Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on what basis her Department decided which aspects of the proposed reforms to the benefits system would be subject to consultation.

This consultation sets out plans and proposals to reform health and disability benefits and employment support. We are committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people and people with health conditions at the heart of everything we do.

We urgently need this reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and promote the interests of disabled people. This means we need to take decisive action to tackle a situation in which PIP claims are set to double from 2 million to over 4.3 million this decade. We are consulting on how best to support those affected by the changes. We will also consider improvements to the PIP assessment. We will launch a wider review of PIP, which I shall lead, and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this. We will provide further details as plans progress.

We will rebalance payments in Universal Credit, reducing the health top up for new claims and delivering the first ever permanent, above inflation rise to the standard allowance of UC, offering help for people to get into work as quickly as possible.

We will be bringing forward changes in a Bill so Parliament can fully debate and vote on them.