Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to (a) support disabled people seeking to enter or return to work and (b) ensure those unable to work continue to receive financial support.

Appropriate work is generally good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live.

Disabled people and 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. 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.

We are committed to reforming the system of health and disability benefits so that it promotes and enables employment among as many people as possible. The system must also work to reduce poverty for disabled people and people with health conditions and support disabled people to live independently. It is also vital to ensure that the system is financially sustainable in the long term. We are working to develop proposals for reform in the months ahead and will set them out in a Green Paper in spring.

In the UK, there are over 1.9 million people who would like to work but are not participating in the labour market. Connect to Work is a new, voluntary Supported Employment programme, co-designed with Local Authorities and led by local areas, to help those disabled individuals, those with health conditions or complex barriers to employment, who want to work, to find sustainable jobs.

Backed by £240m investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched on 26 November will drive forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity and work toward the long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate.

We have launched “Keep Britain Working”, a review into the role of UK employers in reducing health-related inactivity and to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces, led by the former Chair of John Lewis, Sir Charlie Mayfield. The Terms of Reference were published on 24 January. The intention is for this review to partner with business and employers on how best to meet workforce needs and increase productivity by supporting more inclusive workplaces and the wider labour market.

We are fully committed to ensuring adequate support in the social security system for those who – through ill health or disability – are unable to work. Statutory sick pay is the statutory minimum that employers are required to pay employees when off work sick. Those who need additional further financial support while off sick are able to claim more help through the welfare system, for example Universal Credit and new style Employment and Support Allowance, depending on their individual circumstances.