Written questions by Duncan-Jordan.

With reference to her Department's report entitled Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts, published on 26 March 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the increase of children in relative poverty on (a) those children's health and (b) the societal health inequalities of children.

No such assessment has been made. However, the proposals have been carefully designed to protect the finances of severely disabled people. The Department published “Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Equality Analysis” and “Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms – Impacts” 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 paragraphs 2.33 to 2.35 of HM Treasury's document entitled Spring Statement 2025, published on 26 March 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the changes in health and disability benefits on (a) the health of those people receiving such benefits and (b) societal health inequalities.

No such assessment 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. 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. Meaning 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 her Department's report entitled Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts, published on 26 March 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the increase of people in relative poverty on (a) those people's health and (b) societal health inequalities.

No such assessment has been made. However, the proposals have been carefully designed to protect the finances of severely disabled people. The Department published “Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Equality Analysis” and “Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms – Impacts” 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.

If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the decision not to consult on all the measures listed in Annex A in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025 on disabled people's organisations.

We are committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people and people with health conditions at the heart of everything we do. We want to improve and refine our reform plans by consulting on certain measures as described in the Green Paper. The consultation will close 12 weeks after the point at which all the accessible versions are available, to ensure that all stakeholders have sufficient time to engage and that we hear from as many people as possibleHowever, we urgently need this reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and promote the interests of disabled people. This means we need to take decisive action to tackle a situation in which PIP claims are set to double from 2 million to over 4.3 million this decade. We are consulting on how best to support those affected by the changes. We will also consider improvements to the PIP assessment. We will launch a wider review of the PIP indicators, which I shall lead, and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this. We will provide further details as plans progress. We will rebalance payments in Universal Credit, reducing the health top up for new claims and delivering the first ever permanent, above inflation rise to the standard allowance of UC – actually offering help for people to get into work as quickly as possible. We will be bringing forward the PIP and UC changes in a Bill so Parliament can fully debate and vote on them.

If she will make an estimate of the number of children in poverty as a result of the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025.

The government's impact assessment regarding Health and Disability Reform is available at Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts. 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 she will make an estimate of the number of households that will receive (a) up to £25, (b) between £25 and £50, (c) between £50 and £75, (d) between £75 to £100 and (e) more than £100 less per week as a result of proposals in Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025.

No such estimates have been made.Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course with some information published this week 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.

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 the work of the Child Poverty Task Force.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy and is exploring levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support especially in the early years.As part of the Strategy's development, the Taskforce is considering the potential impact of policies across government on child poverty.

What the evidential basis is for the proposition that reducing levels of disability benefits leads to increased levels of employment.

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. Meaning 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.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a Work Transition Guarantee to help ensure disabled people keep their benefits for a period after they move into work.

Building on the support Universal Credit provides disabled people, our Pathways to Work Green Paper launched a consultation on creating a route into work consistent with health conditions or disability, with UC supplementing income. Communication around this will emphasise that engaging with work won’t trigger a reassessment, and that existing linking rules mean if a job ends the previous benefit rate remains.

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 effect of her policy proposals on the social determinants of ill health.

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. 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 reducing health inequalities.

Good quality employment is an important determinant of health. The Marmot Review in 2010 concluded that to reduce health inequalities and improve the health of the nation we needed action on 6 policy objectives. One of those was the creation of fair employment and good work for us all. Unemployment is associated with an increased risk of mortality, long-term illness, cardiovascular disease, poor mental health, suicide, and health-harming behaviours. Our current health and disability benefits system does not encourage and enable disabled people and people with health conditions to engage with the labour market or thrive in employment. Without change, this will harm people’s living standards, wellbeing and life chances, as well as harming our economy, including by restricting our ability to reach the goal of an 80% employment rate.

What estimate she has made of the amount of savings raised from (a) freezing the value of the health element of Universal Credit for existing claimants and (b) reducing the value of the health element of Universal Credit for new claimants.

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. 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 estimate her Department has made of the number of existing Personal Independence Payment claimants who will not achieve a minimum of four points in at least one activity to qualify for the daily living element after November 2026.

The information is intended for publication alongside the Spring Statement.

If she will make an assessment with her Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of the proposals set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper on levels of poor mental health among (a) children aged 17 and under and (b) people aged 18 to 67.

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. 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 delaying access to the health element of Universal Credit until age 22 on relevant people.

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. 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 estimate her Department has made of the number of new Personal Independence Payment claimants who will not achieve a minimum of four points in at least one activity to qualify for the daily living element after November 2026.

The information is intended for publication alongside the Spring Statement.

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.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Pathways to Work Green Paper on the finances of disabled people.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course. The proposals have been carefully designed to protect the finances of severely disabled people. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

Whether she plans to take steps to remove the role of the private sector in carrying out (a) PIP assessments and (b) PIP reassessments.

In September 2024, new five-year contracts for functional health and disability services commenced. In advance of the procurement of these contracts, a delivery model assessment was carried out in line with commercial best practice, which determined that outsourced delivery remained the best way of achieving value for money and service stability. The Department will conduct a further delivery model assessment in due course to inform decisions on future service delivery, beyond the current contracts.

What assessment she has made of the cost to the public purse of providing (a) back to work support for disabled people, (b) ongoing in-work support for those disabled people once in employment and (c) incentives to employers to hire disabled people who have been out of work for more than one year.

As part of the plans set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper we will be investing significant additional funding in employment support, rising to £1bn a year by 2029/30. To maximise its impact we need the input of stakeholders and disabled people themselves and we will use a ‘collaboration committee’ to develop our thinking further.