Written questions by Cane.

When his Department intends to respond to correspondence of 7 October 2025 from the hon. Member for Ely and East Cambridgeshire on supporting neurodivergent people into employment.

I replied to the Hon. Member on 25 November.

Pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2025 to Question 85514 on Social Security Benefits: Children, what those levers are.

As outlined in the response by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Minister for Social Security and Disability to Question UIN 85514 on 31 October 2025, we will be publishing our Child Poverty Strategy in the Autumn. The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.

How many civil servants in his Department are working on the Access to Work Scheme.

The Full Time Equivalent number of staff working on the Access to Work Scheme is currently 540. Notes:The Full Time Equivalent (FTE) figure supplied is as at October 2025. This is the most up to date Data held.The number Access to Work scheme staff has been derived from DWP's Activity Based Model (ABM). This model gives an estimated FTE based on a point in time estimate by Line Managers, as recorded on our internal systems each month.This total represents all aspects of AtW delivery, including case maintenance, decision making, telephony, and associated managementFigures have been rounded to the nearest 10 FTE.The number of staff employed is unpublished management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.

Pursuant to the Answer of 28 October to Question 80160 on Apprentices: Special Educational Needs, whether it is his Department's intention to expand this flexibility further.

Where an apprentice has a learning difficulty or disability which is a barrier to them achieving the standard English and maths requirements, there is the flexibility for them to achieve the lower Entry Level 3 qualification in the adjusted subject. In August 2024, this was extended to apprentices with learning difficulties and disabilities but no Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

If he will take steps to remove the two-child benefit cap.

This government is committed to tackling child poverty and the Child Poverty Taskforce is developing an ambitious Child Poverty Strategy which we will publish in the autumn.We are considering all available levers to give every child the best start in life as part of our strategy. The commitments at the 2025 Spending Review and since, including the extension of free school meals eligibility to all children in families in receipt of Universal Credit, are key steps in our Plan for Change to put extra pounds in people’s pockets, and a downpayment on the Child Poverty Strategy, building on the expansion of free breakfast clubs, national minimum wage boost, and the cap on Universal Credit deductions through the Fair Repayment Rate.

What recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of foodbank use in Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency.

The latest statistics on the number of individuals in UK households who used a food bank in the past 30 days or 12 months are available in the Households Below Average Income publication: Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2024 - GOV.UK. National and England regional breakdowns should be calculated using three-year rolling averages from Stat-Xplore Stat-Xplore - Home. Due to small sample sizes, it is not possible to produce estimates of food bank use at the constituency level, including for Ely and East Cambridgeshire. We are committed to tackling poverty and reducing mass dependence on emergency food parcels. To inform this work, DWP officials have engaged with a range of organisations to better understand the complex food support landscape. To further support struggling households, we are providing £742 million to extend the Household Support Fund (HSF) in England until 31 March 2026, enabling local authorities to continue to provide vulnerable households with immediate crisis support towards the cost of essentials, such as energy, water and food. Starting from 1 April 2026, we have announced a further £842 million a year (£1 billion including Barnett consequential) to reform crisis support with the new Crisis and Resilience Fund, supporting our wider mission to reduce child poverty by reducing dependence on food parcels, preventing homelessness and making sure people can access urgent support when they need it.

What recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of child poverty in Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency.

Statistics on the number of children living in relative poverty on a before housing costs basis for Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency are published annually in the “Children in low income families: local area statistics” publication. An assessment of the trends in the level of child poverty in Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency can be made using Table: “5_Relative_ParlC” in the latest published version, found here: Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to 2024 - GOV.UK. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish our ambitious, UK-wide Child Poverty Strategy this autumn, which will deliver measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty. In addition, we are taking further steps to support children and families through our commitments to roll out free breakfast clubs in all primary schools, extend Free School Meals to every pupil whose household is in receipt of Universal Credit. From September, eligible working parents of children aged 9 months and above can now access 30 hours a week from the term following their child turning 9 months to when they start school. This means working parents could save on average £7,500 per year, transforming the costs of having children for families.

Pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 80145 on Occupational Health, what recent discussions his Department has had with businesses on the adequacy of guidance on disclosures.

The Department recognises that disclosure is a personal decision and the Support with Employee Health and Disability service, developed with the involvement of employers from smaller businesses, and disability organisations, aims to support employers in creating environments where employees feel safe and supported to disclose health conditions or disabilities. In recognition of employers’ vital role, DWP and DBT commissioned Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead the Keep Britain Working independent review as part of the Government’s wider white paper plans to Get Britain Working. This has included engagement with businesses across the UK on all aspects of health and disability in the workplace. We are shortly expecting publication of Sir Charlie’s final report. Government is also awaiting the findings from the recent consultation on disability pay gap reporting, where reporting on disclosure rates was discussed.

What assessment he has made of trends in the level of unemployment in Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency.

