Written questions by Jarvis.

If she will introduce mandatory training to ensure that all benefits assessors understand the impact of military service-related (a) injuries and (b) mental health conditions on claimants who have served in the armed forces.

I have interpreted your question to refer to health professionals (HPs) who conduct Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments and Work Capability Assessments (WCA) for our assessment suppliers on behalf of the department, and not Department for Work and Pensions decision makers who make decisions on entitlement to benefit. The Functional Assessment Service contracts require assessment suppliers to act in a manner supportive of the Armed Forces Covenant, to ensure the fair treatment of veterans and their families. PIP assessments and WCAs are not medical consultations and do not require HPs to diagnose conditions or recommend treatment. Instead, they are functional assessments designed to evaluate how an individual’s health conditions or impairments affect their ability to carry out daily living activities and/or their capability for work. HPs conducting assessments are trained specialists in disability analysis. Their focus is on understanding the functional impact of a claimant’s condition, rather than its clinical diagnosis. All HPs receive specific training on assessing the effects of mental health conditions and are supported by Mental Health Function Champions (MHFCs). MHFCs are experienced professionals with relevant expertise in mental health, cognitive, developmental, and learning disabilities. They are available to provide advice and support throughout the assessment process. Additionally, HPs have access to Condition Insight Reports and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) guides. These resources offer detailed clinical and functional information on a range of conditions, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, to support HPs in delivering informed assessments. Furthermore, within the WCA core training and guidance material (CTGM) there is a CPD module titled ‘life post miliary service’. While this does not currently form part of the PIP CTGM, we do intend to make this available across the benefit strands. On 25 June, I attended an online event with veterans, as one of the series of consultation events on the proposals in the Pathways to Work Green Paper.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of mandatory in-person assessments on levels of likelihood of veterans seeking support.

As announced in Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, we are planning to do more face-to-face health assessments. We will, however, preserve alternative health assessment channels to meet the specific needs of people who require a different channel, for example as a reasonable adjustment. In all cases, the Healthcare Professional (HCP) aims to complete the assessment using the customer’s health questionnaire and any supporting medical evidence provided. Should this not be possible the customer is invited to a consultation. Before sending an invitation to a consultation, the HCP considers whether a specific assessment channel is needed due to the customer’s health or circumstances. Otherwise, customers are offered the next available appointment. Customers can request a change to their allocated assessment channel if they inform us that a reasonable adjustment is appropriate in their circumstances. We are committed to ensuring equal access to our services, in line with the Equality Act 2010. Customers are encouraged to inform us of any reasonable adjustments at any stage. If notified, the assessment provider will consider an alternative assessment method.

With reference to the Green Paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain, published on 5 June 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of her Department's proposed changes to disability benefits on people with multiple sclerosis.

No separate assessment has been made.Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper has been published here ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’(opens in a new tab).Impacts of the proposed changes depend on many factors including how the mix of conditions among claimants evolves over time, and behavioural responses. These impacts are uncertain at an overall England and Wales level, and it would not be possible to make an informed assessment at such a granular level as individual primary medical conditions.Changes to PIP eligibility aren’t coming into effect immediately. Our intention is these changes will start to come into effect from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. PIP changes will only apply at the next award review after November 2026. The average award review period is about three years.We are consulting on how best to support those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, including how to make sure health and eligible care needs are met. PIP is not based on condition diagnosis, but on functional disability as the result of one or more conditions and is awarded as a contribution to the additional costs which result.We have also announced a wider review of the PIP assessment which I am leading, and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process as part of preparing for a review. We will provide further details as plans progress.

What steps she is taking to promote take-up of Attendance Allowance.

Attendance Allowance provides support for those with care needs in England and Wales, regardless of income and capital. It also gives rise to an additional disability amount in Pension Credit for those on low incomes. Some advisory organisations and local authorities therefore encourage people with care needs to make a claim to Attendance Allowance ahead of a claim to Pension Credit. Information and advice about entitlement to Attendance Allowance is available from a range of outlets including Jobcentre Plus offices, DWP and other helplines, GOV.UK and other online services, local authorities, public libraries, health clinics, doctors' surgeries, health visitors, and third party organisations such as Citizen’s Advice, Age UK, Age Cymru and Macmillan Cancer Support.

What the average time is for her Department to respond to Mandatory Reconsideration requests.

