DWP is committed to delivering for the people of Wales. It is important that the UK Government considers the specific impacts of policy changes in Wales, and the interaction with the devolved matter on housing. Officials continue to engage with counterparts in the Welsh Government, and with Welsh stakeholders, to understand these interactions.

As part of the decision not to increase LHA rates, a number of factors were considered, including rent levels in Wales, interactions with poverty and homelessness, overall housing support, and the wider fiscal context.

For those who need further support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities in Wales.

Education and skills are devolved matters, the response outlines the information for England only.

We are transforming the Apprenticeships Levy into a new Growth and Skills Levy in England, giving employers greater flexibility, creating more opportunities for young people, and directly supporting the Industrial Strategy.

In April 2026 we launched the first apprenticeship units focussing on priority sectors including artificial intelligence (AI), digital, construction and engineering. Apprenticeship units are short courses built from the knowledge and skills within existing employer-led occupational apprenticeship standards, ensuring high-quality, targeted training. They target immediate shortages in areas that will drive productivity and growth and will help employers upskill existing employees quickly and flexibly.

We have also reduced the apprenticeship minimum duration to 8 months, where this is appropriate for the role or the apprentice, as we know the previous 12-month minimum duration meant some employers and learners were prevented from accessing apprenticeships.

Additionally, we are also supporting more entry-level opportunities for young people, by introducing new foundation apprenticeships to give young people a route into careers in critical sectors, such as construction and health and social care.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is working closely with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to improve the support available through Jobcentre Plus for people interested in Armed Forces careers.

Local relationships already exist between Jobcentres, Armed Forces Careers Offices and Armed Forces Champions. Building on the agreement announced in February 2026, DWP and MOD are working to strengthen how these relationships support jobseekers to access clear information about Armed Forces roles, training routes and career opportunities, including in engineering, cyber, healthcare and logistics.

DWP and MOD are developing the practical implementation of this approach, including specialist training for work coaches and closer working between Jobcentres, Armed Forces Careers Offices and Armed Forces Champions with the approach being piloted in the West Midlands. This will help ensure jobseekers receive more informed and consistent advice about Armed Forces opportunities through the Jobcentre Plus network.

This supports the ambition set out in the Defence Investment Plan to strengthen routes into Armed Forces careers. DWP and MOD will use learning from pilot activity to inform wider delivery and support informed career conversations with jobseekers.

Get Britain Working (GBW) is a strategic objective, capturing several activities across the Department, each programme linked to GBW will report its’ spend against allocated budget. However, DWP do not report financial information in a way that consolidates all GBW related activities, over the Spending Review period (SR25).

This government is committed to working collaboratively to support disabled people and people with health conditions. We are championing the rights of disabled people and working with them so that their views and voices are at the heart of everything we do. Every government department has a Lead Minister for Disability and alongside their ministerial portfolio, they have a specific responsibility to work across government to remove barriers for disabled people. Chaired by the Minister for Social Security and Disability Sir Stephen Timms, the group meets regularly throughout the year.

Last year, the Minister for Social Security and Disability announced our plans for a UK Government Plan for Disability. The Plan will:

• summarise work already underway across Government to champion the rights of disabled people,
• develop a set of aspirations for Government to prioritise next in order to break down barriers for disabled people; and
• set out a clear vision that will show what this Government is aiming to achieve for disabled people in the longer term.

Ministers also meet regularly with several strategic networks of disabled people, their representative organisations and other disability stakeholders to discuss disability employment. This includes the Disabled People’s Organisation (DPO) Forum England, the Regional Stakeholder Network, the Disability Charities Consortium and the Disability and Access Ambassadors

Additionally, DWP’s Strategic Relationship Team works with employers and partners, including trade bodies, industry groups and training providers, to promote inclusive recruitment and improve awareness of workplace adjustments and support for disabled people.

