Written questions by Davies.

Whether her Department intends to provide an in-person Pathways to Work public consultation event in Wales following the cancellation of the Cardiff event on 3 June 2025.

As part of our commitment to hear from members of the public directly, including disabled people and their representatives, we have now held a number of virtual and in person public consultation events, as per the advertised schedule on GOV.UK. Unfortunately, the Cardiff in person event (initially scheduled for 3 June) was postponed at the last minute due to the venue cancelling and no appropriate accessible alternative being available at such short notice. We are working with the Welsh Government to rearrange this event and have reached out to all registered participants directly, also offering a priority space on other virtual events. Additionally, a Wales-only virtual consultation event has now been arranged and scheduled for 26 June. Throughout the consultation we are committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people and people with health conditions at the heart of everything we do. We encourage members of the public to continue to respond to the consultation online, in writing and via email.

For what reason the Pathways to Work public consultation event in Cardiff, scheduled for 3 June 2025, was cancelled.

As part of our commitment to hear from members of the public directly, including disabled people and their representatives, we have now held a number of virtual and in person public consultation events, as per the advertised schedule on GOV.UK. Unfortunately, the Cardiff in person event (initially scheduled for 3 June) was postponed at the last minute due to the venue cancelling and no appropriate accessible alternative being available at such short notice. We are working with the Welsh Government to rearrange this event and have reached out to all registered participants directly, also offering a priority space on other virtual events. Additionally, a Wales-only virtual consultation event has now been arranged and scheduled for 26 June. Throughout the consultation we are committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people and people with health conditions at the heart of everything we do. We encourage members of the public to continue to respond to the consultation online, in writing and via email.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of utility social tariffs for people (a) on low income and (b) with disabilities that do not receive (i) Universal Credit and (ii) PIP.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is committed to tackling poverty and discusses access to social tariffs regularly with her Cabinet colleagues as part of her work to address poverty. This includes through her role as co-chair of the Child Poverty Taskforce.

What recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of pausing the creation of new Carer’s Allowance overpayment debts until the conclusion of the independent review.

Overpayments have caused significant anxiety for some people. It is important to take the time to review what happened independently, to establish what exactly what went wrong and assess how to put things right. We will await the findings of the independent review being conducted by Liz Sayce. The review is not a substitute for legal proceedings and the existence of the review does not prejudice any business-as-usual activity by DWP. We carefully balance our duty to the taxpayer to recover overpayments with safeguards in place to manage repayments fairly. Carers have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award. Support remains in place with DWP’s Debt Management Service available to speak to anyone who has had an overpayment about the terms of their repayment.

With reference to her Department's Green Paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working, published on 18 March 2025, and report entitled Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts, published on 26 March 2025, when she plans to publish an impact assessment of the effect of welfare reforms in Wales.

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.Future publications will include some information on people in Wales affected. 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, using the same static microsimulation model as in the Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit impact assessment, of the number of additional (a) people and (b) children who will be in (i) relative and (ii) absolute poverty after housing costs in Wales in 2029-30 as a result of modelled changes to social security, compared to baseline projections.

The government's impact assessment regarding Health and Disability Reform is available at Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms – ImpactsThese estimates have been made at Great Britain level. It is not possible to provide figures for Wales because the static microsimulation model uses survey data and sample sizes are not large enough to provide robust estimates.

What the (a) number of PIP recipients and (b) average PIP award amount received each month is in each (i) local authority area and (ii) constituency in Wales for the most recent period for which data is available.

Data on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) can be found on Stat Xplore. The requested data can be found in the ‘PIP Cases with Entitlement from 2019’ dataset. You can use the ‘Month’ filter to select the latest data available. You can filter by Local Authority and Constituency in Wales by using the ‘Geography’ filter to select either ‘National – Regional – LA – OAs’ or ‘Westminister Parliamentary Constituency 2024’ and to select Wales you will need to filter by ‘DWP policy ownership’ and then select ‘England and Wales’ and then ‘Wales’. To look at the average award amounts, you can use the ‘Measures’ filter to select ‘Financial Award’ to get the award amount received. You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

What proportion of the population of (a) Wales, (b) England and (c) the UK received (i) PIP, (ii) Disability Living Allowance, (iii) Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity and (iv) attendance allowance in the most recent period for which data is available.

Table 1 below contains the proportion of the population of England and Wales receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) and Attendance Allowance (AA). Table 1: The percentage of the population of England and Wales receiving the different disability benefits EnglandWalesPIP5%8%DLA2%2%LCWRA2%3%AA2%3% The Department for Work and Pensions only administers PIP in England and Wales and is therefore unable to provide figures for the UK. In Scotland, Adult Disability Payment (ADP) has replaced PIP from summer 2022 and in Northern Ireland, PIP is administered by the Department for Communities.

What proportion of PIP recipients in (a) Wales, (b) England and (c) the UK live in post-industrial areas.