The information requested is published and available at:https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp Guidance for users can be found at:https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/home/newuser.aspThe estimated unemployment levels can be found by selecting “Query data” on the NOMIS home page and selecting “Annual Population Survey/Labour Force Survey” and then “annual population survey (Dec 2004 to Jun 2025)” in the lists of data sources. The Geography will need to be set for the relevant Westminster constituency from the menu, and the Variable set to “Unemployment rate - aged 16+” from the “Key variables” list.

What steps his Department is taking to tackle child poverty in Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency.

In developing a Child Poverty Strategy, the Taskforce is considering all children across the United Kingdom. The UK Government is committed to tackling child poverty across the UK where progress is contingent on reserved, devolved, and local levers. The Child Poverty Strategy will be UK-wide, drawing on devolved and reserved levers and working closely with Devolved Governments, recognising the progress that has been made on their poverty strategies and policies, and in England, with mayors and other local leaders. Local authorities are a key part of our approach to learning directly about the experience of poverty in different communities and solutions already underway. Both the Taskforce and officials in the Child Poverty Unit have engaged with local communities regularly throughout the development of the strategy. This includes through a ministerial taskforce meeting with local leaders from combined and local governments in England, who joined Ministers to discuss the experience of poverty in their local communities, and innovative solutions underway. The Child Poverty Unit also consulted local authorities across England through a virtual webinar in December 2024, allowing authorities to feed into the development of the strategy. and visits to Manchester, Ashton-Under-Lyme, Cheshire and Merseyside. As a significant downpayment ahead of strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty including an expansion of Free School Meals and a £39 billion investment in social and affordable housing. At the 2025 Spending Review we also announced a new March 2025 £1 billion package to reform crisis support, including the first ever multi-year settlement to transform the Household Support Fund into a new Crisis and Resilience Fund. This longer-term funding approach enables local authorities to provide preventative support to communities as well as assist people when faced with a financial crisis.

With reference to his Department's guidance entitled Support with employee health and disability, whether he plans to review the guidance.

The Support with Employee Health and Disability digital service, which provides tailored guidance for employers managing health and disability in the workplace, including guidance on disclosures, having conversations, legal obligations and making reasonable adjustments, is in national live testing and we continue to update it on an iterative basis, including in response to user research.

What training his Department provides to Jobcentre Plus employees on the provision of appropriate support for disabled people.

DWP is committed to ensuring that Jobcentre Plus employees are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to provide appropriate support to disabled people. All Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers (DEAs) undertake comprehensive learning and development to enable them to support claimants effectively which continues at point of need throughout their role and includes additional mandatory 2 day learning specifically for Mental Health. DEAs complete full Work Coach learning, followed by additional learning designed to support their role. This learning enables DEAs to treat each claimant as an individual, understand the impact of different disabilities and health conditions, and provide tailored support to help overcome barriers to employment. The Department continually reviews and updates the learning provided to Work Coaches and DEAs, ensuring it remains relevant and effective.

What steps his Department is taking to help encourage businesses to increase the employment of (a) neurodivergent people and (b) people with learning disabilities.

In its plan to Make Work Pay, the government committed to raising awareness of all forms of neurodiversity in the workplace. Employers have a key role to play in helping neurodivergent people and people with learning disabilities get into and thrive at work. We are helping employers to do so through a range of initiatives. Our digital information and advice service, developed alongside employers, provides tailored advice and guidance on supporting employees in common workplace scenarios involving health and disability, including managing absences, deciding on changes to help employees, and managing complex situations. Our Disability Confident scheme, which as of 31 August 2025 has over 19,000 members, encourages employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. The scheme covers all disabilities, including hidden disabilities. It provides employers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace and to take positive action to address the issues employees face. Other significant help includes Access to Work grants. These grants support workplace adjustments that go beyond what would normally be expected from an employer through their duty to provide reasonable adjustments as outlined in the Equality Act 2010. They can enable access to, for example, specialist equipment and assistive software. In January this year, DWP launched an independent panel of academics with expertise and experiences of neurodiversity to advise us on boosting neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work. The panel has considered the reasons why neurodivergent people have poor experiences in the workplace, and a low overall employment rate, and will make recommendations this autumn. In our Get Britain Working White Paper, published November 2024, we committed support for employers to recruit, retain and develop staff. As part of that, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead ‘Keep Britain Working’, an independent review to consider how best to support and enable employers to recruit and retain more people with health conditions and disabilities, promote healthy workplaces, and support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence. Sir Charlie Mayfield will deliver a final report with recommendations later in the autumn.

What steps he is taking to strengthen retrospective rural-proofing of his Department's policies.

I refer the hon. member to the answer I gave on 10 September to PQ 73922

What steps he is taking to help tackle youth unemployment.

