Written Question
Tuesday 27th February 2024
Asked by:
Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question
to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to support people with disabilities that impact their ability to work.
Answered by Mims Davies
- Shadow Minister (Women)
The Government has a wide range of initiatives to support disabled people and people with health conditions to start, stay and succeed in work. These include:
- The Work and Health Programme providing tailored and personalised support for disabled people;
- Access to Work grants helping towards extra costs of working beyond standard reasonable adjustments;
- Disability Confident encouraging employers to think differently about disability and health, and to take positive action to address the issues disabled employees face in the workplace;
- A digital information service for employers providing better integrated and tailored guidance on supporting health and disability in the workplace;
- Increasing access to Occupational Health, including the testing of financial incentives for small and medium-sized enterprises and the self-employed;
- Increased Work Coach support in Jobcentres for disabled people and people with health conditions to help them move towards and in to work;
- Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres offering advice and expertise on how to help disabled people and people with health conditions into work;
- Work in partnership between the DWP and health systems, including Employment Advice in NHS Talking Therapies, and the Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care programme, a Supported Employment model (place, train and maintain) delivered in health settings, aimed at people with physical or common mental health disabilities to support them to access paid jobs in the open labour market.
Building on existing provision and the £2 billion investment announced at the Spring Budget 2023, we announced a new package of support in Autumn Statement 2023. This includes:
- Doubling the number of places on the Universal Support employment programme, to provide support for 100,000 people per year when fully rolled out;
- Formally launching WorkWell, which will bring together the NHS, local authorities, and other partners, in collaboration with jobcentres, to provide light touch work and health support in approximately 15 pilot areas;
- Building on the extension of the certification of the fit notes to a wider range of healthcare professions, exploring new ways of providing individuals receiving a fit note with timely access to work and health support; and
- Establishing an expert group to support the development of the voluntary national baseline for Occupational Health provision.
From 2025, we are reforming the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) to reflect new flexibilities in the labour market and greater employment opportunities for disabled people and people with health conditions, whilst maintaining protections for those with the most significant conditions. Alongside these changes, a new Chance to Work Guarantee will effectively remove the WCA for most existing claimants who have already been assessed without work-related requirements removing the fear of reassessment and giving this group the confidence to try work.
People on low, or no income or earnings, who have a health condition or disability which restricts the amount of work they can do or prevents them from working altogether, and where they meet the entitlement criteria, can claim Universal Credit and/or New Style Employment and Support Allowance with medical evidence, usually a valid Statement of Fitness for work, commonly known as a ‘fit note’, from a clinician.
Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 19 Jul 2017
Pensions
"With respect to the statement, my right hon. Friend will be aware that 300 people reached the age of 100 in 1952, when Her Majesty the Queen came to the throne; last year, it was over 13,000. Is he surprised, as I am, at the irresponsibility and recklessness of the …..."Kwasi Kwarteng - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 17 Dec 2014
Housing Benefit (Abolition of Social Sector Size Criteria)
"I am pleased to follow the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee. However, one cannot on the one hand say that people are being driven from the social sector to the private sector, and on the other argue the opposite case by saying that the number of people moving …..."Kwasi Kwarteng - View Speech
View all Kwasi Kwarteng (Con - Spelthorne) contributions to the debate on: Housing Benefit (Abolition of Social Sector Size Criteria)
Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 17 Dec 2014
Housing Benefit (Abolition of Social Sector Size Criteria)
"I am glad that that has completely cleared up how Members can argue two entirely different things.
Let us put the matter in context. There is a lot of scaremongering, wild words and passion from Opposition Members, but very little attention to the facts. The Government removed the spare room …..."Kwasi Kwarteng - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 17 Dec 2014
Housing Benefit (Abolition of Social Sector Size Criteria)
"I am not aware of the details of the hon. Gentleman’s borough council, but Members across the House have widely acknowledged that there is a problem with housing supply. However, I am confused when the Labour party says that those in private rented accommodation should pay an extra amount, but …..."Kwasi Kwarteng - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 17 Dec 2014
Housing Benefit (Abolition of Social Sector Size Criteria)
"Forgive me. Each and every one of those reforms and attempts to reduce expenditure have been opposed by the Labour party. It is well and truly said that Labour is the party of welfare: by my estimate, it has opposed £83 billion of welfare spending savings this Parliament. Under the …..."Kwasi Kwarteng - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 17 Dec 2014
Housing Benefit (Abolition of Social Sector Size Criteria)
"We have established that there is a supply problem, but what we must agree on—and the general public agree—is that reform in this crucial area was needed. Neither of the interventions that I have taken addressed the fact that there is massive overcrowding, and that a quarter of a million …..."Kwasi Kwarteng - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 08 Dec 2014
Oral Answers to Questions
"Does my right hon. Friend believe that the Government’s success on youth unemployment shows that our long-term economic plan is working?..."Kwasi Kwarteng - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 30 Jun 2014
DWP: Performance
"I have been very interested to hear some of the contributions from Labour Members as well as those from my hon. Friends. It is interesting that the terms of the motion address the so-called chaos in the administration of the Department. To me, that is an admission by the Opposition …..."Kwasi Kwarteng - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 30 Jun 2014
DWP: Performance
"rose—..."Kwasi Kwarteng - View Speech
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