Benefit Reforms: Disabled People

Work and Pensions – in the House of Commons at on 17 March 2025.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Jonathan Brash Jonathan Brash Labour, Hartlepool

What steps she plans to take to ensure that disabled people are adequately financially supported in her planned reforms to benefit entitlements.

Photo of Liz Jarvis Liz Jarvis Liberal Democrat, Eastleigh

What steps she is taking through the benefits system to support disabled people.

Photo of Stephen Timms Stephen Timms The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions

We will be reforming the current broken system of health and disability benefits. We will bring forward a Green Paper with proper plans very soon, setting out how we will help disabled people who can work to do so, while fully supporting the most severely disabled as well.

Photo of Jonathan Brash Jonathan Brash Labour, Hartlepool

Work is good for us: it is good for our physical and mental health, and for our general wellbeing. When someone can work, it is essential that they are given all the support to do so. That said, it is also imperative that those who are sick, vulnerable or disabled are always protected. Does the Minister agree that striking the balance between supporting those who can work and protecting those who cannot work must be central to any welfare reform?

Photo of Stephen Timms Stephen Timms The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That balance will be at the heart of the Green Paper that we are bringing forward. We will deliver proper employment support for disabled people, which has been taken away since 2010. We will deal with the incentives to inactivity that the current system presents. Of course, there will always be people who are unable to work through disability or ill health, and we are committed to fully supporting them too.

Photo of Liz Jarvis Liz Jarvis Liberal Democrat, Eastleigh

My constituents in Eastleigh who support and help to care for disabled family members are desperately concerned about any potential cuts to benefits, including personal independent payment. They include Laura, whose son is registered blind, and Debbie, who helps to care for her disabled daughter and is herself disabled. Can the Minister reassure my constituents that disability benefits for people who are unable to work will not be cut?

Photo of Stephen Timms Stephen Timms The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions

I am concerned about the level of anxiety and speculation that has been around over recent weeks. I am sad that that has happened and that people have been concerned, but the current welfare system is failing the very people it is supposed to help—the people it is there for. Our aim is to make the system sustainable so that it will be there for people now and in the future. When the hon. Lady sees the proposals, I think she will see how we will deliver on that commitment.

Photo of Debbie Abrahams Debbie Abrahams Chair, Work and Pensions Committee, Chair, Work and Pensions Committee

Can my right hon. Friend confirm that there will be an analysis alongside the Green Paper on the impacts it will have on poverty, employment and health?

Photo of Stephen Timms Stephen Timms The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions

I can confirm to my hon. Friend that we will produce a full impact assessment in due course.

Photo of Esther McVey Esther McVey Conservative, Tatton

When I was a Minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, working with my right hon. Friend Sir Iain Duncan Smith on reducing welfare dependency, getting 1,000 more people into work each and every day, and delivering record numbers of people into work, the Labour party opposed us every step of the way. Can I take it that the Government’s recent conversion to reducing the benefit bill is only about conning the Office for Budget Responsibility into thinking that they will balance the books after their disastrous Budget, rather than because they really believe in it?

Photo of Stephen Timms Stephen Timms The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions

I remember extremely well when the right hon. Lady was a Minister in the Department—it was very striking how the disability employment gap, which had been falling up until 2010, suddenly stopped falling and plateaued from that moment on. We will deliver a decisive shift to early intervention, helping people to stay in work, and renew fairness and trust in the system. We will provide personalised support so that those who can work can get the jobs that they want.