Written questions by Cooper.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of ending multiple assessments for amputees to qualify for benefits.

Awaiting answer.

Pursuant to the Answer of 18 March to Question 114995 on Employment: Young People, where young people from St Albans who are not in receipt of benefits may locate their local Youth Hub to engage with the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers programme.

For many years our young people have not had the opportunity and support they deserve. Under the last government, between 2021 and 2024, the number of young people not in education, employment or training increased by 250,000. The eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England are testing new ways to identify, engage and support young people who are, or are at risk of becoming, NEET. This includes 18–21‑year‑olds who are not claiming benefits, who can, through the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, access tailored support which connects them to meaningful employment and training opportunities. By bringing together national entitlements with locally tailored provision and working closely with employers, colleges and the voluntary sector, the Trailblazers are helping more young people develop the skills and confidence they need to enter employment and advance their careers. The Youth Guarantee is about reaching all NEET young people, including those outside the benefits system. That is why we recently announced a further £1 billion investment in young people, taking the total investment to £2.5 billion over the next three years though the Youth Guarantee and additional investment in the Growth and Skills Levy. This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn. This includes the delivery of eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England, the expansion of Youth Hubs to more than 360 areas across Great Britain, and the introduction of a new Youth Guarantee Gateway in Jobcentres, providing more intensive support to 16-24 year olds. Youth Hubs offer access to employment and skills support, as well as links to housing and mental health services for young people, including in areas where Youth Guarantee Trailblazers operate, but they are not responsible for delivering the Trailblazer programmes. We will also prioritise prevention – improving support in schools, access to work experience and further education places. This investment will also create around 300,000 more opportunities to gain workplace experience and training. It will also help unlock up to 200,000 more employment opportunities, through a new £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant for employers who hire 18–24-year-olds who have been on Universal Credit for over six months, a new £2,000 apprenticeship incentive for small and medium sized employers hiring 16–24-year-olds and the Jobs Guarantee scheme, providing long-term unemployed 18–24-year-olds with a fully funded six month job. Together these measures demonstrate the Government’s commitment to backing young people, supporting employers, and working with partners across Great Britain to create clear pathways into employment and education for all young people. There is currently no Youth Hub in the St Albans area. Youth Hubs will be expanded to 360 areas across Great Britain over the next three years. Young people in areas where Youth Hubs open later in the three-year rollout period, will still receive the full breadth of Youth Guarantee support. They will also continue to benefit from tailored help through the local Jobcentre, and, where appropriate, support from nearby Youth Hubs, so no young person is left without support during the phased rollout.

Pursuant to the Answer of 18 March to Question 114995 on Employment: Young People whether young people identified by the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers programme, who do not access benefits, will be able to access a job partly funded by the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers.

For many years our young people have not had the opportunity and support they deserve. Under the last government, between 2021 and 2024, the number of young people not in education, employment or training increased by 250,000. The eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England are testing new ways to identify, engage and support young people who are, or are at risk of becoming, NEET. This includes 18–21‑year‑olds who are not claiming benefits, who can, through the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, access tailored support which connects them to meaningful employment and training opportunities. By bringing together national entitlements with locally tailored provision and working closely with employers, colleges and the voluntary sector, the Trailblazers are helping more young people develop the skills and confidence they need to enter employment and advance their careers. The Youth Guarantee is about reaching all NEET young people, including those outside the benefits system. That is why we recently announced a further £1 billion investment in young people, taking the total investment to £2.5 billion over the next three years though the Youth Guarantee and additional investment in the Growth and Skills Levy. This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn. This includes the delivery of eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England, the expansion of Youth Hubs to more than 360 areas across Great Britain, and the introduction of a new Youth Guarantee Gateway in Jobcentres, providing more intensive support to 16-24 year olds. Youth Hubs offer access to employment and skills support, as well as links to housing and mental health services for young people, including in areas where Youth Guarantee Trailblazers operate, but they are not responsible for delivering the Trailblazer programmes. We will also prioritise prevention – improving support in schools, access to work experience and further education places. This investment will also create around 300,000 more opportunities to gain workplace experience and training. It will also help unlock up to 200,000 more employment opportunities, through a new £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant for employers who hire 18–24-year-olds who have been on Universal Credit for over six months, a new £2,000 apprenticeship incentive for small and medium sized employers hiring 16–24-year-olds and the Jobs Guarantee scheme, providing long-term unemployed 18–24-year-olds with a fully funded six month job. Together these measures demonstrate the Government’s commitment to backing young people, supporting employers, and working with partners across Great Britain to create clear pathways into employment and education for all young people. There is currently no Youth Hub in the St Albans area. Youth Hubs will be expanded to 360 areas across Great Britain over the next three years. Young people in areas where Youth Hubs open later in the three-year rollout period, will still receive the full breadth of Youth Guarantee support. They will also continue to benefit from tailored help through the local Jobcentre, and, where appropriate, support from nearby Youth Hubs, so no young person is left without support during the phased rollout.

