Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the National Audit Office report entitled Supporting people to work through jobcentres, published on 31 March 2025, what steps her Department plans to take to increase the number of jobcentre work coaches in the next 12 months; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the number of work coaches on jobcentres’ ability to provide the intended level of support.

We are reforming both the welfare and employment support systems to make best use of our work coaches’ time, ensuring a system that is fit for purpose.

We are targeting support where it is needed most to tackle ill-health and disability-related economic inactivity. This includes £1 billion per year of new funding across the United Kingdom by the end of the decade to establish a new guarantee of support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work.

We are also reforming our Jobcentres, bringing together Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service to meet the needs of local labour markets, people and employers whilst embracing technology to improve customer service and free up work coach time.

Through reforming how we deliver our support, we can ensure people get the level of support they need and that we can get Britain Working. We will have further updates to this change programme in due course.