Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if it remains the Government’s ambition to provide access to work support to over 60,000 people per year by 2020 as set out in the Work, Health and Disability Green Paper published in November 2017.

The ‘60,000 people per year’ ambition was proposed in the ‘Work, health and disability green paper: improving lives’ consultation document, which was published in October 2016, but it was not repeated in the Government’s response ‘Improving Lives: The Future of Work, Health and Disability’, published 30 November 2017.

The figure of ‘60,000 people per year’ was developed using data from the old Access to Work statistics series. These were withdrawn and replaced by the new experimental Access to Work Statistics, first published on 10 October 2017 and available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/access-to-work-statistics

We explained the reasons for the changes to our methodology for calculating Access to Work statistics in the Statistical Notice that we published on 12 September 2017: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/643401/statistical-notice-access-to-work-statistics.pdf

We are committed to improving Access to Work’s reach, as well as the support it offers. In 2017/18 expenditure rose to £110.8 million, a 4% increase in real terms on 2016/17, and support was provided to nearly 34,000 disabled people, an increase of 13% on 16/17. Record numbers of people with learning disabilities (up 22%) and mental health conditions (up 34%) were supported by the scheme. We have also expanded the eligibility criteria for the scheme to include a broader range of customers, such as people who have a drug and alcohol addiction and are in a treatment programme.