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1537110

registered interest
date	28/10/2022
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Employment: Disability
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to help enable disabled people with fluctuating medical conditions to find suitable work which matches their skills and offers flexible work arrangements in line with their personal circumstances.
tabling member constituency	York Central
tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
uin	73858
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/11/2022 answer text <p>A range of Government initiatives are supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, including fluctuating medical conditions, to start, stay and succeed in work.</p><p> </p><p>These include: increasing Work Coach support nationally for people with health conditions receiving Universal Credit or Employment Support Allowance; Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres offering advice and expertise on how to help disabled people into work; the Work and Health Programme and Intensive Personalised Employment Support, providing tailored and personalised support for participants; Access to Work; Disability Confident; and support in partnership with the health system, including Employment Advice in NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services<em>.</em></p><p> </p><p>We are spending £1.3bn in employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions over the next three years.</p><p> </p><p>The Government recognises the benefits of flexible working arrangements and is committed to supporting all individuals and businesses to work flexibly.</p><p> </p><p>Since 2014, all employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service have the statutory right to request a change to the hours, timing, or location of their work. The framework is clear that a request to work flexibly can only be rejected where there are sound business reasons for doing so – and those business reasons are set out in law.</p><p> </p><p>Last year, the Government took forward a manifesto commitment to consult on making changes to the right to request flexible working a ‘day one’ right and whether the business reasons for refusing requests remain valid. The Government response will be published in due course.</p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove question first answered 02/11/2022 14:42:23 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1536103

registered interest
date	25/10/2022
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Employment: Disability
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of compliance with the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people under the Equality Act 2010.
tabling member constituency	Liverpool, Walton
tabling member printed	Dan Carden
uin	71254
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/11/2022 answer text <p>The department is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and promote equality of opportunity. This means we need to take steps to ensure that our customers have access to reasonable adjustments, and we often provide additional support to enable them to access benefits and our services. We regularly hold discussions of this kind with stakeholders and statutory bodies in order to improve our services.</p><p> </p><p>The department has in place a wide range of reasonable adjustments for customers, including:</p><ul><li>Email as a reasonable adjustment;</li><li>Face-to-face British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation;</li><li>A visiting service for vulnerable customers who are unable to use our other contact routes;</li><li>Support for our staff including instructions, guides and awareness raising on reasonable adjustments;</li><li>Video Relay Service which enables customers to communicate in real time with DWP via a BSL interpreter using a video connection on an electronic device. There’s no need to be in the same location or for the customer to make an appointment;</li><li>A flexible approach to mandatory face-to-face interviews within a Jobcentre;</li><li>15 Autism accredited Jobcentres;</li><li>Public Sector Equality training rolled out.</li></ul> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove question first answered 01/11/2022 15:38:41 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
tabling member	4651 label Biography information for Dan Carden

1519112

registered interest
date	10/10/2022
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Employment: Disability
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of disability employment rates.
tabling member constituency	North Swindon
tabling member printed	Justin Tomlinson
uin	59208
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/10/2022 answer text <p>The disability employment rate is 53.0% for the quarter April-June 2022, up 0.6 percentage points from the same quarter in 2021. This rate has steadily risen since 2013, when comparable data collection began, with an overall increase of 9.4 percentage points since 2013.</p> answering member constituency East Surrey answering member printed Claire Coutinho question first answered 18/10/2022 12:57:54 answering member 4806 label Biography information for Claire Coutinho
tabling member	4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson

1505436

registered interest
date	06/09/2022
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Employment: Disability
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Department offers support to disabled jobseekers who require assistive technology in order to look for work and who cannot afford the cost of buying that technology.
tabling member constituency	Huddersfield
tabling member printed	Mr Barry Sheerman
uin	48247
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/09/2022 answer text <p>We do not hold the information requested around costs for deployment of screen readers, speech recognition software and screen magnification software to our computers for use by customers. This is because the computers contain these products as a standard feature and were not purchased separately. These products are kept up to date and maintained in line with updates to the system as a whole.</p><p> </p><p>DWP has completed an upgrade of all Customer Computers across the whole Jobcentre network which means that all devices provided for use by customers have the standard accessibility features available such as being able to change the screen size &amp; colour, replacing sounds with screen alerts, converting sounds to text and using the screen reader to read text.</p><p> </p><p>We now have over 7973 devices across our estate, registered with these accessibility features. The numbers of computers available for customers to use in jobcentres will differ between larger and smaller offices. We also constantly review the number of computers available and have capacity to increase the number of devices quickly, if the need arises.</p><p> </p><p>The software in use on these machines is continually upgraded as and when required to ensure their continued use for customers. In addition to this further support is available to customers where reasonable adjustments are identified and recorded. Each Jobcentre District Office has been provided with the following items for use by customers if requested:</p><p> </p><ul><li>A keyboard with larger keys</li><li>A large trackball mouse</li><li>Headphones. However, many people will want to use their own</li></ul><p> </p><p>We have opened a number of new sites across the estate to support delivery of face to face public services. As part of this work, Customer Computers are available in these sites.</p><p> </p><p>We have also improved access to our Wi-Fi services in all jobcentres, allowing customers to use their own personal devices if they prefer, to access internet services.</p><p /><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis grouped question UIN 48243 48244 48245 48248 48249 question first answered 16/09/2022 14:22:41 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
tabling member	411 label Biography information for Mr Barry Sheerman

