Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has spent on its Disability Confident employer scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Disability Confident scheme is delivered by a small policy team within the department, and by colleagues across the Jobcentre Plus network, who engage with employers and partner organisations as part of their day-to-day business. Total scheme expenditure is not separately recorded within departmental budgets.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of disabled people receiving Personal Independence Payment are in work.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In March 2023, 475,000 people in receipt of PIP in England, Wales, or outside the UK were in employment in the UK, including self-employment. The proportion of people in receipt of PIP who are in employment was published in Modernising Support for Independent Living - The Health and Disability Green Paper found here.
These figures contain all PIP claimants, including claimants with disabilities and long-term health conditions, and those over pension age.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department plans to take to settle Access to Work payments owed to Icarus Theatre Collective in Southwark to support a disabled actor.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are unable to comment on individual cases.
Claims for Access to Work payments can be submitted via our online portal or through the post and this is clearly explained in customer letters. Approved claims submitted through the proper channels are typically processed within 10 days.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will conduct analysis on the potential impact on NHS costs of proposed changes to the work capability assessment.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The WCA activities and descriptors consultation closed on Monday 30 October and received over 1300 responses.
The department does not intend to make an assessment of the potential impact on the NHS.
We are committed to ensuring our welfare system encourages and supports people into work, while providing a vital safety net for those who need it most. Working can help promote recovery, lead to better health outcomes, reduce long-term incapacity, and promote participation in society.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
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 reduce waiting times on Access to Work applications.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Access to Work has continued to improve wait times for customers applying to the service. During the summer wait times have been halved.
Access to Work has received a significant increase in demand and applications over the last year. To address this and to reduce waiting times we have recruited new staff in the year and continue to redeploy staff to reduce decision times. Our latest cohort of redeployed staff started in November. We are now consolidating their learning, which will grow capability and build additional available resource into the next quarter.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to establish a long-term disability strategy from 2024.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government set out its long-term disability strategy in the National Disability Strategy published in 2021. The National Disability Strategy sets out our ambition to improve the lives of all disabled people.
In addition, the Government has recently completed a consultation on the Disability Action Plan, which will set out the immediate action the Government is taking this year and in 2024 to improve disabled people’s lives, as well as laying the foundations for longer term change.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of placing work advisors in community musculoskeletal services on employment levels of people with arthritis.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
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 help support people with musculoskeletal issues into work.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government is taking several steps to help support people with musculoskeletal (MSK) issues into work.
In the spring Budget the Government set out a package of measures to provide an extra £406 million over the next five years to tackle the leading health-related causes keeping people out of work, which includes investment targeted at services for MSK conditions.
As part of this, the Government will pilot integrating vocational advice within MSK services to ensure people can access holistic support locally, scale up MSK Hubs in the community and ensure digital resources, such as apps for management of MSK conditions, are readily available, so that more people can easily and quickly access the support that is right for them.
We also have a new online service, which is currently in live national testing, offering tailored guidance to help employers better support disabled people and those with health conditions in the workplace: Support with Employee Health and Disability service.
In October 2022, we published the Musculoskeletal (MSK) Health Toolkit for employers and further education institutions, which encourages employers to support adolescents and young adults with MSK conditions. The Musculoskeletal health toolkit for employers was developed in partnership with Business in the Community and provides practical information for employers of all sizes to address MSK conditions in the workplace for the working age population.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
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 help reduce waiting times for access to work assessments.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Access to Work has received a significant increase in applications over the last year and have recruited new staff to meet the increased demand and reduce the time it takes to make decisions. Customers making new applications where they are starting work within the next 4 weeks, or have a grant coming to an end that requires renewal, are prioritised to ensure customers are able to enter and remain in the labour market. We are also streamlining and transforming the Access to Work service through increased digitalisation, that will make the service more efficient, will make the application process easier, and improve the time taken from application through to decision.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department required local authorities to work closely with GPs on the allocation of the Household Support Fund.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions does not proactively gather data on the involvement of schools or GPs in the distribution of the Household Support Fund.
The Household Support Fund is a discretionary scheme allocated to Local Authorities to provide support those most in need towards the cost of essentials. It is for each local council to decide how to distribute their funding, within the parameters of the Fund’s terms and conditions.
Authorities have the flexibility to design and deliver the scheme through a variety of routes and are encouraged, but not required, where necessary and appropriate to work with third parties, which could include schools and GPs among other groups.