Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the role of the Personal Independence Payment in enabling work.

Personal Independence Payment is not means-tested, it is payable in addition to any other income received and is available to people whether they are in work or not.

This Government wants to alleviate people’s worries around trying work. The Pathways to Work Green Paper published this week sets out our plan to remove barriers to trying work. We will legislate to give people the confidence to try work and ensure that working will not, in and of itself, trigger an award review in PIP, removing the perceived risk of trying work whilst on benefits.

We are also consulting to understand what more can be done to ensure the benefit system supports people to try work without the worry that it may affect their benefit entitlement.