Data on the proportion of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) recipients in each region broken down by areas can be found on Stat-Xplore. There is no official definition of post-industrial areas for use in official statistics. This recent article published by the House of Lords Library references academic research which has produced a working definition of former industrial areas, which may be of use. The PIP recipients in (a) Wales and (b) England can be found in the ‘PIP Cases with Entitlement from 2019’ dataset. Figures for England and Wales can be broken down by Census Output Area 2011 to the Local Authority level using the categories under ‘DWP policy ownership’ within the ‘National - Regional - LA – OAs' variable. You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user, and if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required. The Department for Work and Pensions only administers PIP in England and Wales and is therefore unable to provide figures for (c) the UK. In Scotland, Adult Disability Payment (ADP) has replaced PIP from summer 2022 and in Northern Ireland, PIP is administered by the Department for Communities.

If she will make an assessment on the potential merits of reviewing Universal Credit rates to provide a protected minimum amount of support based on the cost of essentials.

There are currently no plans to make such an assessment. The Government recognises the critical role Universal Credit has to play in tackling poverty and making work pay and has already taken steps to help those in need.The Fair Repayment Rate, to be introduced from April, will reduce Universal Credit overall cap on deductions from 25% to 15%. This measure will help approximately 1.2 million of the poorest households benefit by an average of £420 a year. Benefit rates are reviewed each year, increasing by 6.7% in April 2024 and by a further 1.7% from April 2025, in line with inflation. Around 5.7 million Universal Credit families are forecast to benefit from uprating in financial year 2025 to 2026, with an average annual gain for a family estimated to be £150.

What discussions she has had with the Welsh Government on the potential merits of devolving powers related to the administration of the social security system to Wales.

The Secretary of State has not had any discussions with the Welsh Government about the devolution of the administration of the social security system to Wales.The Government’s commitments on further devolution were outlined in our manifesto. We have no plans to devolve the administration of social security to Wales.

What discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero on data matching to establish a social tariff for vulnerable customers.

Data matching is being used effectively to provide financial help with energy bills to over three million households this winter through the Warm Home Discount. DWP officials are working closely with the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and the cross-government Child Poverty Taskforce to explore options for enhanced data sharing and data matching to support the future development of policy to reduce fuel poverty.

With reference to the Written Statement of 30 October 2024 on Social Security, HCWS175, what estimate has she made of the number of additional welfare recipients affected by the benefit cap from April 2025 in (a) Wales and (b) the UK.

No estimate has been made.

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending eligibility of the mobility component of the Disability Living Allowance to individuals over the age of 65.

Disability Living Allowance and government mobility support is focused on providing additional help with the extra costs of disability to people who are severely disabled early, or relatively early, in life and who as a result, have had fewer opportunities to work, earn and save. Developing mobility needs in older life is a normal consequence of ageing, which non-disabled younger people have had opportunity to plan and save for. It is normal for pensions and benefits systems to contain different provisions for people at different stages of their lives, because the help provided needs to reflect varying priorities and circumstances. We constantly review our policies to ensure they meet the needs of our customers.

How many people in Wales are recipients of the (a) old and (b) new State Pension; and how many and what proportion of those recipients receive the full rate of the (i) old and (ii) new State Pension in the latest period for which data is available.

It is not possible to make direct, like for like comparisons between State Pension amounts received under the pre 2016 State Pension system and the new State Pension. Under both systems, the amount people are entitled to varies according to their National Insurance record. In addition to the basic State Pension, people on the pre 2016 system may also receive some earnings-related additional State Pension and/or Graduated Retirement Benefit As of the quarter ending May 2023, the number of people in Wales who were the recipients of the:a) Basic State Pension (BSP) was 458,382.b) New State Pension (nSP) was 177,404. The number of those recipients as of the end of May 2023 who received the full rate of the:i) Basic State Pension was 377,303. This is 82% of the people in receipt of the BSP.ii) New State Pension was 93,153. This is 53% of the people in receipt of the nSP. This data is available on Stat-Xplore at https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk in the ‘State Pension - Data from May 2018’ dataset. Quarter ending May 2023 is the latest available data, due to data processing issues with the Get Your State Pension service. More information is available in the Background information note: DWP benefits statistical summaries. More information on the data included in the ‘State Pension’ dataset can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-statistical-summaries. Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html. An account is not required to use Stat- Xplore, the ‘Guest Login’ feature gives instant access to the main functions.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of extending eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment to older people in receipt of (a) Housing Benefit, (b) Council Tax support, (c) Attendance Allowance, (d) Disability Living Allowance, (e) Personal Independence Payment and (f) Carer's Allowance on the number of pensioners living in poverty.

