Written questions by Blake.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the implementation of the guidance entitled Access to Work: staff guide, published on 1 September 2025, on levels of support provided to successful applicants.

The externally published staff guide replicates the internal guidance with some redactions, eg fraud referrals and any internal business processes. This is updated incrementally to mirror any changes to the internal guidance. The guidance published on 1 September was merely updating/clarifying information and reflecting minor changes to procedures, so would be considered to have little or no overall impact on the scheme.

How many adults living in temporary accommodation receive the Shared Accommodation Rate of Local Housing Allowance.

The shared accommodation rate does not apply in temporary accommodation.Temporary Accommodation is defined as housing that a claimant has been placed in by a local authority or housing association to meet the local authority’s statutory homelessness duty or to prevent homelessness.Costs for housing support to those in private rental accommodation are subject to the Local Housing Allowance. The Shared Accommodation Rate (SAR) applies to Housing Benefit or Universal Credit claimants who are under 35 years of age, living on their own, and renting privately.

If her Department will remove the cap on housing benefit subsidy rates for temporary accommodation.

DWP pays local authorities a Housing Benefit subsidy for temporary accommodation cases. There are restrictions on the amount paid, including a subsidy cap which is £500 per week in certain areas of London or £375 elsewhere. We appreciate these are difficu...

What steps her Department is taking to ensure continuity of payments for disabled people who are (a) about to start and (b) mid-way through migrating from legacy benefits to Universal Credit.

For DWP customers in receipt of ESA, DWP has agreed to continue to pay customers their legacy benefit for a further two weeks from when their legacy benefit stops to support a seamless continuation of payments. All customers will automatically receive a two-week run on of those benefits. The DWP continues to learn and iterate its approach as we continue to move people to Universal Credit. We remain committed to ensuring that the transition to Universal Credit works as smoothly as possible for all customers, including the most vulnerable in society. In June we invited 500 ESA customers to claim Universal Credit. This trial helped us learn and will allow us to start moving across customers receiving Employment and Support Allowance only or those with ESA with housing benefit at scale from September 2024. In addition, DWP has developed an enhanced support journey for ESA and Income Support customers and remains confident that this provides effective support for our most vulnerable customers.

What progress her Department has made on the managed migration of disabled people from the Employment Support Allowance support group onto Universal Credit.

The Department started moving customers who were claiming Employment Support Allowance with Child Tax Credits to Universal Credit from July. From September we will begin moving across customers receiving Employment and Support Allowance only or those with ESA with housing benefit. These plans are informed by learning, which started in June, where 500 ESA customers were invited to claim Universal Credit.