Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to set up a task group on tackling the impact of poverty on disabled people.

This government is putting disabled people’s views and voices at the heart of everything we do. That is why we have brought forward the Pathways to Work Green Paper and opened a public consultation. This consultation welcomes all views, and we hope that a wide range of voices will respond before it closes on the 30 June 2025.

In addition to the consultation itself, we are establishing ‘collaboration committees’ that bring groups of people together for specific work areas and our wider review of the PIP assessment will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience. We are also in the process of establishing the Disability Advisory Panel, which was announced in the Get Britain Working White Paper. It will be a strategic advisory panel consisting of up to 12 disabled people and individuals with long-term health conditions.

We are listening carefully to the voices of children and families living in poverty, including children with disabilities and special educational needs (SEND). Examples of the engagement we’ve undertaken are events with: Contact, a charity for families with disabled children; ALLFIE, a campaign group focused on including disabled learners in mainstream education; and the Challenging Behaviour Foundation that aims to improve the life opportunities for young people with severe learning disabilities and their families. In April, the Taskforce met with external experts, including disability charities and organisations, to discuss the experiences of disabled children living in poverty.

In December 2024, a Lead Minister for Disability was appointed in every government department, to represent the interests of disabled people and champion disability inclusion and accessibility across their department, as they drive forward progress on the government’s manifesto commitments and 5 missions. I am proud to serve as the chair of this group and we meet regularly throughout the year to break down barriers to opportunity for disabled people right across the government’s long-term missions; and fulfil the manifesto commitment to ensure their departments put the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of everything they do.

Alongside delivering on our Get Britain Working plan to support people into good jobs and make everyone better off, which is the fastest route out of poverty, we’re increasing the Living Wage, uprating benefits (including the first sustained, above inflation increase to the UC standard allowance) and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families with children by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions to help low-income households. We have also extended free school meals provision to all children in households on Universal Credit.