1490650

registered interest
date	19/07/2022
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Employment: Disability
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to close the learning disability employment gap.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	39844
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/09/2022 answer text <p>In 2017 the Government set a goal to see one million more disabled people in employment between 2017 and 2027. The latest figures released for Q1 2022 show that between Q1 2017 and Q1 2022 the number of disabled people in employment increased by 1.3m – meaning the goal has been met after only five years.</p><p> </p><p>The disability employment gap was 28.2 percentage points in Q1 2022. This is a decrease of 0.2 percentage points on the year, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points since Q1 2020 and an overall decrease of 5.6 percentage points since the same quarter in 2014.</p><p> </p><p>Learning Disabled people often face very significant challenges in being able to work, but their employment rate has also shown an improvement. The Annual Population Survey reports that in 2020/21 25.6% of people with severe or specific learning difficulties as their main health condition were in work. This compares to 2013/14 where 17.0% were in work. The increase from 2013/14 to 2020/21 is statistically significant.</p><p> </p><p>Learning disabled people often need extra support to be able to secure, sustain and succeed in employment. We have taken a range of steps to ensure that support is available when needed.</p><p> </p><p>We have strengthened our Disability Employment Adviser role, delivering direct support to claimants who require additional work related support and supporting all work coaches to deliver tailored, personalised support to claimants with a disability or health condition including those with a learning disability.</p><p> </p><p>DWP has also been working with the National Autistic Society to design and develop a service delivery framework for people with Autism. The service delivery framework aims to transform the service available to jobseekers on the autism spectrum, and will also have benefits for learning disabled customers. This trial is now complete with all 15 sites having passed their accreditation test. We are considering how best to take this forward across the entire Jobcentre network.</p><p> </p><p>Learning disabled people can access further employment support through Jobcentres including priority access to the Work and Health Programme in England and Wales, for people with health conditions, and Intensive Personalised Employment Support provision across the UK, which provides highly personalised packages of employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions who require specialist support to achieve sustained employment. Access to Work is also available, which is a demand-led discretionary grant scheme that provides funding for the extra disability-related costs people have when starting work or maintaining employment. Over the last 5 years the number of learning disabled people receiving AtW support each year has risen from 210 to 380.</p><p> </p><p>This autumn DWP will invest over £7 million in Local Supported Employment services, working with around 20 Local Authorities to enable more learning disabled and autistic social care users to access the support needed to help them get into and remain in employment.</p><p> </p><p>Learning disabled young people on their transition to employment can benefit from Supported Internships, which are aimed at young people with a learning disability or autism who have an Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plan. Supported Internships usually last for 12 months and provide support from a specialist job coach. Whilst the Department for Education lead on this in England, the Department for Work and Pensions provides support through Access to Work where needed.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 05/09/2022 11:33:48 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1472167

registered interest
date	21/06/2022
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Employment: Disability
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken in this Parliament to help disabled people get into work and close the disability employment gap.
tabling member constituency	Delyn
tabling member printed	Rob Roberts
uin	22577
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2022 answer text <p>A range of DWP initiatives are supporting disabled people and people with health conditions to live independent lives and start, stay and succeed in work. These include the Work and Health Programme, the Intensive Personalised Employment Support programme, Access to Work, Disability Confident. and support in partnership with the health system, including Employment Advice in NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services.</p><p> </p><p>Over the next three years we will invest £1.3bn in employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions.</p><p> </p><p>In 2017 the Government set a goal to see one million more disabled people in employment between 2017 and 2027. The latest figures released for Q1 2022 show that between Q1 2017 and Q1 2022 the number of disabled people in employment increased by 1.3m – meaning the goal has been met after only five years.</p><p> </p><p>The disability employment gap was 28.2 percentage points in Q1 2022. This is a decrease of 0.2 percentage points on the year, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points since Q1 2020 and an overall decrease of 5.6 percentage points since the same quarter in 2014.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 27/06/2022 15:53:06 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4810 label Biography information for Mr Rob Roberts

