The Work and Pensions Committee chair has pressed ministers over referral quality, staff training and vulnerable claimants moving to Universal Credit.
Debbie Abrahams has called on the Department for Work and Pensions to introduce tailored mandatory safeguarding training for all frontline staff.
In a letter to social security minister Sir Stephen Timms, the Work and Pensions Committee said only 57 per cent of staff responding to a departmental survey understood how to document safeguarding concerns.
The committee said about 12,000 employees had taken optional level-one safeguarding training, while the department employed 96,930 people in March. It wants ministers to identify which roles should receive compulsory training.
Abrahams also sought a timetable for recording operational safeguarding referrals. Health professionals within the department made 57,000 clinical referrals after a deterioration in a claimant's health from September 2025, including 37,000 relating to mental health.
The letter asks whether the department will identify former Employment and Support Allowance claimants who moved to Universal Credit but did not receive the limited-capability-for-work-related-activity element to which they were entitled.
The committee has requested a response by 10 November. Its intervention sets tests for the department, but the proposed training and further claimant review have not yet been accepted.
