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 disabled people to gain (a) employment and (b) skills and further training.

The Work, Health and Disability Green Paper Improving Lives demonstrated our strong commitment to providing the support required to help disabled people to be able to work. For example: we are more than doubling the number of Disability Employment Advisors (to over 500) to provide specialist expertise to help disabled people enter employment, we are spending £60m next year on additional support for new claimants with limited capability for work (and this figure will rise to £100m a year by 2020); we are investing in the skills and capabilities of Jobcentre Plus work coaches to enable them to better support people with a wide range of health conditions, including mental health conditions; and our new Personal Support Package includes an enhanced menu of employment support upon which for work coaches can draw.

The Work and Health Programme will launch from the end of this year and will play a crucial role in offering support at the right time to those who have difficulty accessing the labour market. We expect the majority of people who will start the programme will be disabled people.

Specialist Employability Support (SES) provides employment support for those with complex barriers to work for whom other employment support such as Work Choice is not suitable.

For those in work, or just about to enter work, Access to Work provides practical and financial support with the additional costs faced by individuals whose health or disability affects the way they do their job and is also available for pre-employment activities such as Traineeships, Supported Internships and work trials.

We will continue to develop our approach drawing on responses to the Green Paper consultation.