Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Health and Work programme announced in the Improving Lives: the future of work, health and disability White Paper in supporting individuals into work.

The response refers to the Work and Health Programme, which was announced in Improving Lives: the future of work, health and disability. The Work and Health Programme (WHP) is a national programme of employment support, which began in November 2017. It predominantly helps disabled people, as well as the long-term unemployed, and certain priority groups (known as early access groups) to enter into and stay in work.

Since, November 2018, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has released experimental statistics about the WHP. These provide information on a regular basis about referrals, starts and employment outcomes of WHP participants. WHP statistics are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/work-and-health-programme-statistics

The WHP has been delivered as a Randomised Control Trial, where a small percentage of claimants who were eligible for the WHP were randomly allocated to a control group and were given standard Jobcentre Plus support. This will enable a robust impact assessment of the programme.