Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's green paper Pathways to work: reforming benefits and support to get Britain working, published on 18 March 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of her proposed policies on the causes of poverty among disabled people.

The latest available statistics show that full-time work substantially reduces the chances of poverty. In 2022/23, working age adults living in families where no adults work were around 6 times more likely to be in relative poverty after housing costs, than working age adults in families where all adults work. And the relative poverty rate (after housing costs) of children in households where both parents work in 2022/23 was 14%, compared to 75% for children living in households where no adults work.

The latest available data shows that in 2022/23, only 6% of children in couple families were in relative poverty after housing costs where both adults work full time, compared to 66% where one or more adults in a couple were in part time work only.

70% of children in lone parent families where the adult did not work were in relative low income after housing costs in 2022/23 compared to 27% of children in working lone parent families.