Work and Health Programme

(asked on 30th June 2025) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of replacing the Work and Health programme that last took applicants in September 2024.


Answered by
Stephen Timms Portrait
Stephen Timms
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 3rd July 2025

The decision to end the Work and Health Programme was made by the previous Administration.

The Government is committed to reducing the disability employment gap. We have a clear ambition to raise the overall employment rate to 80%. We are delivering the biggest employment support package for disabled people and people with health conditions in more than a generation as part of our Pathways to Work Guarantee, which will provide work, health and skills support for disabled people and those with health conditions claiming out of work benefits. The Pathways to Work Guarantee is backed by £1 billion a year of new, additional funding by 2030 and a total of £2.2 billion over four years.

Separate to this, our new, voluntary, locally led, Supported Employment programme, Connect to Work, is rolling out across England and Wales. Over the five-year duration of the programme, it will provide specialist employment support to over 300,000 disabled people, people with health conditions and those with complex barriers to employment.

This is on top of our Jobcentre core offer, which includes the extended Restart Scheme, Disability Employment Advisers and 1000 Pathways to Work Advisers providing additional work coach support for disabled benefit recipients and those with work-limiting health conditions.

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