Written questions by Beales.

If he will set out how his Department monitors whether Universal Credit claimant commitments for single-parent claimants are appropriately tailored to individual circumstances.

Lead carers within Universal Credit have different conditionality requirements that reflect their childcare responsibilities. These expectations are set according to the age of their youngest child: where the youngest child is under 1, there are no work preparation or work search requirements; where the youngest child is aged 1 or 2, the lead carer is expected to undertake work preparation activities only; and where the youngest child is aged 3 to 12, they may be asked to undertake work-related activities for up to 30 hours per week.Work Coaches ensure that claimant commitments for single parents are appropriately tailored through a personalised discussion with each customer. This enables the Work Coach to take into account the individual’s circumstances, including childcare availability, school hours, travel time, and wider caring responsibilities, to ensure that support remains flexible and appropriate to the customer’s needs.

How many Universal Credit claims from single parents with (a) Work preparation and (b) All work-related activity Claimant Commitment requirements have been closed since 2023 due to non-acceptance of the Commitment.

The requested information is not held. A claimant must accept their claimant commitment to be assigned a conditionality group. Failure to do so will result in their claim being closed.

What steps his Department is taking to streamline the process for parents on Universal Credit to claim upfront childcare costs through the Flexible Support Fund.

DWP is committed to improving its services continuously. The Department is strengthening delivery of Upfront Childcare Costs (UFCCC), so that eligible parents receive timely support when moving into work. As part of this, guidance has been streamlined to ensure agents provide consistent UFCCC support to all eligible claimants.The application process is being streamlined to make it simpler for work coaches and customers. The service will continue to be reviewed to identify further opportunities for improvement.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of a) making Universal Credit and other benefits data available to Electoral Registration Officers for the purposes of Automatic Voter Registration, and b) allowing people who update their address with his Department to update their voter registration automatically at the same time.

DWP promotes a culture of encouraging data sharing for public good whilst ensuring this is done in a secure, legal and ethical way. DWP require both a lawful basis and legal power to share personal data. DWP has been supporting Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) with since 2014 when Individual Electoral Registration (IER) was introduced in England and Wales. You can now register to vote online in as little as 3 minutes. All you need is your name, address, date of birth and National Insurance number. DWP data is used within this process.

If he will introduce a ringfenced element for (a) furniture and (b) appliances through the Crisis and Resilience Fund.

My Department has actively engaged with stakeholders on the design of the Crisis and Resilience Fund through a structured co-design process involving a representative group of local authorities, third-party organisations and academics. We are considering all feedback received through this process, and we plan to publish guidance in due course.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of using the Crisis and Resilience Fund to encourage local authorities to provide essential furniture and white goods items to those living in furniture poverty.

My Department has actively engaged with stakeholders on the design of the Crisis and Resilience Fund through a structured co-design process involving a representative group of local authorities, third-party organisations and academics. We are considering all feedback received through this process, and we plan to publish guidance in January 2026.

Pursuant to the Answer of 28 February 2025 to Question 32770 Employment: Special Educational Needs, whether her Department has identified West London as one of the trailblazer areas for the Youth Guarantee scheme.

The Youth Guarantee Trailblazers will test a new, more localised delivery framework to help young people access education, training and employment support, providing important learnings to inform the future development of the Youth Guarantee in England. The Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education are working closely with Mayoral Strategic Authorities to begin delivery of Youth Guarantee Traiblazers in the following areas: the West of England, Tees Valley, East Midlands, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Liverpool City Region, West Midlands and two areas within the Greater London Authority. This will include parts of West London.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential economic impact of introducing the Youth Guarantee Scheme on (a) Greater London and (b) the UK.

As announced in the “Get Britain Working” White Paper, 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 Youth Guarantee will build upon and enhance existing entitlements and provisions with the aim of tackling the rising number of young people who are not participating in education, employment or training. This spring we will be launching trailblazers in eight Mayoral Strategic Authorities, one of which is the Greater London Authority, and will use the learning from the Trailblazers to inform the future design and development of the Youth Guarantee as it rolls-out across the rest of England. The additional employment, and education and training in which young people will participate, as a result of the Youth Guarantee, will bring economic benefits to the young people themselves and to wider society through earnings, economic output and through increased skills which open the way to longer term sustained employment.

What steps she is taking to support economically inactive people back into work in (a) West London and (b) other parts of London.

The Get Britain Working White Paper published in November set out plans to deliver fundamental reform of our health, employment and skills system, that will help support economically inactive people in all areas in England get back into work. We committed to: Delivering a new jobs and careers service to support people to get into and on at work, available to everyone regardless of whether they are in receipt of benefits.Asking local areas across England, including the Greater London Authority, to develop local Get Britain Working plans which are intended to join up new support and enable local areas to develop a system wide approach to tackling economic inactivity.Funding Trailblazers to help accelerate a more locally led and joined up approach to tackling economic inactivity and the rising number of young people who are not participating in education, employment or training.Delivering a Youth Guarantee for 18-21 year olds in England so that young people benefit from support to access education, training opportunities or help to find work.Launching Connect to Work, a forthcoming voluntary, locally led, Supported Employment programme that will help, primarily economically inactive, disabled people, people with health conditions and other complex barriers to employment to get into and stay in work. The Greater London area will host several Trailblazers, covering both inactivity and youth. This will involve working closely with a range of local partners, including those based in West London. Additional funding will also be given to the Greater London Authority to support the development of their local Get Britain Working plan, to cover the four sub-regional London partnership areas delivering Connect to Work.

What steps she is taking to support young people with SEND needs into employment.

The Department for Work and Pensions are supporting many young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) to find employment.The government will be launching a Youth Guarantee for all 18-21 year olds in England, to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. This will start with eight trailblazers, which are launching this spring, and testing localised approaches to supporting young people, which could include those with SEND.

Whether the child poverty strategy will include measures to tackle child homelessness.

Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is an urgent priority for this Government, and the Ministerial Taskforce is working to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in Spring 2025. The Taskforce’s publication of 23 October ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing our Strategy’ sets out how we are developing the Strategy, exploring all available levers across Government to deliver an enduring reduction in child poverty this parliament. This is part of a 10-year strategy for lasting change which will be published in the Spring. 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. The Taskforce will hear directly from experts on each of the Strategy’s themes including children and families living in poverty and work with leading organisations, charities, and campaigners. In December, the Taskforce met with external experts from the housing sector to discuss the critical role of housing in tackling child poverty. The Ministerial session was the first in a series of deep dives into specific policy areas; the focus of this session was on parental employment, childcare and housing.