Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
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 merits of introducing sight loss training for (a) Access to Work advisors and (b) Jobcentre Plus staff.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of staff on-boarding and induction into DWP, staff complete learning for customers with sight loss. The learning provides the definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010, and an overview of the support available to customers including the challenges that individuals with sight loss may face.
Work coaches in Jobcentres also have a point of needs learning products, allowing them to support blind and visually impaired customers.
Access to Work support workers undergo learning which provides details of the funding that is available to support customers with sight loss. This includes the funding of lenses, colour tests and tinted glasses for health conditions, such as Irlens Syndrome (not for general sight loss) when a prescription is given from an optometrist for corrective vision.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
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 merits of helping blind and partially sighted people by extending the Access to Work scheme to formal volunteering placements.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Access to Work is a demand-led, personalised discretionary grant which supports the recruitment and retention of disabled people in paid employment. We recognise the important role that volunteering, and other programmes can play in securing employment, and DWP provides support for individuals participating in supported internships and applicable apprenticeships and traineeships. There are no plans to extend Access to Work to those on formal volunteering placements.
In March 2025, we published the Pathways to Work Green Paper, to consult on the future of Access to Work. We are considering the role of employers in creating accessible and inclusive workplaces, as well as the future of assistive technology.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of Disability Confident scheme employers employing at least one disabled person.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Employers at level 2 and level 3 of the Disability Confident scheme are asked if they employ disabled people at the point of applying for or renewing their membership at these levels. Organisations applying for or renewing at level 2 have only been asked whether they employ disabled people since the 20th of February 2024. Organisations applying for or renewing at level 1 are not asked to provide this information.
As of the 1st April 2025, the data collected shows that, of all employers asked this question (2,454 employers in total), the majority (91%) reported they do employ disabled people. Less than one percent of employers said they do not employ disabled people, and 9 percent did not respond or did not know. Due to the specific and self-reported nature of the management information collected, it may not provide an accurate reflection of the employment of disabled people across all Disability Confident members and should therefore be treated with caution.
In 2022, the Department commissioned a survey of Disability Confident members. Respondents included employers who were members at level 1, 2 and 3 of the scheme. The survey found that nearly two-thirds (63%) of employers reported having recruited at least one disabled employee or an employee who had a long-term health condition, since joining the Disability Confident scheme. More detail on this question can be accessed in the survey report on gov.uk using the following link: Disability Confident: survey of participating employers, May 2022 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what estimate she has made of the number of people who will enter the workforce in the (a) 2026-27, (b) 2027-28 and (c) 2028-29 financial years as a result of the reforms set out in that paper.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
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.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
We will continue to work with the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to estimate the potential labour market impacts of these proposals.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the RNIB on its report entitled Access to Work - Cost benefit analysis, published on 5 September 2015, in the context of her Department's consultation on its Green Paper on Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 26 March 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since 2015, the style, scope and cost of support that disabled people require has changed significantly, as has the labour market, yet Access to Work has stayed broadly the same. We believe there is a strong case for looking at the future role and purpose of Access to Work, given the significant operational challenges it faces, its limited reach (it only supports around 1% of the working disabled population) and rising costs. We want to improve accessibility and support more disabled people into work and think Access to Work has a significant role in this.
In March 2025, the Pathways to Work Green paper launched a consultation on the future of Access to Work, and we are keen to hear the views and voices of disabled people and representative organisations, such as RNIB. We will consider all evidence during the review of Access to Work.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department holds on the number of Employment and Support Allowance claimants who were (a) overpaid and (b) underpaid due to (i) claimant error and (ii) government error in 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The last time the Department reviewed fraud and error levels in Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) was in 2022/23, which is reported here: Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2022 to 2023 estimates - GOV.UK. Table 11 demonstrates that 10.1% of the caseload was overpaid and 7.0% was underpaid. We did not review ESA in our fraud and error measurement exercise in 2023/24, but have assumed that those same rates will have continued.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to consult organisations led by disabled people on the reforms set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to working in partnership with disabled people and the organisations that represent them.
Following on from the publication of the Get Britain Working White Paper, we will establish a disability panel to ensure that disabled people’s views and voices are at the heart of the design and delivery of our employment reforms. We will carry out in-depth consultations to seek input and expertise from a wide range of stakeholders including disabled people, community groups and employers.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
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 improve employment support for disabled Universal Credit claimants.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of the get Britain working plan, more disabled people and those with health conditions will be supported to enter and stay in work, by devolving more power to local areas so they can shape a joined-up work, health, and skills offer that suits the needs of the people they serve. Forthcoming White Papers will develop policy in this area.
Good quality 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. We want people to avoid poverty, and for this to happen we must ensure that disabled people and people with health conditions have the opportunity to work and save for as long as they wish and are able to.
Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group who need access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time. We have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including disabled Universal Credit claimants. Measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres, Access to Work grants and the Work and Health Programme, 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.
Employers play a key role in increasing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and people with health conditions to thrive as part of 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: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
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 collaborate with (a) disabled people and (b) disabled people's organisations to help improve disabled people's interactions with the benefits system.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is committed to championing the rights of disabled people and to the principle of working with them, so that their views and voices will be at the heart of all that we do.
The Health Transformation Programme (HTP) is modernising health and disability benefit services to improve user experience and increase trust in these services.
HTP service design has been informed by user research conducted with customers, operational staff and health care professionals, including one-to-one sessions with customers at each stage of their claim. The Department has also engaged with a significant number of stakeholder organisations, establishing positive relationships with representative groups by seeking their expertise before beginning to develop and test new processes.
This collaborative approach will help the department to tailor services to customer needs.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 2 August 2024 to Question 1798 on Work Capability Assessment, what steps she is taking to (a) reform or (b) replace the Work Capability Assessment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government is committed to reforming or replacing the Work Capability Assessment, alongside putting in place a proper plan to support disabled people into work. We will say more about this in due course.
We will continue to engage with stakeholders to keep the views of disabled people and people with health conditions at the heart of what we do, as we consider our next steps.