Asked by: Michael Payne (Labour - Gedling)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to improve employment support for disabled people who wish to enter or return to work.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is taking action to support disabled people and people with health conditions into work. Pathways to Work will provide tailored support that meets their needs, helping them to move into, stay in and progress to work.
Backed by £3.5 billion of investment by the end of the decade, Pathways to Work is creating a clear and joined-up offer of personalised work, health and skills support for all disabled people and those with health conditions or out of work benefits. Some Pathways to Work support is available irrespective of benefit entitlement.
Pathways to Work is improving the way we help disabled people and people with health conditions in our Jobcentres. We have introduced around 1,000 (full time equivalent) Pathways to Work Advisers in Jobcentres across England, Scotland and Wales so disabled people and people with health conditions can access personalised one-to-one support through regular tailored appointments. We are also testing a new Support Conversation in 32 Jobcentres to help individuals identify their needs and connect them to the right support.
Alongside these changes, we are expanding access to specialist and intensive support, through programmes such as Confident Futures (which opened for referrals at the end of October), Connect to Work and Economic Inactivity Trailblazers. These provide tailored employment support to disabled people, those with health conditions and people facing complex barriers to help them move closer to and into work.
Other programmes such as WorkWell and Employment Advisers in NHS Talking Therapies are integrating health and work support around the individual, enabling people to access support for health-related barriers to employment at the same time.
DWP research suggests there is a lack of awareness of rules intended to encourage working-age people who are in receipt of health and disability benefits (Personal Independence Payment, Universal Credit and New Style Employment and Support Allowance) to try work. The Government has taken an important first step to address these barriers through Right to Try secondary legislation. This Right to Try legislation guarantees that starting work and volunteering in itself will not trigger a reassessment for PIP, UC, and NS ESA customers. However, the Right to Try regulations are the first step, and we have broadly accepted the Social Security Advisory Committee’s (SSAC) recommendations and begun development of a No Reassessment Guarantee.
This is a significant and complex change, so we’re taking the time to work through the detail carefully, making sure that the approach is robust and deliverable. We’re taking into account stakeholder feedback, alongside that of the Collaboration Committees and SSAC as we look to give disabled people greater confidence to try work.
Asked by: Michael Payne (Labour - Gedling)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of pensioner households in Nottinghamshire eligible for Pension Credit who are not currently claiming it; and what steps he is taking to increase take-up among eligible pensioners.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The latest available Pension Credit take-up statistics cover the financial year ending 2025 and are available at: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up - GOV.UK. These statistics are only available at Great Britain level and cannot be broken down to smaller geographical areas.
However, the Department's Households potentially eligible for Pension Credit, 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK ad hoc statistical publication, provides analysis of households potentially eligible for, but not claiming, Pension Credit at sub-national and local authority level. It estimates that around 11,000 pensioner households in Nottinghamshire, excluding Nottingham City, were potentially eligible for Pension Credit but were not claiming. Including Nottingham City, the estimate was 13,900 households. Household numbers have been rounded to the nearest 100 and these figures are not directly comparable with the current published estimates of take-up in the official statistics.
For information on the steps the Government is taking to increase Pension Credit take-up among eligible pensioners, I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given on 3 November 2026 to Question UIN 38612.