The median mandatory reconsideration (MR) clearance times have been provided for Universal Credit (UC), Personal Independence Payment (PIP), and Employment Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) benefit decisions. To provide information across all other DWP administered benefits would incur disproportionate cost. Median clearance times have been provided as the mean can be unduly affected by outlying cases. Universal Credit The median clearance time for UC MRs cleared in the 2024/25 financial year was 33 calendar days. Notes: Each UC claim can have more than one reconsideration registered against it. The above includes all MR decisions (excluding withdrawn and cancelled).The UC MR clearance times are based on the clearance times from the date the MR was registered to the date the MR was cleared.This data on UC MR clearance times is unpublished data. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.Definition of median: The median time is the middle value if you were to order all the times within the distribution from lowest value to highest value. Personal Independence Payment PIP MR clearance times are published at Personal Independence Payment statistics - GOV.UK. They can be found by accessing the latest release and opening the excel tables. Tables 4A – 4Biii contain information on PIP MR clearance times. Employment Support AllowanceESA WCA MR clearance times are available on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. They can be found by going through “ESA Work Capability Assessments”, “Mandatory Reconsideration – Clearances” “Table 4 – Median Clearance Times by Date of Decision”.

If she will exempt people with cystic fibrosis from proposed changes to disability benefits.

The Pathways to Work Green Paper set out a broad package of reforms to health and disability benefits and employment support. We have committed to putting on the face of the Bill strong protections for the most vulnerable. We will protect the income of all people subject to the Special Rules for End of Life (those with less than 12 months to live) and people who meet the severe conditions criteria (SCC) by providing them with the higher rate of LCWRA (Limited capability for work and work-related activity) in line with existing customers. Additionally, people with severe conditions - a health condition or disability which is lifelong, often progressive and incurable - and who are at the end of life will not be reassessed. We are basing our protections on these criteria, rather than on specific conditions, because the functional impact and severity of a condition can significantly vary across individuals. The support a person might need and their ability to work can vary for different people with the same condition. Our reforms will ensure the most vulnerable and severely disabled people are protected, while supporting those who can work to do so. As such, those who have a higher level of functional need in at least one activity - who are unable to complete activities at all, or who require more help from others to complete them – will still receive PIP.

Whether her Department plans to review its policy on freezing state pensions for people who move abroad.

The Department has no plans to review such reciprocal social security agreements.

Whether people receiving disability benefits for Ménière's disease will be exempt from her proposed reforms to the benefits system.

The Pathways to Work Green Paper set out a broad package of reforms to health and disability benefits and employment support. The functional impact and severity of a condition can significantly vary across individuals, so we are not planning for specific conditions to be exempt from the changes. Our reforms will ensure the most vulnerable and severely disabled people are protected, while supporting those who can work to do so. As such, the eligibility changes to PIP will not affect those who are unable to complete activities at all, and for new claimants on the Universal Credit health element after April 2026, we are proposing that those with the most severe, life-long health conditions will see their incomes protected.

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed reforms to Personal Independence Payments on blind and partially sighted people.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is assessed on needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability rather than the health condition or disability itself. Individuals can be impacted by their health conditions in different ways and the assessment considers the effect on a person’s day to day life.Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

With reference to the National Audit Office report entitled Supporting people to work through jobcentres, published on 31 March 2025, what steps her Department plans to take to increase the number of jobcentre work coaches in the next 12 months; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the number of work coaches on jobcentres’ ability to provide the intended level of support.

We are reforming both the welfare and employment support systems to make best use of our work coaches’ time, ensuring a system that is fit for purpose. We are targeting support where it is needed most to tackle ill-health and disability-related economic inactivity. This includes £1 billion per year of new funding across the United Kingdom by the end of the decade to establish a new guarantee of support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work. We are also reforming our Jobcentres, bringing together Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service to meet the needs of local labour markets, people and employers whilst embracing technology to improve customer service and free up work coach time. Through reforming how we deliver our support, we can ensure people get the level of support they need and that we can get Britain Working. We will have further updates to this change programme in due course.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the 1.7% increase in benefits that are linked to inflation from April 2025 for disabled people receiving a state pension.

Attendance Allowance (which provides support for pensioners with care needs) has been consistently uprated in line with inflation since it was introduced and will be increased by 1.7% from April 2025. This means that the higher rate of Attendance Allowance will be £110.40 per week, and the lower rate £73.90 per week in 2025/26. Expenditure on Attendance Allowance was around £6.9 billion (real terms) in 2023/24 and is forecast to increase to £7.7 billion in 2024/25, before rising to £8.6 billion by 2029/30. Extra-costs disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment and Disability Living Allowance, which may also be paid to people over state pension age, will also be increased by 1.7% from 7 April 2025. In addition to this, over 12 million pensioners will see their basic or new State Pension increase by 4.1% in April 2025, worth up to £470 a year. Our commitment to protect the Triple Lock on the new and basic State Pensions means that, over the course of this Parliament (up to and including 2029/30), the OBR forecasts that Government spending on the State Pension will rise by over £31 billion. We are also increasing the standard minimum guarantee in Pension Credit by 4.1%. Pension Credit provides extra money to help with living costs for people over State Pension age and on a low income and includes additional amounts for those with a severe disability, caring responsibilities, responsibility for a child, or certain housing costs. Extra-costs disability benefits can also give rise to a disability addition in Pension Credit, meaning that disabled pensioners are more likely to be entitled to Pension Credit, and at a higher amount, than those without disabilities.