Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to support disabled people to find work.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Good work is generally good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. Measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants, as well as joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care.
We are delivering the biggest investment in support for disabled people and people with health conditions in at least a generation. We announced in the recent Pathways to Work Green Paper that we would establish a new guarantee of support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work. This is backed up by £2.2bn over four years, including £200m in 2026/27 when our benefit changes begin to take effect and as announced in the statement on Welfare Reform (30 June) by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, an additional £300m over the next three years. This brings our total investment in employment support for disabled people and those with health conditions to £3.8 billion over this Parliament.
Backed by £240m investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched in November 2024, will drive forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity and work toward the long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate. In recognition of the key role employers play a key role in increasing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead an independent review, considering how best to support and enable employers to recruit and retain more people with health conditions and disabilities, promote healthy workplaces, and support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence. Sir Charlie will deliver his final report in the autumn. Employers are crucial in enhancing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and those with health conditions to thrive in the workforce. Our support to employers includes increasing access to Occupational Health, a digital information service for employers and the Disability Confident scheme.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Child Poverty Taskforce has had discussions with the Department for Education on family hubs.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Ministerial Child Poverty Taskforce is co-chaired by the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Education. It has met nine times to discuss the critical issues that drive child poverty. One such meeting in January focused on the role of local services in reducing poverty, including family hubs.
The Taskforce will continue to explore all available levers to drive forward short and long-term action across government to reduce child poverty, including family hubs.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that employers provide the support disabled people need to stay in work in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) other rural areas.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are delivering the biggest investment in employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions in at least a generation. We announced in the recent Pathways to Work Green Paper that we would establish a new guarantee of support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work. As announced in the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions’ statement on Welfare Reform, on 30 June, we are investing an additional £300m over the next 3 years. This means, our ‘Pathways to Work Guarantee’ is now backed by an investment of £2.2 billion by 2030. This brings our total investment in employment support for disabled people and those with health conditions to £3.8 billion over this Parliament.
Backed by £240m investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched in November 2024, will drive forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity and work toward the long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate. In recognition of the key role employers play a key role in increasing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead an independent review, considering how best to support and enable employers to recruit and retain more people with health conditions and disabilities, promote healthy workplaces, and support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence. Sir Charlie will deliver his final report in the autumn. Employers are crucial in enhancing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and those with health conditions to thrive in the workforce. Our support to employers includes increasing access to Occupational Health, a digital information service for employers and the Disability Confident scheme.
In Lincolnshire, our Jobcentre Employer and Partnership Teams work with a range of employers and partners to enhance the skills and employment support available locally. An example of this includes working closely with South and East Lincolnshire Council on the commissioning of skills and employment support programmes using Shared Prosperity Funding.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the child poverty taskforce on levels of child poverty in Fylde constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Tackling child poverty is at the heart of the Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances of every child, including those in Fylde constituency. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in autumn that will deliver fully funded measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty.
The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.
As a significant downpayment ahead of strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty through the Spending Review 2025. This includes an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament, establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1bn a year (including Barnett impact), investing in local family support services, and extending the £3 bus fare cap.
These commitments come on top of the existing action we have taken which includes expanding free breakfast clubs, capping the number of branded school uniform items children are expected to wear, increasing the national minimum wage for those on the lowest incomes and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will maintain the careers guidance service for all unemployed people receiving support as part of the new national Jobs and Careers Service.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new Jobs and Careers Service across Great Britain that will transform our ability to support people into good, meaningful work, and to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers. This will be a universal service which all people – not just benefit recipients or those out of work – will be able to engage with.
In England, these reforms will include bringing together Jobcentre Plus with the National Careers Service. The new service will have an increased focus on supporting progression and good work through aligning employment support more closely with skills and careers advice. In Scotland and Wales, we will work closely with the Devolved Governments to ensure the new service works effectively with the devolved careers and skills services.
We are in the early stages of designing the new service, working closely with Department for Education and more details will be shared in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to support businesses to create employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Employers are crucial in enhancing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and those with health conditions to thrive in the workforce. All employers have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ in the workplace where a disabled person would otherwise be put at a substantial disadvantage compared with their colleagues. The Equality and Human Rights Commission is responsible for enforcing the Equality Act and providing guidance on reasonable adjustments.
The Disability Confident Scheme encourages employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. The scheme covers all disabilities, including hidden disabilities.
In addition, DWP has a digital information service for employers, (www.support-with-employee-health-and-disability.dwp.gov.uk), which provides tailored guidance to businesses to support employees to remain in work. This includes guidance on health disclosures and having conversations about health, plus guidance on legal obligations, including statutory sick pay and making reasonable adjustments.
