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.

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 at that summit.

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 regions is a central part of our approach to develop the strategy, as set out in Tackling Child Poverty: Developing Our Strategy.

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.

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 to the Work and Pensions Select Committee to share internal government modelling produced by the Department outlining estimates of the number of pensioners in the UK estimated to move into poverty as a result of the Winter Fuel Payment policy change. This letter is available here Winter Fuel Payments eligibility change - Letter from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions It is not possible to provide regional breakdowns of the poverty impacts of this change.

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 rate announced in the Budget. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders as the review progresses to seek views on proposed areas of focus and untapped opportunities in UC. Parliament will be updated on progress and future changes accordingly.

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 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

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 passport, deductions directly from earnings and bank accounts or even commitment to prison. The Department has explored how curfews could be implemented as an additional enforcement measure to improve compliance. Several enforcement initiatives aimed at improving compliance are currently in train. These initiatives need to be implemented and their effects assessed before we can best see how curfews might fit with them. The Department plans to enhance effectiveness in collecting arrears payments by delivering changes via regulations, thereby streamlining the enforcement process. This will remove the requirement to obtain a court issued liability order and instead allow the Secretary of State to issue an administrative liability order. The introduction of this simpler administrative process will enable the CMS to take faster action against those Paying Parents who actively avoid their responsibilities.

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 2024.

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.

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 1,900 responses. We are still in the process of thoroughly analysing the responses received. These responses will play a crucial role in shaping our ongoing policy development.

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 November will target and tackle economic inactivity and unemployment and join up employment, health, and skills support to meet the needs of local communities. We are taking the first steps to tackle poverty through our commitments to triple investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, introduce a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit, and increase the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April 2025 to boost the pay of 3 million workers. Alongside this, we are committed to reviewing Universal Credit and we will set out the details in due course. 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 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

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 November will target and tackle economic inactivity and unemployment and join up employment, health, and skills support to meet the needs of local communities. We are taking the first steps to tackle poverty through our commitments to triple investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, introduce a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit, and increase the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April 2025 to boost the pay of 3 million workers. Alongside this, we are committed to reviewing Universal Credit and we will set out the details in due course. 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 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

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-compliance faster, as well as exploring how victims and survivors of domestic abuse can be better supported. This consultation followed the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Act which received royal assent in July 2023. The consultation was extended by this Government at the end of July and ran until 30 September 2024. We are analysing the responses we have received, and the Government will publish a response in due course.

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 course. Management information on the Household Support Fund from April 2023 to March 2024, including details of how funding was spent is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/household-support-fund-4-management-information-for-1-april-2023-to-31-march-2024