Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to encourage people who are not in employment but have the capability to work to re-enter the workforce.

Our Get Britain Working reforms, set out in a White Paper in November last year, will tackle economic inactivity, build a thriving labour market, and increase the number of people in work. By delivering the biggest reforms to employment support for a generation, with a combined focus on skills and health, we will enable more people to get into work and get on in work. This will move us toward our long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate, which is central to growing the economy.

Building on our Get Britain Working reforms, our ‘Pathways to Work Guarantee’ will provide work, health, and skills support for disabled people and those with health conditions claiming out of work benefits. As announced in the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions’ statement on Welfare Reform on 30 June, we have increased the funding for employment support for disabled people and those with health conditions, investing an additional £300m over the next 3 years. This means our Pathways to Work Guarantee is now an investment of £2.2 billion by 2030 and brings our total investment in employment support for disabled people and those with health conditions to £3.8 billion over this Parliament.