In October 2024 we launched our WorkWell service, which is piloting locally designed and delivered work and health support to meet the needs of local populations in 15 areas in England. Local partnerships of Integrated Care Boards, local authorities / Mayoral Combined Authorities and Jobcentre Plus will support disabled people and people with health conditions who are in or out of work to help them access the range of support they need to be able to work. WorkWell pilots will provide up to 56,000 people with the opportunity to work with a multidisciplinary team combining health and work professions to build a personalised action plan addressing a person’s health related barriers to work.
Throughout 2025 our new, locally-led, voluntary Supported Employment programme Connect to Work is opening across England and Wales. It will provide specialist employment support to over 300,000 disabled people, people with health conditions and those with complex barriers to employment over the five-year duration of the programme.
In recognition of the key role employers play a key role in increasing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead an independent review, considering how best to support and enable employers to recruit and retain more people with health conditions and disabilities, promote healthy workplaces, and support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence. Sir Charlie will deliver his final report in the autumn.
Asked by: Zöe Franklin (Liberal Democrat - Guildford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to give pension scheme trustees the authority to award discretionary increases to those already claiming a pension.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Discretionary indexation is over and above the statutory requirements. This discretion is usually exercised by the trustees with the agreement of the sponsoring employer. Some schemes have previously paid discretionary increases on a regular basis. However, these increases are not part of the pension package promised.
The precise design of pension benefits is a matter for employers and trustees and is not covered in the Department for Work and Pensions legislation. Pension scheme rules are many and varied and must remain a matter for employers and scheme trustees to decide.
The Pension Schemes Bill makes changes so that more trustees of well-funded schemes have the flexibility to share their scheme surplus with employers, subject to strict funding safeguards for members. Scheme trustees are required to act in the interest of scheme beneficiaries, and working with sponsoring employers, will be responsible for decisions on the release of surplus. Together they will agree how members can benefit from any release of surplus, which could include discretionary benefit increases.
The Pensions Regulator already expects that trustees be aware of members who would benefit from any decision to award a discretionary increase and whether the scheme has a history of making such awards.
Asked by: Catherine Atkinson (Labour - Derby North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to enable the employment of (a) disabled people and (b) people with long-term health conditions.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Good work is generally good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. Measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants, as well as joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care.
We are delivering the biggest investment in employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions in at least a generation. We announced in the recent Pathways to Work Green Paper that we would establish a new guarantee of support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work. As announced in the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions’ statement on Welfare Reform on 30 June we are investing an additional £300m over the next 3 years. This means ‘Pathways to Work Guarantee’ is now an investment of£2.2 billion by 2030. This brings our total investment in employment support for disabled people and those with health conditions to £3.8 billion over this Parliament.
Backed by £240m investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched in November 2024, will drive forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity and work toward the long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate. In recognition of the key role employers play a key role in increasing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead an independent review, considering how best to support and enable employers to recruit and retain more people with health conditions and disabilities, promote healthy workplaces, and support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence. Sir Charlie will deliver his final report in the autumn. Employers are crucial in enhancing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and those with health conditions to thrive in the workforce. Our support to employers includes increasing access to Occupational Health, a digital information service for employers and the Disability Confident scheme.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to food bank referral slips on levels of food poverty since February 2024.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Under the previous administration, DWP introduced a new food charity signposting slip to replace the one previously used, removing personal data to better comply with obligations, including GDPR responsibilities, and to improve our process. The new slip does not change our DWP policy, and our Jobcentres continue to provide customers with guidance to find additional support, including to emergency food support when appropriate.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support people on universal credit into work in (a) Fylde constituency and (b) Lancashire.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As announced in the Get Britain Working White Paper, we are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service that will enable everyone to access support to find good, meaningful work, and support to help them to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers advice.
We are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service across Great Britain that will enable everyone to access good, meaningful work, and support them to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers. The new service will be available for anyone who wants to look for work, to increase their earnings or to change their career or retrain. It will be responsive to local employers, inclusive for all customers and will work closely in partnership with local services to tackle the challenges associated with local labour markets.
In Fylde, our Jobcentre teams work closely with the Local Authority as well as local employers and partners to offer a range of employment opportunities for our customers. Tailored support is available for different customer groups to offer the right support needed. An example is referring our younger customers to Fylde Focus which gives 16-24 year olds a bespoke one to one service to improve their employability skills. Across Lancashire, including Fylde, our Work Coaches utilise their appointments to identify the right provision for our customers. Employer Advisers and Disability Employment Advisers engage with employers and partners to bring our Jobcentres Sector-based Work Academy Programmes, 50+ MOT’s, Job Fairs, employability building courses and more. An example is a recent employability event which took place in St Annes, which helped individuals look at taking the first or next step in their career and employment journey. The event offered tailored careers advice, CV/interview support and access to local training and job opportunities.