This Government is committed to pensioners. Everyone in our society, no matter their working history or savings deserves a comfortable and dignified retirement. We will do this through protecting the triple lock, keeping energy bills low through our Warm Homes Plan, and bringing real stability to people’s lives. However, given the substantial pressures faced by the public finances this year and next, the Government has had to make hard choices to bring the public finances back under control. Winter Fuel Payments will continue to be paid to pensioner households with someone receiving Pension Credit or certain other income-related benefits. They will continue to be worth £200 for eligible households, or £300 for eligible households with someone aged 80 and over. In November we will also be writing to approximately 120,000 pensioners who are in receipt of Housing Benefit and who may also be eligible for, but not currently claiming, Pension Credit. We will be inviting these pensioners to claim Pension Credit by the 21 December, which is the latest date for making a successful backdated Pension Credit claim and still qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment. For those with long-term health conditions or disabilities, the “extra costs” disability benefits, including those provided for by the Scottish Government, provide a tax free, non-income-related contribution towards the extra costs people with a long-term health condition can face, such as additional heating costs. They are paid in addition to any other benefits received For example, Attendance Allowance can be worth around £5,600 a year. Further, receipt of AA can provide a passport to additional amounts in means-tested benefits for those on low incomes providing they meet the other eligibility criteria. These benefits also give rise to a disability addition in Pension Credit, meaning that disabled pensioners are more likely to be entitled to Pension Credit, and at a higher amount, than those without disabilities. Carers over State Pension age on low incomes can claim income-related benefits, such as Pension Credit. This can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities through the additional amount for carers. The additional amount for carers in Pension Credit is £45.60 a week, around £2,400 a year, and around 125,000 carers receive it as a part of their Pension Credit award. We know there are low-income pensioners who aren’t claiming Pension Credit, and we urge those people to apply. This will passport them to receive Winter Fuel Payment alongside other benefits – hundreds of pounds that could really help them.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment to older people in receipt of (a) Housing Benefit, (b) Council Tax support, (c) Attendance Allowance, (d) Disability Living Allowance, (e) Personal Independence Payment and (f) Carer's Allowance.

This Government is committed to pensioners. Everyone in our society, no matter their working history or savings deserves a comfortable and dignified retirement. We will do this through protecting the triple lock, keeping energy bills low through our Warm Homes Plan, and bringing real stability to people’s lives. However, given the substantial pressures faced by the public finances this year and next, the Government has had to make hard choices to bring the public finances back under control. Winter Fuel Payments will continue to be paid to pensioner households with someone receiving Pension Credit or certain other income-related benefits. They will continue to be worth £200 for eligible households, or £300 for eligible households with someone aged 80 and over. In November we will also be writing to approximately 120,000 pensioners who are in receipt of Housing Benefit and who may also be eligible for, but not currently claiming, Pension Credit. We will be inviting these pensioners to claim Pension Credit by the 21 December, which is the latest date for making a successful backdated Pension Credit claim and still qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment. For those with long-term health conditions or disabilities, the “extra costs” disability benefits, including those provided for by the Scottish Government, provide a tax free, non-income-related contribution towards the extra costs people with a long-term health condition can face, such as additional heating costs. They are paid in addition to any other benefits received For example, Attendance Allowance can be worth around £5,600 a year. Further, receipt of AA can provide a passport to additional amounts in means-tested benefits for those on low incomes providing they meet the other eligibility criteria. These benefits also give rise to a disability addition in Pension Credit, meaning that disabled pensioners are more likely to be entitled to Pension Credit, and at a higher amount, than those without disabilities. Carers over State Pension age on low incomes can claim income-related benefits, such as Pension Credit. This can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities through the additional amount for carers. The additional amount for carers in Pension Credit is £45.60 a week, around £2,400 a year, and around 125,000 carers receive it as a part of their Pension Credit award. We know there are low-income pensioners who aren’t claiming Pension Credit, and we urge those people to apply. This will passport them to receive Winter Fuel Payment alongside other benefits – hundreds of pounds that could really help them.

What assessment has she made of the financial impact of planned changes to the Winter Fuel Payment on recipients of the old State Pension.

This Government is committed to pensioners – everyone in our society, no matter their working history or savings deserves a comfortable and dignified retirement. In making a decision on Winter Fuel Payment eligibility, the Government had regard to an equality analysis in line with the Public Sector Equality Duty requirements. The published Equality Impact Assessment can be found here: Responses to Freedom of Information requests on Equality Impact Assessments produced for targeting Winter Fuel Payment - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Winter Fuel Payments will continue to be paid to pensioner households with someone receiving Pension Credit or certain other income-related benefits. They will continue to be worth £200 for eligible households or £300 for eligible households with someone aged 80 and over. We know there are low-income pensioners who aren’t claiming Pension Credit, and we urge those people to apply. This will passport them to receive Winter Fuel Payment alongside other benefits – hundreds of pounds that could really help them. We will ensure that the poorest pensioners get the support they need. The Warm Home Discount scheme in England and Wales provides eligible low-income households across Great Britain with a £150 rebate on their electricity bill. This winter, we expect over three million households, including over one million pensioners, to benefit under the scheme.We are also providing support for pensioners through our Warm Homes Plan which will support investment in insulation and low carbon heating – upgrading millions of homes over this Parliament. Our long-term plan will protect billpayers permanently, reduce fuel poverty, and get the UK back on track to meet our climate goals.The Household Support Fund is also being extended for a further six months, from 1 October 2024 until 31 March 2025.   An additional £421 million will be provided to enable the extension of the HSF in England, plus funding for the Devolved Governments through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion, as usual.