Oral Answers to Questions

Ian Lavery Excerpts

Monday 1st September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Harper]

I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s question and for the work that she is doing. I am pleased to be able to congratulate Pluss. I think that I am right in remembering that I visited it when I shadowed this brief in opposition. The work that it does and the success of the event are testimony to its efforts to get more disabled people into work.

[Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)]

The outcomes for people on the Work programme who are unemployed on health grounds are simply abysmal. What will the Minister do about that?

[Mr Harper]

The important thing is to see whether people who have health conditions are able to work. If we put people through a work capability assessment and they are clearly not able to work at all, we want to ensure that they get the appropriate help, but if people can work, we want to ensure that they do. That is why we have the Work programme and other schemes that give people proper support to get them into work.