DWP Updates - Spelthorne Business Forum

Here is a roundup of the latest DWP news and updates.

Employers that have signed up to the Disability Confident scheme(link is external) – Guidance: List of disability confident employers who have signed up has been updated for September 2025. This document lists the employers that have signed up to the Disability Confident scheme, and their status (committed, employer or leader).

Job advisers to be embedded in GP surgeries as tens of thousands more sick and disabled people offered help into work(link is external) – Job advisers to be embedded in GP surgeries as tens of thousands more sick and disabled people offered help into work.

Over 40,000 more sick or disabled people will receive intensive employment support to move into secure, fulfilling work and out of poverty, thanks to a £167.2 million boost to the Connect to Work programme.
The expansion will see the programme rolled out to nine further areas across England, including Cumbria, Oxfordshire, and West Sussex and Brighton, helping those who may have been excluded from the job market to take steps towards employment.
Total funding is now set to reach over £1 billion across England and Wales over the next five years and provide 300,000 sick or disabled people with help to get into work by the end of the decade.
With 2.8 million people out of work due to health conditions, it’s part of the Government’s plan to get Britain working again and ensure everyone has the opportunity to thrive by modernising jobcentres, locally driven support, and delivering a Youth Guarantee so every young person is either earning or learning. The programme gives areas the resources they need to tailor their support based on local needs and opportunities, helping people with a range of health conditions to find and fulfil potential to work.

Pensioners warned to stay alert as winter fuel payment scams surge by over 150%(link is external) – Pensioners are being warned to look out for Winter Fuel Payment text message scams following a surge in activity from opportunistic criminals ahead of next month’s payments.

New data reveals a 153% rise in scam referrals in the final week of September, compared to the previous week.
Recent spike comes ahead of Winter Fuel Payments hitting pensioners’ bank accounts next month.
DWP are increasing efforts to raise public awareness and urge everyone not to engage with scam messages.

Universal Credit statistics, 29 April 2013 to 11 September 2025(link is external) – Official statistics: Statistics for the number of people on Universal Credit by geography, age, conditionality regime, duration, employment and ethnicity.

Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2025(link is external) – Official statistics: Official statistics in development reporting on Access to Work expenditure, provision and payment.

Main stories – The key points from this release covering Access to Work in financial year ending March 2025 are:

Access to Work provision was approved for 61,670 people
an Access to Work payment was made for 74,190 customers
total expenditure on Access to Work provision was £320.7 million
the average annual payment received per customer across all provision was £4,000

Boost to jobs and military capability with new defence equipment system(link is external) – New £320 million contract for a platform to revolutionise how the Armed Forces manage and maintain defence equipment to help the military make better decisions faster will create 100 new highly-skilled UK jobs.

The UK’s Armed Forces will be strengthened by a new cutting-edge platform that will revolutionise how the military manages and maintains its equipment, driving efficiency and creating more than 100 highly-skilled jobs.
The new platform will use artificial intelligence (AI) to help ensure Armed Forces have the right equipment in the right place at the right time, delivering on the ambitions of the Strategic Defence Review.

LA Welfare Direct bulletin: October 2025(link is external) – Guidance: These Local Authority Welfare Direct bulletins provide information that affects Housing Benefit and other areas of DWP, to local authority staff.

Articles include:

Housing Benefit Matching Service: New rule UCHB105.
Update: UC Local Council Tax Reduction decommissioning of the V1 files.
Discretionary Housing Payments mid-year claims form for the financial year ending March 2026 (England and Wales only).

Bollywood comes to Britain: Three blockbusters to be made in the UK from next year(link is external) – : Three new Bollywood blockbusters will be made in the UK from next year, the Prime Minister has announced in Mumbai. Yash Raj Film, India’s leading film production and distribution company, have confirmed plans to bring their major productions to locations across the United Kingdom from early 2026, creating over 3,000 jobs and boosting the economy by millions of pounds. The announcement is the latest example of how the UK’s deepening partnerships with India’s booming cultural scene will create new jobs, drive investment and bolster creative content in the UK, while celebrating our valuable people-to-people links.

Prime Minister wraps up India trade trip with 10,600 jobs secured(link is external) – : Wrapping up a two-day trade mission to Mumbai, the Prime Minister has praised the strengthened, future-facing UK-India partnership, which will deliver for Britain by boosting growth, creating jobs and making hard-working people better off.

Over the course of the trip, 6,900 new jobs were secured thanks to £1.3 billion of new Indian investment into the UK – in sectors ranging from engineering to technology, across every region of the country.
Major film studio Yash Raj Films committed to making 3 new Bollywood blockbusters in the UK from next year, bringing over 3,000 new jobs to the UK from early next year.
Finally, a new £350 million deal will create over 700 jobs in Northern Ireland to deliver UK-manufactured missiles to the Indian Army.

Pro-growth package unshackling Britain to get building(link is external) – Pro-growth changes to the government’s landmark Planning and Infrastructure Bill to get Britain building faster.

