Written questions by Kruger.

What passport benefits of what average value a Pension Credit claimant may be eligible to receive.

Pension Credit claimants can receive passported benefits such as:- Winter Fuel Payment;- Housing Benefit for those who rent the property they live in;- support for Mortgage Interest for those who own the property they live in;- a Council Tax discount for those in England and Wales;- a free TV licence for those aged 75 or over;- help with NHS dental treatment, glasses, and transport costs for hospital appointments;- help with heating costs through the Warm Home Discount Scheme;- a discount on the Royal Mail redirection service for those moving house. Information on passported benefits is available at: Pension Credit: Overview - GOV.UK. No estimate has been made of the average value of these benefits.

Whether she plans to publish data collected from the fit note trailblazers.

In 2024, the previous government announced fit note trailblazers to be included in some of the 15 WorkWell pilot areas across Integrated Care Boards in England. Due to the timings of the General Election the trailblazers were not launched. The learning from the Fit Note Trailblazers will be applied to three of the eight inactivity trailblazers that are NHSE led health and growth accelerators, where £45 million has been specifically allocated to three integrated care boards to improve population health outcomes and reduce health-related economic inactivity as part of the Get Britain Working Plans.

Pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2024 to Question 6515 on Social Security Benefits: Disability, if she will publish the consultation responses from organisations.

We will not be publishing organisational responses to the previous Government’s consultation, as it is for each organisation to choose whether or not to publish its response. Many organisations have already published their own responses.

With reference to her Department's press release entitled Child Poverty Taskforce holds first Scottish summit, published on 22 November 2024, if she will publish a list of (a) attendees and (b) speakers

The Child Poverty Taskforce will publish the child poverty strategy in Spring 2025 and further details on the engagement which helped develop the strategy will be outlined as part of the publication. Working closely with partners across all UK nations and...

What estimate she has made of pensioner poverty levels in each region following changes to the eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment.

The latest available data on pensioner poverty levels by region is published by the Department here Households below average income:Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2023 - GOV.UK On 19 November, Secretary of State wrote ...

Whether her Department (a) made and (b) has since made an assessment of the potential impact of Autumn Budget 2024 on trends in the level of income inequality.

HM Treasury have published distributional analysis showing the estimated impact of tax, welfare and public service spending decisions on household incomes, across the household income distribution. This can be found here Impact_on_households.pdf (publishi...

What the terms of reference will be for her Department's review of universal credit.

The Department is committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to and meeting our objectives of making work pay and tackling poverty. We have already begun this work with the introduction of the new fair repayment ra...

What her planned timetable is for responding to her Department's closed consultation entitled Modernising support for independent living: the health and disability green paper, published on 29 April 202

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 14 October 2024 to question number 6515. The answer can be found here: Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of Autumn Budget 2024 on trends in the number of people living in poverty.

We are committed to tackling poverty. We know that good work can significantly reduce the chances of people falling into poverty so this will be the foundation of our approach. Backed by £240m investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched on 26...

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of Autumn Budget 2024 on the number of people living in poverty by household type.

We are committed to tackling poverty. We know that good work can significantly reduce the chances of people falling into poverty so this will be the foundation of our approach. Backed by £240m investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched on 26...

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of issuing a commencement order for curfews for non-compliant parents refusing to pay child maintenance.

The Child Maintenance Service already has a suite of strong enforcement powers at its disposal. These include using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving licence or UK ...

Whether she plans to publish a consultation on fit note reform.

The call for evidence was launched under the previous government to seek views on how the current fit note process works and the support required to facilitate meaningful work and health conversations. It closed on the 8 July 2024 and received around 1,90...

What her planned timetable is for responding to her Department's consultation entitled Child Maintenance: Improving the collection and transfer of payments, published on 8 May 2024.

A consultation on proposed reforms to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) was published by the previous Government on 8 May 2024. These proposed reforms included removing Direct Pay and managing all CMS cases in one service to allow the CMS to tackle non-...

What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Household Support Fund.

The Department for Work and Pensions is currently conducting an evaluation of the Household Support Fund that ran from April 2023 to March 2024, to understand the benefits of the awards made across England during this period. This will be published in due...