The Westminster lensArchive · Written questions · 29 tabled · 29 answered

Written questions by Foster.

Every parliamentary written question tabled by Paul Foster this session, with the full answer and department. Back to the MP page.

Department:All (29)Department of Health and Social Care (7)Cabinet Office (5)Department for Transport (3)Department for Work and Pensions (3)Department for Education (3)Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (2)Ministry of Justice (1)Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1)Northern Ireland Office (1)Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (1)Home Office (1)Ministry of Defence (1)

Showing 13 of 3 · Department for Work and Pensions

23 Apr 2025·Department for Work and Pensions·Answered
Asked

How many people in South Ribble constituency are in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP); how those payments are broken down between the (a) daily living and (b) mobility component; and how many of those people did not score a four or above on the assessment criteria.

Reply

As of January 2025, there are 5,340 people currently in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in the South Ribble Parliamentary Constituency. Of these claimants, 2,530 scored fewer than 4 points in the 10 Daily Living activities. The breakdown of award rates for Daily Living and Mobility can be found in Table 1 below. The assessment of the Office for Budget Responsibility, published at the Spring Statement, is that most of the current claimants of PIP Daily Living who did not score four points in any of the activities at their last assessment will, nevertheless, because of behaviour changes, be awarded PIP Daily Living again after the proposed eligibility changes take effect. There will be no immediate changes. We want to reassure anyone concerned that the changes to PIP eligibility and rebalancing of UC aren’t coming into effect immediately. Our intention is these changes will start to come into effect from April 2026 for UC and November 2026 for PIP, subject to parliamentary approval. We will also guarantee that for those on UC, individuals with the most severe, life-long conditions, which mean a person cannot and will never work, will not need to be reassessed in future. Our intention is that the PIP changes will apply to new claims and award reviews from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. If you are getting PIP now and could be affected by the changes we plan to make to eligibility, the changes will only apply at your next award review. The average award review is about three years. At your next review, you will be seen by a trained assessor or healthcare professional, and assessed on your individual needs and circumstance. For those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, we are consulting on how best to support this group, including how to make sure health and eligible care needs are met. PIP is not based on your condition, it is based on the functional disability as the result of one or more conditions and it is the additional costs of sum of that disability that PIP is awarded for. We also intend to launch a wider review of the PIP assessment led by the Minister for Social Security and Disability, 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. Table 1: the volume of claimants in the South Ribble constituency split by award rate for Daily Living and Mobility components of PIPDaily LivingMobility EnhancedStandardNilTotalEnhanced1,9405802502,780Standard6708008702,340Nil100130-230Total2,7101,5201,1205,340 Note:Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10

10 Feb 2025·Department for Work and Pensions·Answered
Asked

What estimate her Department has made of the number of women impacted by the maladministration of pension communications as highlighted by the WASPI campaign in South Ribble constituency.

Reply

ONS population estimates suggest that in 2021 there were 6,495 females born in the 1950s resident in the South Ribble constituency, who are impacted by the equalisation of the State Pension age. We do not know how many of these women were impacted by maladministration in the communication of state pension age changes.

9 Jan 2025·Department for Work and Pensions·Answered
Asked

How many and what proportion of pensioners receive Pension Credit in South Ribble constituency; and how many of these are new recipients since 31 July 2024.

Reply

The latest available data shows that in Winter 2023 to 2024, there were 14,717 pensioner households living in the South Ribble constituency. This is based on winter-fuel-payments-household-2023-to-2024.ods. At that point in time, 1,528 pensioner households received Pension Credit in the South Ribble constituency. This is based on February 2024 Pension Credit statistics which are available via DWP Stat-Xplore. Based on these figures, 10.4% of pensioner households in the South Ribble constituency received Pension Credit in February 2024. The latest Pension Credit statistics were published in November 2024 and cover the period up to May 2024. The next iteration of Pension Credit caseload statistics will be released on 18th February, as part of the DWP Benefits Statistics quarterly release. This will contain data for the period from June 2024 to the end of August 2024. Following release, the data can also be accessed at Stat-Xplore - Home.

Sources
SourceUK Parliament Members API
MethodQuestion and answer text as published. Question preamble (“To ask the…”) trimmed for readability; answers shown in full.