DWP’s Independent Disability Advisory Panel is helping to shape and guide our health and disability policy and strategy through providing guidance, feedback, and recommendations. The eleven-member panel has personal experience of health and disability and wider experience across Disabled People’s Organisations, charities, research, the health system, and employment.

In November 2025, Sir Charlie Mayfield published the Keep Britain Working Review, setting out recommendations to reshape how government works with employers to improve work and health outcomes through creating healthier, more inclusive workplaces. The government is now working with volunteer employers, providers and regions through a Vanguard Phase to test and refine approaches to help disabled workers and workers with long-term health conditions receive the support they need to remain and thrive in employment.

Strengthening Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is part of the Government’s Plan to Make Work Pay ensuring the safety net of sick pay is available to those who need it most. Widening eligibility to the up to 1.3mn employees who were previously not entitled to SSP, and removing the waiting period so that SSP is paid from the first day of work missed due to sickness, were introduced to help ensure that no one should have to worry about whether they can take time off when they are ill.

The government conducted a Regulatory Impact Assessment on the changes to strengthen Statutory Sick Pay in the Employment Rights Act, which was published in October 2024 and can be found here: Impact assessment: Improve access Statutory Sick Pay removing Lower Earnings Limit and waiting period.

Previous SSP rebate schemes that were available to employers, such as the Percentage Threshold Scheme were seen as complex, expensive to administer, underused by small businesses and did not encourage employers to support their employees during sickness absence.

Sir Charlie Mayfield’s independent Keep Britain Working Review, published on 5 November 2025, highlighted the scale of the problem of people falling out of work for reasons of ill-health and disability, and the vital role employers can play in addressing this. The Review identified structural challenges for disabled people, including people with learning disabilities, creating barriers to starting and staying in work, and proposed reforms to create healthier, more inclusive workplaces.

While the Keep Britain Working programme’s central aim is to improve workplace health and inclusion for those already in employment, improving workplace conditions, support and inclusion for people with learning disabilities and other disabled people will also help remove barriers to accessing paid employment and support more people to enter and sustain work.

Since publication of the Review, Keep Britian Working has engaged with 180 employers and providers, 11 regions, and worked directly with more than 250 organisations to explore how to create healthier and more inclusive workplaces. This work has included:

• Inclusion-focused workshops with Vanguard employers, Disabled People's Organisations and people with lived experience to explore disability inclusion in the workplace.
• Employer-led sprints and feedback groups examining prevention, staying in work and returning to work, helping identify practical ways employers can better support disabled employees.
• Partnership working with the British Standards Institution to develop a recognised employer-facing standard for healthy and inclusive workplaces.
• Development of Workplace Health Provision, designed to provide employees and managers with coordinated support, advice and early intervention to help people remain in and thrive at work.

Alongside Keep Britain Working, the Government's Pathways to Work offer provides work, health and skills support for disabled people and people with health conditions, backed by £3.5bn of investment by the end of the decade. Pathways to Work includes Connect to Work, a voluntary and locally led Supported Employment programme for disabled people, those with health conditions and people facing complex barriers to work. It will deliver tailored support to around 300,000 people by the end of the decade across England and Wales.

The Child Poverty Strategy represents a long-term, cross-government approach to tackling the root causes of child poverty. The strategy’s successful implementation depends on co-ordinated action across a range of services. It sets out both the immediate action the Government is taking to support families and the longer-term action needed to address the structural drivers of poverty. It includes focus on boosting families' incomes through employment and the social security system, driving down the cost of essentials, and strengthening local support to ensure families can access vital services when they need them.

The commitments in the strategy will lead to the largest expected reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began. This includes the removal of the two child limit which will lift 450,000 children out of poverty, rising to around 550,000 alongside other measures set out in our strategy, such as the expansion of Free School Meals.

Strengthening Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is part of the Government’s Plan to Make Work Pay ensuring the safety net of sick pay is available to those who need it most. Widening eligibility to the up to 1.3m employees who were previously not entitled to SSP, and removing the waiting period so that SSP is paid from the first day of work missed due to sickness, were introduced to help ensure that no one should have to worry about whether they can take time off when they are ill.

