Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that disabled people receive adequate financial support through the benefit system; and with reference to the advance unedited report from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities entitled Report on follow-up to the inquiry concerning the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, published on 22 March 2024, if he will take steps to implement human rights-based cumulative impact assessments of the potential impact of welfare reforms on disabled people.

As requested by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Government will submit a report by March 2029 with information on how we are implementing the Committee’s recommendations outlined in their latest report published in April 2024. The Government, through the Disability Unit in the Cabinet Office, has already begun considering the recommendations from this report.

The Government continues to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Committee’s 2016 inquiry recommendations through many policies that improve disabled people’s lives.

These include the Disability Action Plan, the National Disability Strategy and providing unprecedented health and employment support through our £2.5bn Back to Work Plan as well as our Chance to Work Guarantee.

We are also improving the health and disability benefits system, enhancing the accessibility of homes and transport, and continuing other work outlined in our various published follow-up reports and in our dialogue with the Committee.

The Government is providing an unprecedented cost of living support package worth £108 billion over 2022 to 2025 which included £20 billion for two rounds of Cost of Living Payments. This support importantly helped to shield people from the impact of inflation, preventing 1.3 million people from falling into absolute poverty after housing costs in 2022/23.

Since 2010, the Government has overseen significant falls in poverty with 1.1 million fewer people in absolute low income after housing costs in 2022/23 compared to 2009/10