Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Q9 of the oral evidence by Gareth Parry to the Work and Pensions Committee on 17 April 2024, HC 697, whether the Work and Health Programme will end in November 2024.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Work and Health Programme is part of a much wider offer to help people with disabilities and long-term health conditions and those in disadvantage groups start, stay and succeed in work.
As part of the government’s Back to Work Plan we have launched and plan to deliver a range of other support which will put in place an offer to a broader range of disabled people, for example, Universal Support will support up to 100,000 disabled people, people with health conditions and people with additional barriers to employment per year, once fully rolled out, helping them to find, enter, and remain in work
The Work and Health Programme will continue to be delivered until July 2026, further announcements on the programme will be made in due course.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what national specialist employment support his Department plans to provide for disabled people, in the context of the planned ending of funding for the Work and Health Programme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government’s £2.5 billion Back to Work Plan will support over a million people to break down barriers to finding and staying in work through the use of NHS Talking Therapies, Individual Placement and Support, Restart and Universal Support which aims to support up to 100,000 disabled people, people with health conditions and people with additional barriers to employment per year, once fully rolled out, helping them to find, enter, and remain in work.
Any further announcements regarding the Work and Health Programme will be made in due course.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the potential impact of planned changes to the Work Capability Assessment on (a) appeal and (b) mandatory reconsideration costs.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is committed to understanding the impacts of its policies on the justice system, and is carefully considering the impact of any changes on appeals and mandatory reconsiderations.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent progress his Department has made towards the full rollout of the Universal Support programme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universal Support will be delivered through around 50 Local Authority led delivery areas, covering all of England and Wales. We expect areas will go live with Universal Support in a phased way from Autumn 2024. We will shortly publish a Universal Support prospectus, which will provide an overview of the expectations for the programme. We aim to publish the Grant Guidance and associated materials before the summer recess. We will work collaboratively with delivery areas to agree their delivery plans and implementation timetables.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of potential costs of planned changes to the Work Capability Assessment on (a) the NHS and (b) mental health services.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is considering the effect of these changes on the NHS and mental health services; however, currently no assessment has been made. We are continuing to engage with a range of clinical experts and charities specialising in disability and health conditions as well as representatives from national organisations around the Work Capability Assessment changes and associated support.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many disabled people have been supported into work by the Universal Support programme as of 30 April 2024.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Members to the answer given on 24 April 2024 to PQ22549.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Access to Work applicants were awaiting a decision on (a) 1 January, (b) 1 February and (c) 1 March in (i) 2007, (ii) 2008, (iii) 2009 and (iv) 2010.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested on Access to Work applicants awaiting a decision on (a) 1 January, (b) 1 February and (c) 1 March in (i) 2007, (ii) 2008, (iii) 2009 and (iv) 2010 is not available.
However, the Access to Work statistics includes how many applications result in provision being approved from 2007/08 to 2021/22. Please see Table 3 of the Access to Work statistics.
The latest Access to Work statistics can be found here.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many new staff have been recruited to work on the Access to Work programme in each of the last six months for which data is available; and whether her Department plans to recruit more staff to work on this programme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Please find figures for new staff that have been recruited to work on the Access to Work programme for the last 6 months.
Month | Number of new staff |
November 2023 | 14 |
December 2023 | 1 |
January 2024 | 1 |
February 2024 | 30 |
March 2024 | 4 |
April (at 23/4/24) | 7 |
An additional 95 staff will be redeployed to Access to Work in May/June 2024 and another 13 are expected through recruitment in May 2024.
Month | Number of staff |
May / June 2024 | 108 |
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the increase in Access to Work applications between September 2023 and March 2024.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
AtW is one of a suite of policies aimed at helping disabled people to enter and thrive in work. Access to Work (AtW) remains in high demand. We have increased the number of staff processing AtW claims and are prioritising renewal applications and those with a job start within four weeks. We are improving the service through increased digitisation to improve the time from application through to decision.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were waiting for a decision on their Access to Work application on 1 April 2024.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of 1st April 2024, there were 32,445 applications awaiting a decision.
Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.