Pursuant to the Answer of 9 March to Question 115912 on Department for Work and Pensions: Telephone Services, how many claimants have been put into housing arrears as a result of being migrated from ESA to Universal Credit.

The Department does not hold the requested data. When someone transitions from Housing Benefit their first payment of Universal Credit will be made 5 weeks later. To help bridge this gap, an additional payment of two week’s Housing Benefit is made, resulting in a customer receiving two weeks more Housing Benefit than if they had not moved. The Department is committed to supporting customers moving from Employment and Support Allowance to Universal Credit and aims to make this transition as smooth as possible. To help achieve this, Transitional Protection has been designed to prevent customers from experiencing a cliff-edge in their benefit entitlement and is applied to customers who would otherwise have a lower entitlement on Universal Credit than they previously received on their legacy benefits.

Whether the MP hotline can be used by hon. Members for raising non-emergency queries about claimants who have been sent housing payment demands as a result of being migrated from ESA to Universal Credit.

We recognise that for some customers, the transition to Universal Credit can feel complex at the outset. To support individuals during this period, dedicated help is available through our Universal Credit helpline, where colleagues can provide guidance and reassurance tailored to their circumstances. The Department’s MP Hotlines are specifically intended for urgent, non‑complex enquiries where a claimant may be at risk of harm to their wellbeing, facing an imminent loss of income, or experiencing another situation requiring immediate intervention. As such, they are not designed for routine or non‑urgent matters, including standard enquiries relating to managed migration from Employment and Support Allowance to Universal Credit or issues relating to the issuing of housing payment notifications. Hon. Members wishing to raise non‑emergency enquiries of this type are encouraged to use the Department’s established written correspondence routes. This ensures that all enquiries are properly logged, triaged, and responded to in a way that allows us to provide thorough and appropriate support to constituents.

With reference to the press release entitled Almost a million young people to benefit from expanded support, new training, and work experience opportunities, published on 6 December 2025, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the Youth Guarantee to young people not in education, employment or training who (a) do not qualify for and (b) choose not to claim Universal Credit.

The Government’s ambition is to transform young people’s prospects, by ensuring every one of them, including those outside the benefits system, has the chance to earn or learn through the Youth Guarantee. We are expanding our network of Youth Hubs to over 360 locations across Great Britain, so that all young people can access opportunities and wider support regardless of whether they are on benefits. This expansion will mean that every young person in Great Britain, regardless of where they live, can access high-quality, holistic support in their local area. This includes mental health, housing, essential and vocational skills, and employer engagement at every Hub. In addition, we have launched eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, backed by £90m of funding, particularly to find innovative ways to reach young people outside the benefits system. The Trailblazers are bringing together national entitlements with locally tailored provision, strengthening local leadership and coordination, and working with partners including the voluntary sector, employers and colleges to reach and support young people who need additional help. Learning from these Trailblazers will inform the future design and development of the Youth Guarantee as it rolls out across the rest of Great Britain. Alongside this, reforms to the Growth and Skills Levy will play an important role in reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training, including those outside the benefits system. The Government is investing an additional £725m to deliver more opportunities for young people and provide greater flexibility to employers in support of the industrial strategy. This includes a £140 million pilot with Mayors to work with local employers to connect young people, including those who are not in education, employment or training, to local apprenticeship opportunities. It will also enable us to fully fund apprenticeship training for all eligible young people aged under 25 in small and medium sized businesses from August 2026, removing the 5 per cent employer co investment requirement and making it easier for these employers to take on young talent. In addition, we will expand foundation apprenticeships into sectors where young people are traditionally recruited, exploring occupations such as hospitality and retail.

On how many occasions DWP staff have failed to call Universal Credit customers or their appointees at the agreed appointment time in each month of the last 12 months.

The Department for Work and Pensions does not hold the requested information centrally, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Pursuant to the Answer of 16 October 2025 to Question 77147 on Personal Independence Payment, if he will make it his policy to collect data on the impact of registration of an appointee on a person's PIP payments to track the number of times benefits are inadvertently (a) missed, (b) delayed and (c) stopped.

