Written questions by Norris.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that councils do not use the Crisis and Resilience Fund to replace LWA schemes.

My Department has worked closely with local authorities and other stakeholders on the detailed design of the Fund. We published scheme guidance in January to enable local authorities to prepare for delivery. The guidance makes clear that the Crisis and Resilience Fund is classified as local welfare provision and is intended to support and strengthen local crisis support and wider local welfare systems, rather than replace existing Local Welfare Assistance schemes.

How many people used the Tell Us Once Service in 2025 in (a) North East Somerset and Hanham constituency, (b) the West of England and (c) England.

The following data has been taken from the Tell Us Once (TUO) Change Reporting System: a) The information requested is not held centrally and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. b) 169,063 citizens used the service in the West of England. We have utilised Office for National Statistics (ONS) coverage to ascertain which areas are regarded as the West of England (See Appendix A). The calculations include all councils, which ONS states are within North West England, Southwest England and the West Midlands.)c) 445,884 citizens used the service in England. Due to the TUO weekly reporting period, there is a variance of several days in yearly total. The calculation is from 30/12/2024 – 28/12/2025. Appendix A - (Local Authority District (April 2023) to LAU1 to ITL3 to ITL2 to ITL1 (January 2021) Lookup in the UK - data.gov.uk

What steps he is taking to support people with disabilities into work in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

Good work is good for health, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. Backed by £240 million investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched in November 2024 is driving forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity. Disabled people are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. Existing measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers (DEAs) in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants, as well as joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies, Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care and WorkWell. We are also rolling out Connect to Work, our supported employment programme for anyone who is disabled, has a health condition or is experiencing more complex barriers to work. DEAs in the Jobcentres supporting the constituency deliver in-depth Work Ability conversations, focusing on strengths, suitable work options, workplace adjustments and confidence building. Additionally, part of the constituency is served by the WorkWell West pilot in the NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board. We set out our plan for the “Pathways to Work Guarantee” in our Pathways to Work Green Paper and are building towards our guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for disabled people and people with health conditions on out of work benefits. The guarantee is backed by £1 billion a year of new, additional funding by the end of the decade. We anticipate the guarantee, once fully rolled out, will include: a support conversation to identify next steps, one-to-one caseworker support, periodic engagement, and an offer of specialist long-term work health and skills support. Additionally, we have developed a digital information service for employers, oversee the Disability Confident Scheme and continue to increase access to Occupational Health. Bath Jobcentre organised a Disability Confident job fair which was held at the Guildhall in October with Disability Confident employers, further job fairs targeting disabled people are currently in planning. In recognition of employers’ vital role in addressing health-related economic activity, we appointed Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead the independent Keep Britain Working Review. The Report was published on 5 November. In partnership with the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Health and Social Care, we are rapidly designing the Vanguard phase to test new employer-led approaches to support individuals to stay in work and develop a Healthy Workplace Standard, putting Sir Charlie’s key recommendations into action. The 10 Year Health Plan, published in July, builds on existing work to better integrate health with employment support and incentivise greater cross-system collaboration, recognising good work is good for health. The Plan also states the Government’s intention to break down barriers to opportunity by delivering the holistic support that people need to access and thrive in employment by ensuring a better health service for everyone, regardless of condition or service area. It outlines how the neighbourhood health service will join up support from across the work, health and skills systems to help address the multiple complex challenges that often stop people finding and staying in work.

If he will set out his Department’s plans to provide support to help sick and disabled people into work.

Good work is generally good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. Backed by £240 million investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched in November 2024 is driving forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity and work toward the long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate. Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. Measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants, as well as joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies, Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care, WorkWell and NHS Health and Growth Accelerators. In our March Green Paper, we set out our Pathways to Work Guarantee, backed by £1 billion a year of new additional funding by 2030. We will build towards a guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for all disabled people and those with health conditions on out of work benefits. In recognition of employers’ vital role in addressing health-related economic activity, we appointed Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead the independent Keep Britain Working Review. The Report was published on 5 November. In partnership with the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), we are immediately launching Vanguards to test new employer-led approaches to support individuals to stay in work and develop a Healthy Workplace Standard, putting Sir Charlie’s key recommendations into action from day one. Additionally, the DWP and DHSC Joint Work and Health Directorate has developed a digital information service for employers, continues to oversee the Disability Confident Scheme, and continues to increase access to Occupational Health. The 10 Year Health Plan, published in July, builds on existing work to better integrate health with employment support and incentivise greater cross-system collaboration, recognising good work is good for health. The Plan states our intention to break down barriers to opportunity by delivering the holistic support that people need to access and thrive in employment by ensuring a better health service for everyone, regardless of condition or service area. It also outlines how the neighbourhood health service will join up support from across the work, health and skills systems to help address the multiple complex challenges that often stop people finding and staying in work.

