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published alongside the Spring Statement. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

How many people are in receipt of personal independence payments in Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency.

In January 2025, there were a total of 11,800 people in receipt of Personal Independence Payment in the Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency. This information can be found on Stat-Xplore in the ‘PIP Cases with Entitlement from 2019’ dataset’.

How many people are in receipt of the health element of universal credit in Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency.

Quarterly statistics for the number of People on Universal Credit with a health condition or disability restricting their ability to work in Great Britain are published on Stat-Xplore. The latest release provides figures up to December 2024 which can be broken down by ‘Age (in bands and single year)’, Westminster Parliamentary Constituency and Local Authority. 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 UC Health caseload aged under 22 at the mid-point of the current financial year (July 2024) can be combined with the standard monthly Limited capability for work and work-related activity element of £416.19 to derive an estimate for annual expenditure for 24/25.

How many people below the age of 22 are in receipt of the health element of Universal Credit in Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency.

Quarterly statistics for the number of People on Universal Credit with a health condition or disability restricting their ability to work in Great Britain are published on Stat-Xplore. The latest release provides figures up to December 2024 which can be broken down by ‘Age (in bands and single year)’, Westminster Parliamentary Constituency and Local Authority. 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 UC Health caseload aged under 22 at the mid-point of the current financial year (July 2024) can be combined with the standard monthly Limited capability for work and work-related activity element of £416.19 to derive an estimate for annual expenditure for 24/25.

What the cost to her Department was of payments for the health element of Universal Credit to people aged below 22 in the latest period for which data is available.

Quarterly statistics for the number of People on Universal Credit with a health condition or disability restricting their ability to work in Great Britain are published on Stat-Xplore. The latest release provides figures up to December 2024 which can be broken down by ‘Age (in bands and single year)’, Westminster Parliamentary Constituency and Local Authority. 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 UC Health caseload aged under 22 at the mid-point of the current financial year (July 2024) can be combined with the standard monthly Limited capability for work and work-related activity element of £416.19 to derive an estimate for annual expenditure for 24/25.

If she will launch a consultation on proposals to rebalance Universal Credit (a) standard allowance, (b) health element and (c) new payment rates.

We urgently need reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and promote the interests of disabled people. Therefore, there are some measures announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper on the 18 March 2025, that we will not be consulting on.The Pathways to Work Green Paper sets out our wider plan to reform the system by rebalancing the levels of the Universal Credit (UC) standard allowance and the UC health element. Our objective is a social security system which is pro-work but provides adequate financial support for people when they are not working, regardless of the reason. The changes to UC payment rates will be introduced in primary legislation, and so will be fully debated in Parliament, and are not subject to consultation.

If she will make an estimate of the change in number of recipients of personal independent payments in Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency as a result of the green paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working.

No such estimate has been made.Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course with some information published this week alongside the Spring Statement. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

If she will make an estimate of the number of future (a) applicants and (b) recipients of personal independence payments in Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency as a result of the green paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working.

No such estimates have been made. Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course with some information published this week alongside the Spring Statement. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

For what reason the (a) equality and (b) poverty impact analysis were not published with the green paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working.

The equalities analysis and poverty analysis includes detailed information which would have pre-empted the OBR forecast. That forecast is market sensitive until the Spring Statement. The analysis was published alongside the Spring Statement this week.

With reference to the green paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working, if she will publish the membership of the panel to ensure that the views of (a) disabled people and (b) people with health conditions are used in the (i) design and (ii) delivery of reforms.

As part of wider efforts to put disabled voices at the heart of policy, the Get Britain Working White Paper announced a commitment to establishing a panel to consult disabled people. We are in the process of establishing this panel, which will also consider the reforms set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper.We also committed to the establishment of ‘collaboration committees’ in the Pathways to Work Green Paper to further develop our welfare reforms. These will involve bringing together groups of disabled people and other experts for specific work areas to collaborate and provide discussion, challenge, and recommendations.Both initiatives will include people who have lived experience of disability and representation of a range of disabilities. Further information about both initiatives will be announced soon.

With reference to the green paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working, if she will publish the criteria for membership of the panel to ensure that the views of (a) disabled people and (b) people with health conditions are used in the (i) design and (ii) delivery of reforms.

As part of wider efforts to put disabled voices at the heart of policy, the Get Britain Working White Paper announced a commitment to establishing a panel to consult disabled people. We are in the process of establishing this panel, which will also consider the reforms set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper.We also committed to the establishment of ‘collaboration committees’ in the Pathways to Work Green Paper to further develop our welfare reforms. These will involve bringing together groups of disabled people and other experts for specific work areas to collaborate and provide discussion, challenge, and recommendations.Both initiatives will include people who have lived experience of disability and representation of a range of disabilities. Further information about both initiatives will be announced soon.

If she will launch a consultation on proposals to introduce an additional requirement for people to score at least four points in one daily living activity to be eligible for the daily living part of PIP.

We have committed to introduce a new requirement that, in addition to the existing eligibility criteria, claimants must score a minimum of four points in at least one daily living activity to be eligible for the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment. Our intention is that – subject to parliamentary approval – the changes will apply to new claims and award reviews from November 2026.We will bring forward this change this session via primary legislation, which will enable Parliament to provide full scrutiny of these plans.

If she will launch a consultation on proposals to (a) end the Work Capability Assessment and (b) use the single Personal Independence Payment assessment to assess entitlement for the Universal Credit health element.

We urgently need reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and protect disabled people. Therefore, there are some measures announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper on the 18th March 2025, that we will not be consulting on. Urgently needed changes to PIP will be brought forward via Primary Legislation so that Parliament can fully debate and vote on them. Spending on PIP has increased by £2 billion per year above inflation on average in each of the last five years. We need to take decisive action to make the benefit financially sustainable, so that it can continue to provide vitally needed support. In the Green Paper, we are however consulting on how best to support those who lose benefit as a result of this change. We will launch a wider review of the PIP assessment, which I shall lead. We will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this. We will provide further details as plans progress.