Written questions by Duncan-Jordan.

Whether funding for personalised employment support for individuals with (a) health conditions and (b) disabilities will be made accessible to independent advice agencies to help disabled people into work.

We announced in the 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, backed up by £1 billion of new funding As the Green Paper notes, we will explore how to make the best use of capabilities at national and at local levels, so that individuals receive seamless support from a coherent system. We want to work with the health system, local government, Mayoral Strategic Authorities, skills providers, employers, private and voluntary sector providers and service users to design our ‘Pathways to Work’ offer. We are committed to making sure the help on offer is appropriate to local needs and local labour markets.

How many people with Multiple Sclerosis get contributions-based Employment and Support Allowance.

In August 2024 there were 14,620* people in receipt of contributions-based ESA whose main condition was multiple sclerosis. * Rounded to the nearest ten.

How many people with Multiple Sclerosis who receive income-based Employment and Support Allowance do not also receive Personal Independence Payment.

In August 2024 there were 6,480* people in receipt of Income-related ESA whose main condition was multiple sclerosis. 1,490* of those in receipt of Income-related ESA whose main condition was multiple sclerosis were not in receipt of PIP, the remaining 5,000* were. * Rounded to the nearest ten. Totals may not sum due to rounding.

Whether she plans to provide additional support to (a) deaf and (b) disabled people’s organisations.

I refer the Hon. member to the answer I gave on 20 March to PQ 37556 A full suite of accessible versions is now available, and the consultation will close on 30 June 2025, to ensure that everyone has sufficient time to engage with and respond to the consultation. We are also running a programme of accessible virtual and face to face events on the consultation, to hear from members of the public directly, including disabled people and their representatives. More information about these events and registration is available on GOV.UK.

How many people with Multiple Sclerosis receive Universal Credit.

The specific information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

What discussions her Department has had with (a) deaf and (b) disabled people’s organisations on the potential impact of proposed disability benefit changes.

I refer the Hon. member to the answer I gave on 20 March to PQ 37556 A full suite of accessible versions is now available, and the consultation will close on 30 June 2025, to ensure that everyone has sufficient time to engage with and respond to the consultation. We are also running a programme of accessible virtual and face to face events on the consultation, to hear from members of the public directly, including disabled people and their representatives. More information about these events and registration is available on GOV.UK.

How many people with Multiple Sclerosis who receive Universal Credit do not also receive Personal Independence Payment.

The specific information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

How many people with multiple sclerosis who receive a Personal Independence Payment daily living award do not score more than four points in any of the daily living activities.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

What steps her Department is taking to increase the take up of means-tested benefits in households with children in poverty.

The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy, and we are exploring all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty. High childcare costs are a key barrier in preventing individuals into work, we want to ensure that the right financial help is provided to make it easier for low incomes families to choose work, stay in and progress in work. Our focus is on bringing about an enduring reduction in child poverty in this parliament, thereby reversing the trend that is seeing forecasts of child poverty continuing to increase. More details, including on the time horizon, will be set out in the strategy publication.

With reference to the Green Paper: Pathways to Work, published on 18 March 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the proposed changes to (a) health and (b) disability benefits on health inequalities.

The Government is committed to building a fairer Britain, to ensure people can live well for longer, and spend less time in ill health, regardless of where they are born or their financial circumstances. We are working with the Department for Health and Social Care to ensure that health is built into our policies, including those outlined in the Pathways to Work Green Paper. Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found here ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

If her Department will undertake a health impact assessment of proposed changes to health and disability benefits in her Department's Green Paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working, published on 18 March 2025.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found here ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the welfare reforms proposed in her Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, last updated 28 March 2025, on (a) reducing levels of and (b) preventing homelessness among disabled people.

No assessment has yet been made. Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

What assessment she has made in the Pathways to Work Green Paper of the adequacy of (a) ill health and (b) disability benefits.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) provides a contribution to the extra costs that may arise from a disability or health condition. DWP pays close attention to estimates of the extra costs faced by disabled people; including academic research, analysis by Scope, and DWP’s own commissioned research on the Uses of Health and Disability Benefits from 2019. In order to improve the evidence in this area, DWP is now undertaking a new survey of Personal Independence Payment customers to understand more about their disability related needs. It is expected to produce findings in Autumn 2025.

