Health-related Benefits Assessments

Baroness Maclean of Redditch Excerpts

Monday 8th June 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Maclean of Redditch]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the value of mandating that (1) all, or (2) more, health-related benefits assessments be conducted in person.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Sherlock) (Lab)]

My Lords, face-to-face assessments are an important part of our multichannel approach. For some individuals, they are the best way for us to understand the impacts of their health condition or disability, and they can help boost public confidence in the health assessment system. This Government are committed to increasing the number of face-to-face assessments while acknowledging that remote assessments also have a role.

[Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Con)]

I thank the Minister for her Answer. She will know that the number of young people on health-related benefits has risen by more than 50% over the last five years and that four out of five of them are claiming for mental health or neurodiversity conditions. Yet these assessments, I understand, are largely carried out over the phone, when surely people would need to be seen face to face to assess what is wrong with them. Why is the Government’s ambition, as set out in the Timms review, to raise the assessments to 30% so low? Why not make it 100%?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, I agree with the noble Baroness about the challenge that we face with the number of young people not in employment, education or training. That is why the Government commissioned the Milburn review, and why we welcome that report, and that is why we have action clearly going on in this space. The Government are committed to increasing the number of assessments. There is a range of reasons why it is taking time. The noble Baroness may not be aware that, for example, before Covid, assessments were pretty much all done face to face. They collapsed in Covid and the numbers have barely come back up since. In 2023, about a year before the general election, the previous Government signed long-term contracts, making sure that most assessors could work from home. I understand why that would be attractive—because they can be anywhere in the country—and so it is a bit of a challenge trying to get face-to-face assessments in the right parts of the country. We are working with contractors and driving up face-to-face assessments. We will do the right thing and we are attacking this problem.