Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department provides financial support to people with sleep apnea who use a (a) continuous positive airway pressure and (b) bilevel positive airway pressure machine for the running of that device.

The department does not provide financial support for specific items to assist people with a health condition or disability as part of their daily living needs. Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment provide a contribution towards the extra costs faced by people with a long-term health condition or disability. These benefits are assessed on the needs arising from a condition, rather than the condition itself. Claimants in receipt of one of these benefits are free to choose how to use it according to their own priorities and needs.

The Government understands the pressures people, including disabled people, are facing with the cost of living this winter, and has taken further action to support people with their energy bills. The Government's Energy Price Guarantee, running from October 2022 to March 2023, will save a typical British household around £900 this winter. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year, which includes:

• the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme;
• a Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 to six million people in recognition of the extra costs they face, including with energy costs;
• up to £650 in Cost of Living Payments for the eight million households in receipt of eligible means-tested benefits;
• a one-off payment of £300 through, and as an addition to, the Winter Fuel Payment from November to pensioner households.

We have also announced further support for 2023-24 to support the most vulnerable households, including £26bn of new cost of living support and the uprating by 10.1% of benefits for working age households and disabled people, as well as the basic and new State Pensions.