Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of Turn2us's report entitled From stigma to support, published in October 2025; and what steps he is taking to increase the number of work coaches.

The findings from the Turn2us report, entitled ‘From Stigma to Support’, demonstrate the importance of tackling stigma in the benefits system and the need for reform to build a more supportive and tailored service.

As set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper, we are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service across Great Britain. Our new service will remove the stigma of going to a Jobcentre and move away from the ‘one size fits all’ approach that Jobcentre Plus has today. We will shift the focus of the customer-work coach relationship away from compliance and box-ticking to make room for more constructive, personalised, and career-focused discussions.

In the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we set out our Pathways to Work Guarantee. This will be backed by £1 billion a year of new, additional funding by the end of the decade. This will help us build towards a guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for all disabled people and those with health conditions on out of work benefits.

There are now over 1000 Pathways to Work Advisors in Jobcentres across England, Scotland and Wales who are helping disabled people and people with health conditions towards and into work. This increased deployment will help ensure that everyone impacted by the benefit change in April 2026 is offered support.

People affected by the changes will be able to access a conversation about their needs, goals and aspirations; offered one-to-one follow-on support, and given help to access additional work, health and skills support that can meet their needs.

We have also launched the Timms Review with the aim of ensuring we have a system that supports disabled people to achieve better health, higher living standards and greater independence, including through employment. To ensure lived experience is at the heart of its work, we are co-producing the Review with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, and other experts. Once in place, the Review’s steering group will agree the approach to considering evidence and gathering input.

The Department continually impacts and assesses the service being offered to customers. Staff numbers, including the number of Work Coaches, and demand for Jobcentre services are reviewed on an ongoing basis, in line with the latest economic and benefit forecasts.