What assessment has been made of the potential financial impact of changing the eligibility to the health element of Universal Credit to people aged 22 on disabled young people aged between 18 and up to 22.

Information on the impacts of the “Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper” will be published in due course, with some information already published alongside the Spring Statement. [https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/pathways-to-work-reforming-benefits-and-support-to-get-britain-working-green-paper] A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, on people in receipt of carer's allowance.

This government is committed to supporting unpaid carers, who provide invaluable support to elderly or disabled people. As the Green Paper sets out, we will consider the impacts on benefits for unpaid carers as part of our wider considerations of responses to the consultation as we develop our detailed proposals for change.

What estimate she has made of the level of saving from reducing the health element of Universal Credit in cash terms to £50 per week in 2026-27 for new claimants.

The table below breaks down the overall savings into the static savings of the two policies and the impact of the expected behavioural changes. The behavioural changes are the expected impact of both policies on claimant behaviour. DWP costings are produced at a GB level. The final line aligns the DWP estimates to the Spring Statement 2025 policy costing document which includes the impact of the Scotland Block Grant Adjustment and Northern Ireland.Savings, £, m2026/272027/282028/292029/30Static impact: Pre-April 2026 stock freeze4907009001,090Static impact: Post April 2026 flow reduced rate4301,0701,6902,280Behavioural impact (of both policies combined)-210-300-400-500Scotland Block Grant Adjustment and Northern Ireland3070100130

What estimate she has made of the number of (a) part-time and (b) full-time employment opportunities that will be available by 2029-30 for those disabled people and people with health conditions as outlined in the Green Paper: Pathways to Work, published on 18 March 2025.

No such estimate has been made. However, we have evidence that delivering better and more tailored employment support can get more people off welfare, and into work - alongside a higher expectation to engage with that support. Therefore, we are investing £1 billion a year by the end of the decade in new employment, health and skills support – one of the biggest packages of new employment support for sick and disabled people ever. In addition, corrective action is needed after the value of the basic unemployment benefit was run down to a 40-year low, while incapacity benefits continued to rise. This means that the rate of Universal Credit for those on the health element is now double that for those on the standard allowance. As a result, all the incentives are to claim incapacity benefits and define yourself as incapable of work, with both the OBR and IFS suggesting this has been a factor in driving higher incapacity benefit claims.

With reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, when she plans to publish further information on how her Department plans to use the £1 billion a year funding to help more disabled people and people with health conditions into employment.

As the Green Paper notes, we are keen to engage widely on the design of this guarantee and the components needed to deliver it. To get this right, we will be seeking input from people who are out of work on health and disability grounds and their representative organisations, and from a wide range of other stakeholders including devolved governments, local health systems, local government and Mayoral Strategic Authorities, private and voluntary sector providers, and employers. We will confirm further details in due course after we have completed our consultation process.

How many people with disabilities and long-term health conditions will be supported by the £1bn a year funding outlined in the Green Paper: Pathways to Work, published on 18 March 2025.

We announced in the 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, backed up by £1 billion of new funding across Great Britain. Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information already published alongside the Spring Statement. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

With reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what steps she plans to take to help support people with severe lifelong conditions.

The social security system will always be there for those who can’t work. As part of making changes to the payment rates in Universal Credit, we will protect the incomes of those with the most severe, lifelong conditions who will never be able to work.For those with the most severe, life-long health conditions, who have no prospect of improvement and will never be able to work, will see their incomes protected. We will also guarantee that for both new and existing claims, those in this group who have no prospect of improvement will not need to be reassessed in future.We also want to improve peoples’ experience of the health and disability benefits system, as set out in the Green Paper. This includes exploring ways to improve PIP assessments through using recording of assessments as a lever for improvement, digitalising transfer of medical information, using evidence from eligibility for other services to reduce the need for people with very severe health conditions to undergo functional assessments and improving communication with people receiving awards who are expected to remain on disability benefits for life.