As set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper, we are developing a Youth Guarantee to ensure young people are either learning or earning. This includes access to high-quality training, apprenticeships, and personalised support to find work. As a first step, eight Mayoral Strategic Authorities in England began mobilising the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in April. These Trailblazers are testing new local approaches to identify and support young people at risk of falling out of education, employment or training and becoming NEET. A key element of the Youth Guarantee, the Chanceller has announced a new Jobs Guarantee Scheme for young people on Universal Credit who have been unemployed for over 18 months. This will provide an opportunity for young people to gain essential skills and experience and prevent the damaging effects of long-term unemployment. Already in place is our Youth Offer which provides tailored support to young people aged 16-24 who are claiming Universal Credit. This includes a range of support designed to help young people move closer to employment, such as dedicated support from Youth Employability Coaches, access to Youth Hubs, and intensive guidance from Jobcentre Work Coaches during the first 13 weeks of a Universal Credit claim. For those with more complex needs, specialist Youth Employability Coaches provide intensive, tailored support. These coaches work closely with Disability Employment Advisors, to ensure that interventions meet the specific needs of each young person.

What guidance his Department provides to claimants of Carer’s Allowance who are self-employed on (a) the number of years of accounts they are required to submit and (b) the format in which those accounts must be provided; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of accepting electronic copies.

Carer's Allowance can be claimed online through the GOV.UK website or by post by requesting or downloading and completing a paper claim form. Eligibility criteria set out that earnings are any income from employment and self-employment after tax, National Insurance and expenses. When claiming Carer’s Allowance, the claim form asks claimants for detail about their self-employment and for the most recent finalised accounts for their business.DWP can accept formalised accounts or information supplied on DWP forms issued to clarify the self-employment, either details for a new business, where there has been a change likely to affect the pattern of trading, or details for an ongoing business. DWP will include a return envelope where additional information has been requested. Where agreement has been made with the claimant, DWP can accept the requested information via electronic copy. However, DWP takes its security of claimant personal data very seriously and will not include any identifying personal information in any email responses.

What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to improve health outcomes for agricultural sector workers.

In line with its published Strategy 2022 to 2032, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) focuses on the most effective and efficient ways to improve the health and safety performance of all industries in Great Britain, including farming. Many of the health risks agricultural workers face are common to other industries such as manual handling and noise and vibration. However, some are very specific to agriculture, such as pesticides or zoonoses (animal diseases which may infect humans). Between 2018 and 2024, in partnership with the industry, HSE ran a campaign to offer farmers free health and safety training which was then followed up by an inspection to a selection of those farms invited to take the training. HSE will continue to visit farms where they have intelligence to suggest risk is not being managed adequately and investigate incidents in line with their published selection criteria. As well as appropriate site visits, HSE continues to engage with farming through a variety of other methods including delivering industry talks; webinars and presentations; engaging with the media and publishing targeted articles for farmers; producing industry notifications which include health messaging; and producing awareness raising campaigns. It also produces an extensive range of freely available guidance to enable farmers to comply with health and safety law and keep themselves and others safe. HSE’s commitment to working with the agricultural industry through stakeholders such as Britain’s Farm Safety Partnerships (FSPs) remains strong.

Whether his Department has considered removing the requirement for employment candidates to have education, health and care plans in order to obtain flexibility in apprenticeships.

All education and training providers (including apprenticeships), and other related service providers, have a duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, so they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled students. This includes people with a learning difficulty. This duty is set out under section 20 of the Equality Act 2010. Disability Rights UK have information available which describes how reasonable adjustments can be provided for students with disabilities. We want all learners and apprentices to feel comfortable and confident to disclose and discuss their individual needs. The recent Post-16 Education and Skills white paper sets out how we aim to remove barriers to participation and progression for all learners, including those with learning difficulties and disabilities (LDD), by ensuring flexible pathways and tailored support. The government provides £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19-to-24-year-old apprentices who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or have been in care. Additional Learning Support funding is available to training providers to make reasonable adjustments which support apprentices who have LDD. Training providers can claim £150 per month where there is a cost involved in making adjustments to support their learning. Where an apprentice has a LDD which is a barrier to them achieving the standard English and maths requirements there is the flexibility for them to achieve the lower Entry Level 3 qualification in the adjusted subject. From August 2024, this has been extended to apprentices with an LDD but no EHCP.

What steps his Department is taking to help increase the number of supported apprenticeships for neurodivergent people.

The government is working to ensure that a learning difficulty or disability is not a barrier to people who want to realise the benefits of an apprenticeship.The Find an Apprenticeship service allows people to identify Disability Confident Employers offering opportunities and Additional Learning Support funding is available to training providers to make reasonable adjustments which support apprentices who have learning difficulties and disabilities.The government also provides £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19-to-24-year-old apprentices who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC) or have been in care.

What steps her Department is taking to encourage businesses to employ people with autism.

In the plan to Make Work Pay (October 2024), government committed to raising awareness of all forms of neurodiversity in the workplace. This includes autism. In January 2025, DWP launched an independent panel of academics with expertise andexperiences of neurodiversity to advise us on boosting neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work. The panel have reviewed the workplace barriers neurodivergent people encounter in getting into or remaining in employment and will be making their recommendations later this autumn. The work of the expert panel will also be shared with the Keep Britain Working Review on healthy and inclusive workplaces, being led by Sir Charlie Mayfield.