New measures to slash delays and get Britain building faster through landmark Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
New powers for Secretary of State could stop councils rejecting planning permissions, tackle blockers in the courts, alongside plans to accelerate reservoirs, windfarms and large housing schemes.
Turbocharging the Plan for Change to create high-paying jobs, put money back into people’s pockets, and secure more homegrown clean energy.

New agency chair appointed to crack down on minimum wage underpayment and worker exploitation(link is external) – Once in a generation employment rights reforms that will benefit over 15 million UK workers came a step closer today as ministers confirmed Matthew Taylor CBE will chair the brand-new Fair Work Agency. A key part of the government’s Make Work Pay plans, the Fair Work Agency will transform how employment rights are enforced across the UK. From using new powers to ensure the estimated 900,000 people who have holiday pay withheld each year finally receive it, to cracking down on those employers failing to pay the minimum wage, the Fair Work Agency will finally bring the ambition needed to properly tackle worker exploitation in the UK.

Taylor Review author Matthew Taylor appointed as first Fair Work Agency chair to support the government’s mission to kickstart economic growth.
New agency to transform labour market enforcement, protecting workers from bad employers who flout minimum wage and other labour laws, levelling the playing field for businesses that pay fairly.
Better enforcement will put more money in the pockets of working people, improving living standards as part of the Plan for Change.

Companies House outlines ambitious long-term vision to support economic growth(link is external) – : A new 5-year strategy sets out the agency’s aims to support economic growth by improving corporate transparency and protecting businesses and individuals from harm. Companies House has laid out an ambitious vision for its future designed to boost economic growth, by continuing to transform itself into a more active gatekeeper over its data and take further steps to crack down on economic crime. By ensuring Companies House data is authoritative and transparent, the agency aims to increase its value to the users who depend on it, including businesses, researchers, government, and public bodies, as well as the public.

Government has approved enough clean energy to power 7.5 million homes(link is external) – Families and businesses will benefit from more solar power, the cheapest form of power available, as the government today approves a major new solar power project. According to the developer, Tillbridge Solar Farm in Lincolnshire could support 1,250 jobs and power hundreds of thousands of British homes, providing a major boost for the government’s mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower.

Jobs boost as new storage facility opens in Cumbria to support UK Armed Forces(link is external) – : The UK Armed Forces will benefit from better equipment support and delivery to the frontline as a new defence storage facility opens in Cumbria, with 450 people employed during construction and 25 new permanent jobs created. The Longtown Defence Storage Facility – the size of 12 football pitches – will streamline supply chain operations and provide safe and secure storage for mission-critical equipment, from body armour to spare parts. It is built alongside the existing Defence Munitions Longtown, which supports 62 jobs and stores general munitions.

Local tech ready for take-off as 14 projects supporting businesses and jobs unveiled(link is external) – : Communities set to benefit from better jobs and more opportunities in tech as 14 government-backed projects to support local tech sectors across the UK are unveiled.

Government’s £1 million Regional Tech Booster programme gets underway to support tech businesses and founders, and grow local tech ecosystems.
The projects across Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England will boost tech growth, and create more jobs and opportunities for people and communities outside London.
The projects – funded under the government’s Regional Tech Booster programme – will provide businesses and entrepreneurs with targeted training, expert guidance, help to build networks, and support to scale their operations from within their communities. This is to ensure that the jobs and benefits of a thriving tech sector are available to people right across the UK, not just in London, as part of the government’s Plan for Change(link is external).

Nearly 7,000 new UK jobs to be created as a result of Prime Minister’s trip to India(link is external) – : Nearly 7,000 brand new jobs will be created in the United Kingdom thanks to a raft of major new deals secured by the Prime Minister during his visit to India.

64 Indian companies will invest over £1 billion into the UK, creating 6,900 jobs spread across every region.
Deals signed and sealed during the Prime Minister’s trade mission to India, where he has promised to open doors for British business and drive growth at home – delivering on the Plan for Change.
Investments are another vote of confidence in the UK economy and cement its reputation as one of the best places in the world to do business.

£84 million injection to tackle homelessness(link is external) – : £84m cash boost to help prevent homelessness and support families this winter and immediate help for children and families in temporary accommodation.

New £84m cash boost to help prevent homelessness and support families this winter.
Immediate help for children and families in temporary accommodation at heart of new package.
Announced on World Homeless Day, the funding builds on the record £1 billion investment this year to end homelessness and rough sleeping.

New funds for local leaders to unlock jobs and boost innovation across the country(link is external) – : Up to £20 million each available for local areas across the country to grow innovation.

Local areas can now bid for support of up to £20 million each in government funding to grow existing regional science and tech expertise.
Investment will back local leaders who know their regions best, unlocking discoveries and creating hundreds of jobs as part of record £86 billion Research & Development settlement.
Builds on support already earmarked to local leaders in ten UK areas through Local Innovation Partnerships Fund – driving regional growth through Plan for Change.