What assessment he has made of the progress of reform of the private pension system.

We are committed to making reforms to the workplace pensions system to deliver better outcomes for UK savers and pensioners and to increase productive investment in the UK economy.We have already completed our landmark Pensions Investment Review, which reported in May 2025. The Pension Schemes Bill, which was introduced in June, will legislate for the outcomes of the Review, in addition to other reforms to the pensions system. Our Bill Impact Assessment shows around 20 million savers could benefit and an average earner saving over their career could have around £29,000 more in their defined contribution pension pot at retirement as a result of the package of measures.Additionally, the Bill will unlock some of the estimated £160 billion of surplus funds from well-funded Defined Benefit pension schemes to benefit sponsoring employers and members, with appropriate safeguards in place to protect members.In July we launched the next phase of our reform agenda. The time is now right to finish the job started by the Turner Commission two decades ago and that is why we have revived the Commission, which is led by Baroness Jeannie Drake, Sir Ian Cheshire and Professor Nick Pearce. The Pensions Commission will make recommendations to ensure we have a pensions system that is strong, fair and sustainable.Our reforms will also boost investment and growth in the UK. The Mansion House Accord will see leading workplace pension providers invest 10% of their workplace portfolio in productive assets such as infrastructure, property, and private equity. At least half of this will be in the UK.

What steps he is takin to support young people into employment, education and training in North East Somerset & Hanham constituency.

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. North East Somerset and Hanham constituency are part of the West of England Trailblazer, supporting young people into employment, education and training opportunities together with transport issues around reaching available job vacancies and opportunities. In addition to this young people claiming Universal Credit can access support through our Youth Offer. 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.

What recent assessment he has made of progress in increasing levels of apprenticeship (a) starts, (b) participation and (c) achievement.

The latest data on apprenticeship starts, participation and achievements are published in the Apprenticeships statistics publication and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/09b15b1b-393d-40ff-f86a-08de0724494a​This has been available since 17 July 2025. Finalised figures for the 2024/25 academic year will be published in the Apprenticeships: November 2025 statistics publication.​

What steps she is taking to help tackle child poverty in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of the Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances of every child. It is unacceptable that there are almost 2500 children in relative poverty (before housing costs) in North East Somerset and Hanham. Children in low-income families' local area statistics (CiLIF) are published on Stat-Xplore. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in autumn that will deliver fully funded measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty. 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. As a significant downpayment ahead of Strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty through Spending Review 2025. This includes an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament. Our data shows that 3,500 children in the North East Somerset and Hanham constituency will be eligible for FSM from September 2026. This data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-expansion-impact-on-poverty-levels. We are also establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1 billion a year (including Barnett impact), investing in local family support services, and extending the £3 bus fare cap. We also announced the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation and £13.2 billion including Barnett impact across the Parliament for the Warm Homes Plan. Our commitments at the 2025 Spending Review come on top of the existing action we have taken which includes expanding free breakfast clubs, capping the number of branded school uniform items children are expected to wear, increasing the national minimum wage for those on the lowest incomes and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.

What recent progress her Department has made in ensuring that job centres improve the support available to (a) people looking for work and (b) employers seeking to recruit staff.

