Every parliamentary written question tabled by Chris Hinchliff this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 1–13 of 13 · Department for Work and Pensions
Whether his Department is taking steps to evaluate the effectiveness of the Crisis and Resilience Fund at tackling furniture poverty that exists in areas such as North Hertfordshire.
The Department is planning to evaluate the Crisis and Resilience Fund across England, including the full range of discretionary support provided through the Fund, such as assistance with essential furniture and white goods. This evaluation is expected to ...
Whether his Department has evaluated the effectiveness of the new Crisis and Resilience Fund at tackling furniture poverty in Cornwall.
The Crisis and Resilience Fund launched in April 2026, and therefore no evaluation has taken place yet. The Department is planning to evaluate the Crisis and Resilience Fund across England, including the full range of discretionary support provided throug...
If she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of Personal Independence Payment claimants who use some of their Personal Independence Payment to pay for housing costs.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is intended to provide a financial contribution towards the extra costs faced by disabled people and people with long-term health. Claimants are free to use PIP according to their own needs and priorities. Information on how claimants spend their benefit is published in The Uses of Health and Disability Benefits, and, for a subset in receipt of the Support Group rate of Employment and Support Allowance and its Universal Credit equivalent, in chapter 3.4 of The work aspirations and support needs of claimants in the ESA Support Group and Universal Credit equivalent.
How many overseas voters from North East Hertfordshire constituency are impacted by frozen British Pensions; and whether she is taking steps to help tackle this.
There are no plans to change the policy on frozen State Pension. UK State Pensions are payable worldwide, without regard to nationality, and are only up-rated abroad where there is a legal requirement to do so, for example in countries with which we have a reciprocal agreement that provides for up-rating. The policy on up-rating UK State Pension paid overseas is a longstanding one and has been in place for over 70 years. The Department does not hold information on voter identification and is not able to reliably identify voters from a specific constituency among those whose State Pension has not been up-rated
What steps her Department is taking to consult people living with motor neurone disease on the development of the health and disability green paper.
This government strongly values the input of disabled people and people with health conditions, and that is why we have brought forward this Green Paper and opened a public consultation. The consultation welcomes their views, and we hope that a wide range of voices will respond before it closes on the 30 June 2025. We are also running a programme of accessible public events to further facilitate input. The series of both virtual and in-person events across the country, will help us to hear from disabled people and representative organisations directly. We are continuing to facilitate other ways to involve stakeholders and disabled people in our reforms. In addition to the consultation itself, we will establish ‘collaboration committees’ that bring groups, including disabled people and other experts, together for specific work areas. Our wider review of the PIP assessment, led by myself, will also bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience.
What assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the time taken for Pension Credit applications to be approved and what steps her Department is taking to reduce the time taken for Pension Credit applications to be processed.
DWP works to a planned timescale of 50 working days to clear Pension Credit claims. The most recent information on processing times for Pension Credit was published in the DWP annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK (ARA) on 22nd July 2024. This shows that in 2023/24 DWP cleared 192,000 Pension Credit claims within the planned 50 working day timescale, equating to 77.7%. The next publication of the ARA will include claims processed in the Financial Year 2024 to 2025, which is due for publication in the summer. As a result of the increase in Pension Credit claims, the Department has deployed over 500 additional people to ensure it has the capacity to assess all claims in reasonable timescales. The latest available information for week commencing 20 January 2025 shows that the Average Actual Clearance Time for Pension Credit is 45 working days. However, Pension Credit is a complex benefit, and some claims require additional investigation or information from the customer, which can result in longer processing times. Please note, the Average Actual Clearance Time figure shown 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. It is rounded to the nearest working day and based on the week the claim was cleared, rather than the week the claim was made.
If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the number of qualifying benefits for the Winter Fuel Payment.
The Government has had to make hard choices to bring the public finances back under control. Linking Winter Fuel eligibility to Pension Credit and other means tested benefits for pensioners ensures the least well-off pensioners still receive the help they need. There are no plans to change the eligibility criteria. 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 over 80. We know there are low-income pensioners who aren’t claiming Pension Credit. We want to ensure as many people as possible have access to this support and urge pensioners to check their eligibility. Pension Credit will passport them to receive Winter Fuel Payments in future, alongside other benefits – including help with rent, council tax, fuel bills and a free TV licence for those over 75. That’s why Government is taking significant steps to raise awareness and maximise take-up. The Government also offers direct financial help to low-income pensioners through Cold Weather Payments (in England & Wales) – and the Warm Home Discount scheme which provides eligible low-income households across Great Britain with a £150 rebate on their winter energy bill. We expect over three million households, including over one million pensioners, to benefit under the scheme this winter. Low-income pensioners and others struggling with the cost of living should contact their local council to see what further support may be available to them, whether through energy support programmes or through the Household Support Fund (in England).
If she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of Wild Justice's report entitled Collateral Damage: The Rodenticide Stewardship Scheme - is it working?, published in Novem
The Rodenticides Stewardship Scheme was developed by The Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use UK to promote responsible use and is overseen by the Government Oversight Group for Rodenticide Stewardship (GOG), chaired by the Health and Safety Executive...
What steps she is taking to ensure adequate resources to support the surge in applications for pension credit.
Prior to the Winter Fuel announcement, Retirement Services Directorate (RSD) had 352 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff deployed on Pension Credit claims. Since the announcement, a deployment plan has been agreed to deploy an additional 537 FTE into RSD to ...
If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of moving the qualifying week for Pension Credit to (a) 30 September, (b) 31 October and (c) 30 November 2024 on the number of eligible claimants.
There is no qualifying week for Pension Credit. A claim for Pension Credit may be made at any time and may be backdated for up to three months as long as the entitlement conditions are met during that period. This means that a pensioner who was eligible f...
Whether she has made an assessment of the (a) potential merits and (b) viability of auto enrolment for pension credit.
It is not currently possible to accurately identify people who may be entitled to Pension Credit nor to determine how much they may be entitled to on the basis of the data which DWP holds. Like all means-tested benefits, a person’s eligibility for Pension...
What steps she plans to take to help support women affected by the rise in the State Pension age in North East Hertfordshire constituency.
DWP offers employment support for eligible customers of all ages, including those below State Pension age, through the network of Jobcentres across the UK, and through contracted employment programmes.A dedicated offer for older workers seeks to provide tailored support for those affected by low confidence, menopause, health and disability or caring pressures, and out of date skills or qualifications. This includes an online midlife review tool that supports people to assess their health, wealth and skills.The government has set out ambitious plans to improve employment support by bringing together jobcentres and the national careers service.
If she will make an assessment of the potential (a) financial cost and (b) impact on levels of child poverty of introducing a child element of Universal Credit of (i) £287.92, (ii) £191.95 and (iii) £143.96 for (A) third and (B) further children.
We are committed to tackling child poverty and are introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school to ensure children are fed a nutritious breakfast and are ready to learn. The new Ministerial Taskforce will drive cross-government action on child poverty, starting with overseeing the development of our ambitious new strategy in line with the Opportunity Mission.After initial engagement, the formal work to develop the new child poverty strategy will begin and we will publish a Full Terms of Reference in the coming weeks. We will explore how we can use all the available levers we have across government and wider society to drive forward the change our children need.