Written questions by Voaden.

What data the Government holds on the number of complaints made to financial services and utility companies relating to the handling of bereavement notifications.

Awaiting answer.

What assessment he has made of the feasibility of extending the Tell Us Once service to include private sector organisations including banks, insurance companies, and utility providers, in order to reduce the administrative burden on bereaved families.

Awaiting answer.

What recent progress his Department has made on the national roll-out of the Youth Jobs Guarantee.

The Department recently announced that, for national rollout, eligibility for the Jobs Guarantee will be expanded to include 22-24-year-olds, meaning all eligible 18-24-year-olds across Great Britain will benefit from a fully funded six month guaranteed paid employment opportunity. Once fully rolled out, the scheme is expected to support more than 90,000 young people over the next three years. We know that young people need support quickly, which is why delivery of Phase One of the Jobs Guarantee will begin from Spring 2026. The grant application window for Phase One has now closed and applications are being assessed, with successful Delivery Organisations to be announced in due course.This will be followed by national rollout across Great Britain in Autumn 2026. Learning from Phase One will be used to support effective national delivery of the scheme, alongside close working with Delivery Organisations and employers. This will ensure the scheme is delivered as intended for all eligible young people. Further details on delivery will be set out in the coming weeks.

What assessment has been made of the potential impact of defunding the Level 5 Outdoor Learning Specialist Apprenticeship on the outdoor education sector.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer of 13 April 2026 to Question UIN 123109.

What steps he is taking to improve the responsiveness of his Department's helplines.

We are continuing our efforts to improve our telephony services.We have prioritised service reform through focusing extra resource to boost our performance.Our call answering rate has increased to 86 per cent, the average answering time improving from eight minutes 34 seconds to seven minutes 22 seconds.Our efforts have cleared up agent work queues and freed up capacity.

When she plans to publish further information on the Crisis and Resilience Fund.

We are working closely with local authorities and stakeholders on the detailed design of the fund, and we plan to issue guidance as soon as possible ahead of the new scheme starting on 1 April 2026.

What steps she is taking to support pensioners in receipt of Local Housing Allowance who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs.

The Local Housing Allowance (LHA) determines the maximum housing support for tenants (including pensioners) in the private rented sector. LHA rates are not intended to cover all rents in all areas. The increase to LHA rates in April 2024 cost an additional £1.2bn in 2024/25, and approximately £7bn over 5 years. Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities to those entitled to Housing Benefit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs. As a downpayment on poverty we are investing £1bn in funding for both the Household Support Fund (HSF) and DHPs (including Barnett impacts) for 2025/26 and will be ensuring DHP funding is maintained at current levels.

How many Pension Credit applications have been received in South Devon constituency since 22 August 2024.

On 28 November we published national Pension Credit applications and award statistics. This publication provides application volumes from 29 July 2024 to 17 November 2024. Pension Credit applications and awards: November 2024 - GOV.UK Data is captured weekly and cannot be broken down further to give a figure from 22 August 2024 exactly. The statistics show that 128,000 Pension Credit claims were received between 19 August 2024 and 17 November 2024. This figure has been rounded to the nearest 1000. Please note, the figures presented are from DWP’s Pension Credit system which has previously been collected for internal departmental operations use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics publication standards. We do not currently hold data at a constituency level.

What estimate her Department has made of the number of students whose Universal Credit has been affected by receipt of a student loan in the most recent period for which data is available.

The requested information is not readily available as student loan income is not separated in the data we have and to provide this would incur disproportionate cost.

If she will relaunch the Kickstart scheme.

There are currently no plans to relaunch The Kickstart Scheme.The Kickstart Scheme was a time-limited response to the effects of the pandemic economic downturn on young people. The scheme came to an end in September 2022 with over 163,000 Kickstart jobs started by young people since its launch.There continue to be a range of initiatives businesses can get involved in to give opportunities and experience to young people, including apprenticeships, mentoring circles, and work experience. Our Strategic Relationships Team continuously work to connect DWP with employers and partners to strengthen working relationships and to build new opportunities to support young people back to work. This will be strengthened with the introduction of the Youth Guarantee which was announced in The Get Britain Working White Paper.The Youth Guarantee is for all 18-21 year olds to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work to reduce the number of young people not earning or learning.Learning from the evaluation of the Kickstart scheme is also being utilised in the design of other employment support.

Whether she plans to negotiate reciprocal agreements with Commonwealth countries on uprating UK pensions.

The department has no plans to negotiate reciprocal agreements with Commonwealth countries on uprating UK pensions.