Thank you for contacting me about the Welfare Reform and Work Bill and changes to disability payments. I am writing to update you in the light of the Budget 2016.

Firstly, the Government has announced that the proposed changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will not proceed and, with regard to the changes to the Employment Support Allowance (ESA), the arrangements for the Support Group are unchanged.

However, for many people it is far better to be in work and receive a paycheque than to be in receipt of a benefit. For that reason, it is important to make improvements, as most people with disabilities and health conditions want to work. This includes 61 per cent of the Work Related Action Group (WRAG). The main task of the Government has been to help those who are able to work to do so.

It is important to tackle this as, in addition to providing financial security for individuals, there are economic and social arguments that, for those who are able to, work is the most effective way to improve their well-being and to reduce poverty.

In the Summer Budget, the Chancellor announced that with effect from April 2017, claimants who are placed in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) will receive the same rate of benefits as those claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA). This change will only effect new ESA claimants.

Those in the WRAG currently receive additional cash payments but little employment support. As the Prime Minister has recently stated, this treats the symptoms, not the causes. The Government is proposing to recycle some of the money currently spent on cash payments in the present system to provide assistance in helping people move closer to the labour market by giving greater practical support to new applicants as they make the claim.

This new funding will be worth £60 million in 2017/18 rising to £100 million in 2020/21. It will support those with limited capability for work to take steps to move closer to the labour market and, when they are able, back to work. How the support will be spent is going to be influenced by a Taskforce of representatives from disability charities, disabled people’s user-led organisations, employers, provider representatives and local authorities.

All the key charities are involved in this process going forward, working with the Ministers at the Department of Work and Pensions. These include charities such as the Royal National Institute of Blind People, the British Deaf Association, Action on Hearing Loss, the National Federation for the Blind, People First, the British Institute of Learning Disabilities, Sense and Mencap.

In the next couple of months, the Government will publish a White Paper that will set out these reforms to improve the system of support for people with health conditions and disabilities. This will then be debated in both houses of Parliament.