Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what measures he is taking to support long-term sick people to gain paid and accessible employment.

Long-term sickness continues to be the most common reason for economic inactivity among the working age population. We know that good work is good for health, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. In our Pathways to Work Green Paper we set out our Pathways to Work offer, backed by £1 billion a year of new funding by the end of the decade.

People with health conditions are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. The Government is committed to supporting people with health conditions with their employment journey.

We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. Existing measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants. Through Pathways to Work we are building towards a guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for all disabled people and people with health conditions on out of work benefits, building on and bringing together initiatives such as Connect to Work, WorkWell and Employment Advisers in Talking Therapies.

Additionally, we have developed a digital information service for employers and continue to oversee the Disability Confident Scheme.

In November 2025, Sir Charlie Mayfield published the Keep Britain Working Review, setting out recommendations to help employers create healthier, more inclusive workplaces and to reshape how Government works with employers to improve work and health outcomes. We are now working with volunteer employers, providers and regions through a Vanguard Phase to test and refine approaches that support disabled people and people with long‑term physical and mental health conditions to thrive in work. This includes developing effective stay‑in‑work and return‑to‑work practices, strengthening prevention, and building the evidence needed to spread good practice so that disabled workers and workers with long-term health conditions receive the support they need to remain in employment successfully.

The 10 Year Health Plan, published in July, builds on existing work to better integrate health with employment support and incentivise greater cross-system collaboration, recognising good work is good for health. The Plan states our intention to break down barriers to opportunity by delivering the holistic support that people need to access and thrive in employment by ensuring a better health service for everyone, regardless of condition or service area. It outlines how the neighbourhood health service will join up support from across the work, health and skills systems to help address the multiple complex challenges that often stop people finding and staying in work.