Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of whether an increase in the proportion of employees covered by group income protection insurance would support the Government’s aim to reduce ill health-related job loss.

The Government consulted on the role of group income protection (GIP) products in reducing ill-health related job loss as part of our Improving Lives: The Work, Health and Disability Green Paper, which recognised the potential of GIP policies to support employers to retain disabled employees and employees with health conditions.

In Improving Lives: The Future of Work, Health and Disability, the Government signalled its desire for the insurance industry to develop a product that retains the positive aspects of GIP but which overcomes existing challenges around complexity and employer perceptions of cost and benefit to support greater take-up, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).