Wednesday 7 May 2025,
09.30am, Macmillan Room
The Work and Pensions Committee will take evidence from
disability campaigners, and academic and health industry experts
on the impact that proposals to change incapacity and disability
benefits will have on health and worklessness.
Retiring the Work Capability Assessment, PIP eligibility changes,
freezing payments for the health element of Universal Credit (UC
health) for existing recipients and reducing it for new claimants
are some of the proposals made in the Government's Pathways to
Work Green Paper. The Government has cited the need to encourage
more people into work to reduce the welfare bill and improve
health outcomes as reasons for the proposals.
Since the pandemic the cost of health-related benefits has grown
£20 billion, with 2.5 million people on UC health in December
2024, a half a million jump on the previous year.
MPs are likely to question witnesses on the drivers of this, the
experiences of disabled people in the system now, and the
potential impact of the Green Paper proposals on them.
Witnesses
Panel 1 from 09.30:
- Jonathan Andrew, Head of Public Affairs, Rethink Mental
Health;
-
, Executive Director, Scope;
- Mikey Erhardt, Campaigns and Policy Officer, Disability
Rights UK;
- Ellen Clifford, Disability rights campaigner, Disabled People
Against Cuts.
Panel 2 from approx. 10.10:
- David Finch, Assistant Director, Healthy Lives Directorate,
Health Foundation;
- Professor Ben Barr, Professor of Applied Public Health,
University of Liverpool;
- Dr Lucas Foulkes, Research Fellow, Department of Experimental
Psychology, University of Oxford;
- David Berry, Work and Skills Lead, Manchester City Council.