There are no plans to collect this data. We aim to process applications for appointeeship as soon as possible to avoid delays. It is important that the department conducts checks to ensure that an appointee is both suitable to act and needed by the claimant. Entitlement to PIP would be from the date of claim, meaning the claimant would not lose entitlement because of the appointeeship process. Payments of benefit are the same whether a claimant has an appointee or not. Payments would not be inadvertently stopped because someone has an appointee. Payment can be suspended if concerns are raised about the appointee’s suitability to act, or if there are doubts about the claimant’s entitlement.

How many times has a PIP claimant's payment been (a) missed and (b) delayed following the registration of an appointee on their account in the last 12 months.

We do not hold any data about the impacts of registration of an appointee on a person’s PIP payments.

How many PIP claimants had a registered appointee in the latest period for which data is available.

The total number of PIP claimants with an appointee in July 2025 was 251,400. Notes:- The value provided has been rounded to the nearest 100.- The value provided only accounts for claimants under DWP policy ownership (England, Wales or abroad).- The value provided reflects the caseload at the end of July 2025 – the latest available data.

How many Access to Work applications were (a) submitted and (b) rejected in (i) part and (ii) full in the 2024-25 financial year; and how many and what proportion of applications that were rejected were taken to reconsideration.

(a) 157,023 applications were submitted during 2024-25(b) 88,607 applications were approved during 2024-25 with a further (i)4,227 applications where advice was provided to the claimant. (ii)34,959 applications were not approved with the following reasons:No contactNo EvidenceNot eligibleApplication not pursuedClosed other 1,378 reconsideration requests were received during 2024-25, this equates to 1.1% of decisions made had a reconsideration request Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.

What the (a) longest, (b) shortest and (c) average time taken was from the date an Access to Work application was submitted to the date a decision was made in the 2024-25 financial year.

The longest wait time during April 2024 – March 2025, from the date submitted to the date the decision was made was 393 daysThe shortest wait time during April 2024 – March 2025, from the date submitted to the date the decision was made was 1 dayThe average wait time during April 2024 – March 2025, from the date submitted to the date the decision was made was 56.9 days Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution. We are committed to reducing waiting times for Access to Work and are considering the best way to deliver that for customers. We have increased the number of staff processing Access to Work claims and applications from customers who are about to start a job or who are renewing are prioritised. The Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to get Britain Working’ Green Paper was published on 18 March. Alongside the Access to Work reform proposals introduced in the Green Paper, we are considering further options to reduce the waiting time for customers.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of treating savings in lifetime ISAs in the same way as pension funds when calculating savings limits for means tested benefits.

There are no plans to change the way savings held in a Lifetime ISA are treated in the assessment of means-tested benefits including Universal Credit. The value of the pension fund that someone and their employer pays into protects that person for retirement, and it is right whilst they remain below state pension credit age, that the value of that fund is disregarded when assessing entitlement to means-tested benefits.

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing assistance for costs to unemployed jobseekers for travelling to in-person interviews for temporary jobs on minimum pay.

Our new Get Britain Working plan is designed to reform employment support and create a new jobs and careers service to help people into work. We know that travel costs can be a barrier to work for unemployed customers. Currently the Flexible Support Fund is a discretionary non-recoverable fund, that work coaches can use to remove barriers to work for eligible Universal Credit customers, such as assistance with travel costs. Furthermore, the Jobcentre Plus Travel Discount Card is available to eligible customers to offer reduced rail fares supporting them into employment. The main aim of this support is to improve customers’ job and earnings progression prospects and can include travel to interviews.

Whether she has made an estimate of the cost to the public purse of social security benefits for people unable to work because of an acquired brain injury.

The Department does not hold the information requested.

On what date her Department sent letters to people eligible for Pension Credit to inform them that they must apply for Pension Credit to continue receiving winter fuel payments.

The department sent letters between 7th October and 4th November 2024 to pensioners who, under previous rules, would have received a Winter Fuel Payment this year. The letters informed customers of the change in eligibility for receiving the payment and urged them to check their potential entitlement to Pension Credit which would provide them with a range of additional benefits, including the Winter Fuel Payment.

What the cost to the public purse of winter fuel payments to overseas residents was in 2023/24.

Annual statistics on the number of Winter Fuel Payments made to individuals and households are publicly available via GOV.UK. The latest statistics cover winter 2023 to 2024. The winter 2023 to 2024 Winter Fuel Payment expenditure for residents in eligible European Economic Area (EEA) countries and Switzerland was £17.6 million. Source: Winter Fuel Payment statistics for winter 2023 to 2024 -GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).