Employment and Support Allowance: Disability

(asked on 24th November 2016) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Welfare Reform of 27 January 2016, Official Report, HL1315, on the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, whether he plans for spending on employment support for disabled people to be greater or less after the implementation of the policies in his Department's recent Green Paper on work, health and disability.


Answered by
Penny Mordaunt Portrait
Penny Mordaunt
Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
This question was answered on 2nd December 2016

The Work, Health and Disability Green Paper, published last month, launched the Department’s consultation so we can listen to disabled people, their families and friends, service providers, employers, and anyone else who wants to see change. Proposals focus on changes that can be made to the welfare system, by employers and across health services to ensure that the health needs and employment aspirations of disabled people and people with long-term health conditions are better supported. The Department is not looking at implementing specific policies during the consultation period, other than the ones specifically announced in the Green Paper.

At Spending Review 2015, we announced a real terms increase in investment in employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions. As part of this real terms increase in investment, the Green Paper provided additional detail on the practical support to be made available for claimants with limited capability for work from April 2017, rising from £60m in 2017/19 to £100m in 2020/21.

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