1469733

registered interest
date	13/06/2022
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Employment: Disability
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for its policies of the response from individual disabled people to the health and disability green paper in summer 2021; and whether her Department plans to review its approach to consulting disabled people for the consultation on the forthcoming health and disability white paper.
tabling member constituency	Lewisham, Deptford
tabling member printed	Vicky Foxcroft
uin	17042
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/06/2022 answer text <p>We received over 4,500 responses to the public consultation on <em>Shaping Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper</em> and we are very grateful to all the individuals and organisations who have contributed.</p><p> </p><p>Throughout the consultation period itself, we held more than 40 events with disabled people, people with health conditions and their representatives, including a series of virtual events as well as face-to-face events across Great Britain. Many charities helped us to run events by organising for their users to attend and speak to us about the areas of the Green Paper that were most important to them.</p><p> </p><p>We will respond to the consultation responses through the Health and Disability White Paper that we will publish later this year and will continue to engage with disabled people and people with health conditions regularly.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 21/06/2022 14:09:15 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4491 label Biography information for Vicky Foxcroft

1469734

registered interest
date	13/06/2022
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Employment: Disability
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department requires assessor companies to report on the number of disabled and seriously unwell people who have requested that their assessment be audio recorded.
tabling member constituency	Lewisham, Deptford
tabling member printed	Vicky Foxcroft
uin	17043
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/06/2022 answer text <p>At present, there is no contractual requirement for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) or Health and Disability Assessment Services (HDAS) assessment providers to report on the number of claimants who have requested their assessment be audio recorded.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 21/06/2022 12:30:35 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4491 label Biography information for Vicky Foxcroft

1468056

registered interest
date	07/06/2022
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Employment: Disability
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the employment opportunities available to disabled school leavers.
tabling member constituency	Scunthorpe
tabling member printed	Holly Mumby-Croft
uin	13851
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/06/2022 answer text <p>There is a range of government initiatives supporting disabled people and people with health conditions to live independent lives and start, stay and succeed in work. Over the next three years we will invest £1.3bn in employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions. The latest data shows that the number of disabled people in employment increased by 1.3m between 2017 and Q1 2022 – the goal to see a million more disabled people in employment has been met after only five years.</p><p> </p><p>To support the transition of disabled individuals from education into employment, Access to Work is delivering a series of Adjustment Passport pilots in a variety of settings. The pilots will enable us to understand if a passport can support a more coherent journey of receiving support, reduce the need for additional assessments and empower the passport holder to have a more confident conversation with potential employers enabling smoother transitions into employment.</p><p> </p><p>The government runs multiple initiatives to help young disabled people whilst they are still in education. The National Careers Service enables individuals to make informed choices about the best route to take for different careers. This includes exploring whether an apprenticeship is right for them. The service helps young people apply for apprenticeships, improving the quality of applications received by employers and advising those not ready for an apprenticeship of alternative routes e.g. traineeships.</p><p> </p><p>The Careers &amp; Enterprise Company (CEC) works with special schools across England, as well as with Careers Leaders, who design and deliver careers education programmes tailored to the needs of young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) regardless of their educational setting (i.e., mainstream schools and colleges, special schools or alternative provision). All local authorities must set out the support available to help children and young people with SEND move into adulthood as part of their local offer. This should be co-produced with children, young people, and their families to ensure it meets local needs.</p><p> </p><p>In February 2022, Department for Education (DfE) announced it would invest up to £18million over the next three years to build capacity in the Supported Internships programme, aiming to double the number of Supported Internships to give more young people with an Education Health and Care Plan the skills to secure and sustain paid employment. We have also worked with stakeholders across the sector to update our Supported Internship guidance to support education providers and employers to deliver quality internship placements for young people across the country.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 13/06/2022 13:49:35 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4867 label Biography information for Holly Mumby-Croft

1465720

registered interest
date	25/05/2022
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Employment: Disability
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment has her Department made of the barriers facing people with complex disabilities looking to work more hours to meet the rising cost of living.
tabling member constituency	Chingford and Woodford Green
tabling member printed	Sir Iain Duncan Smith
uin	8941
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/06/2022 answer text <p>There are a range of DWP initiatives that support disabled people and people with health conditions to live independent lives and start, stay and succeed in employment. These include the Intensive Personalised Employment Support programme, Access to Work, Disability Confident and support in partnership with the health system, including Employment Advisers in NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services.</p><p>The Green Paper explored how the benefits system can better meet the needs of claimants now and in the future, by improving claimant experience of our services, enabling independent living, and improving employment outcomes. We remain committed to responding to this Green Paper consultation with a White Paper later this year.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 08/06/2022 14:54:51 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	152 label Biography information for Sir Iain Duncan Smith