As we set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper, we are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service across Great Britain that will enable everyone to access support to find good, meaningful work, and support to help them to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers. The new service will be for anyone who wants to look for work, wants help to increase their earnings, or who wants help to change their career or re-train. We are taking a test and learn approach to develop the new service. In our initial Pathfinder based in Wakefield, we are testing our new Get Britain Working Coaching Academy. This Academy will further train our Jobcentre colleagues to support individuals in achieving their employment aspirations. We are also testing changes to the claimant commitment appointments, to explore how we can focus work coach conversations on more personalised and tailored employment support based on their individual needs and move away from a one size fits all approach. The new service must also work for employers. Our vision is for a service that all employers want to engage with, as they know it is a place where they can find high-quality, highly motivated future employees. As part of our commitment to enhance our employer offer, we have set up a dedicated recruitment team to provide recruitment support and single account management. We have boosted the number of Sector-based Work Academy Programme’s from 80k to 100k in 25/26 across a range of priority and high vacancy sectors. For example, we are working with UKHospitality to launch a hospitality SWAPs pilot in 26 areas in need of jobs and opportunity, including 13 coastal towns such as Scarborough and Blackpool. We are committed to working across Government and with industries such as construction, health and social care and clean energy to help address workforce shortages. We will continue to work with employers as we design the new Jobs and Careers Service to ensure we design a service that can better support employers to meet their recruitment needs.

What steps she is taking to support young people into employment, education or training in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

As part of our plan to Get Britain Working, we are launching a new Youth Guarantee for all young people aged 18-21 in England to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. The Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education are working closely with the eight Mayoral Strategic Authorities in England which began mobilising the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in April 2025.We are taking steps to support young people with youth pilots in Bath and Youth Job Clubs in Taunton. ‘Youth Curriculum’ sessions have been operational in Bath since October 2024, which provide tailored support including CV support, interview prep, mock interviews with Work Coaches and job matching. The sessions are targeted at our customers who are not in employment, education or training, who typically have lower engagement. Attendance has been excellent, at just under 90%.We have a Youth Guarantee Trailblazer in the West of England, which supports young people in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency aged 18-21 to access employment education and training. There is one pilot programme of support focusing on young people with special educational needs, and another on improving access to opportunities and support from more rural areas. All participants will access 1:1 coaching and support, work placement opportunities, and free bus travel to support their pathway to employment.In addition, DWP continues to provide young people aged 16-24 with labour market support through an extensive range of interventions at a national and local level. This includes flexible provision driven by local need, nationwide employment programmes and support delivered by Work Coaches based in our Jobcentres and in local communities working alongside partners.

What recent steps she has take to encourage people who are eligible to apply for pension credit.

The Government wants all pensioners to get the support to which they are entitled. That is why we have been running the biggest ever Pension Credit take-up campaign. The campaign included adverts on television, radio, social media such as Facebook and Instagram, on YouTube, on advertising screens, including on GP and Post Office screens as well as in the press.This drive has successfully boosted applications. The latest applications and awards statistics were published on 29 May and are available at: Pension Credit applications and awards: May 2025.(opens in a new tab) The statistics show that the Department received over 285,000 applications since 29 July 2024 and made almost 60,000 extra awards on the comparable period the previous year.Since February, the Department has also been writing to all pensioners who make a new claim for Housing Benefit and who appear to be entitled to Pension Credit – directly targeting this group and encouraging them to make a claim.The campaign is currently live on social media, radio and in print, with further promotional activity planned for this year.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the proposed reforms to the pensions markets on people in North Somerset and Hanham.

This Government introduced its Pensions Scheme Bill on 5th June. This will legislate for a smaller number of bigger, better governed, better value pension providers investing in a wider range of productive assets. The Bill will also legislate for wider changes, from addressing the small pots problem to a value for money regime that focuses everyone on the returns being delivered for savers and duties on those who run pension schemes to put savers into a default pension benefit solution. This Bill is about delivering better returns for savers and driving economic growth, which will make everyone, including those in North Somerset and Hanham, better off. A typical saver, saving over a working lifetime, could benefit by tens of thousands of pounds.

What the average time taken was to (a) process and (b) pay Access to Work claims once an invoice had been submitted in each of the last five years.

In response to what the average time taken was to (a) process Access to work claim in each of the last 5 years, Access to work can provide this for the last 4 years. The average time taken was: 2021-2022 = 28.1 days2022-2023 = 57.8 days2023-2024 = 45.1 days2024-2025 = 56.9 days (b) the average time taken to process a payment once an invoice has been submitted is not available as there is no reporting systems in place. 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.