Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Financial Statement and Budget Report of 15 March by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Official Report, column 843, how he plans to assess the degree of illness or disability of people who will be supported back into work.

We published Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper on 15^th March 2023. This responds to feedback from The Health and Disability Green Paper consultation.

In the White Paper, we announced that we will legislate to remove the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), so that in future there will only be one health and disability assessment, the PIP assessment. This will remove the need to be found to have limited capability for work, and limited capability to prepare for work, to receive additional income-related support for a disability or health condition, giving people confidence that they will receive support, for as long as it is needed, regardless of whether they are working.

We will also introduce a new personalised system of health conditionality and support which will be tailored to the individual and will involve work coaches having personalised conversations with claimants focused on what they can do, rather than on what they cannot do.

We recognise that, for many disabled people and people with health conditions, work or work-related activity is not possible or appropriate; and where this is the case, they will not be expected to participate in these activities to receive their benefit entitlement.

We will work with our work coaches to develop these proposals and ensure they have the right training and support needed to fulfil this change in their role. We will also continue to work with disabled people, people with health conditions and their representatives as we develop this approach.