Written questions by Chowns.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of proposed changes to (a) the level of and (b) eligibility criteria for (i) disability and (ii) incapacity benefit payments on child poverty.

Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is an urgent priority for this Government, and the Ministerial Taskforce is working to publish a Child Poverty Strategy which will deliver lasting change.The Strategy will look at all available levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, including considering social security reforms, 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. We will publish a poverty impact assessment once the OBR has assessed GP measures on the day of the Spring Statement.

If she will make it her policy to automatically publish her Department's (a) internal process review statistics on an annual basis and (b) all internal process reviews.

For the last two operational years the department has reported on the Internal Process Reviews it undertakes in its Annual Report and Accounts. This is alongside reporting on the wider activities of its Advanced Customer Support Teams (available here: DWP annual report and accounts 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK and here: DWP annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK). The department continues to consider what further information can be published in future Accounts. The department also already has plans to publish further, separate information on its Internal Process Review in a way that shows what the Department has learned from these cases and the improvements that have been made, but which importantly does not disclose the sensitive, personal and confidential information that can surround these cases. Publication is planned to start by 31 March 2025.

Pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2024 on Question 16304, how many pensioner households who are in receipt of Housing Benefit and who have been identified as being potentially entitled to, but not claiming, Pension Credit her Department has targeted in North Herefordshire constituency; and how many of (a) those pensioner households and (b) the 120,000 pensioner households directly targeted by her Department overall have since claimed Pension Credit.

151 pensioner households were targeted in the North Herefordshire constituency as part of the Invitation to Claim initiative. The letters sent to these households encourage them to claim Pension Credit by 21 December which is the latest date for making a successful backdated claim and still receive a Winter Fuel payment. Data on the number of claims received from the households targeted as part of the initiative, and the number of awards made will be established once the Department has completed processing all those applications and the necessary analysis is completed.