Prior to the introduction of the SSP reforms, the Government published an impact assessment which can be found at Impact assessment: Improve access Statutory Sick Pay removing Lower Earnings Limit and waiting period.

The government will monitor the impact of the SSP changes and consider the experiences of employers as part of the post implementation review.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) delivers a range of interventions to help disabled people and people with long-term health conditions to find and stay in work. Measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants, as well as joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies, Connect to Work and WorkWell. Additionally, the Joint DWP and DHSC Work and Health Directorate has developed a digital information service for employers and continues to oversee the Disability Confident Scheme.

Evaluation is a key driver in delivering DWP’s priority outcomes and ensuring alignment with the Government’s Plan for Change. As set out in the DWP Evidence and Evaluation Strategy, ongoing evaluation of policies to support disabled people into appropriate employment is crucial in assessing whether they are achieving intended results and informs future policy design.

An evaluation of the WorkWell pilot is underway to assess the effectiveness of WorkWell and is conducted by an independent consortium of evaluators using surveys, interviews and econometric measures of success. The evaluation is tracking several outcome metrics, including reported health and wellbeing and earnings. The first pilot evaluation report has been published here: WorkWell Pilots Evaluation Early Implementation Findings. A final report in Autumn 2028 will aim to give a full assessment of the impact and effectiveness of the pilot.

A similar evaluation is being commissioned for the national rollout of WorkWell and will explore the feasibility of using a randomised control trial design. The learnings from these evaluations will inform any future decisions on the Programme.

The Connect to Work Business Case, published January 2026 (Connect to Work - Programme Business Case 1 Summary), estimates that an additional 22,000 people will be in work over the lifetime of the programme. These, and wider, impacts are being monitored through a comprehensive national evaluation, with a final report expected in 2031.

For Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies, a report commissioned through IFF Research is expected to be published in Autumn 2026 which includes an impact evaluation. An independent evaluation of Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies was published on 26^th May 2026 by the Office for National Statistics. These are early findings part of a wider National Institute of Health and care Research (NIHR) evaluation. Further findings are due to be published over the coming year.

Other recent policy evaluations include assessments of Additional Work Coach Support (Evaluation of Additional Work Coach Support) and the Intensive Personalised Employment Support scheme (Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES) Programme Evaluation).

The barriers that disabled people and people with health conditions are unique and complex. Our programmes are informed by DWP and external research, making sure that our support is evidence based and targets the barriers that prevent disabled people and people with health conditions from getting work, and getting on in work.

Recent DWP research spoke to customers not currently in work, and who did not rule out work permanently, and they were asked the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements about the barriers to finding work. The barriers often related to their health, confidence and skills, the employer/workplace, DWP and benefits, and personal circumstance. The full findings can be viewed in our report available at: Work aspirations and support needs of health and disability customers: Final findings report - GOV.UK.

Details of the monitoring and evaluation arrangements for the Child Poverty Strategy are available in Our Children, Our Future: Tackling Child Poverty: Monitoring and Evaluation - Baseline Report - GOV.UK.

As set out in the Baseline Report, we are committed to wide-reaching engagement with external stakeholders and experts to inform delivery and evaluation of the Strategy and support wider anti-poverty work.

This includes structured engagement through stakeholder and delivery partner forums, including with local partners, business, faith and civil society groups with lived experience, a programme of place-based research to capture regional and community level insights, and ongoing guidance from our Expert Analytical Panel to provide their independent expertise. Furthermore, we encourage ongoing evidence submissions and shaping of future research priorities.

We measure whether a household has used a food bank in the past 30 days or 12 months in the Family Resources Survey.

In 2024/25, 16% (1.8 million) of individuals in families on Universal Credit were in households that had used a food bank in the last 12 months. This is a decrease of 1 percentage point compared to 2023/24, although growth in families in receipt of Universal Credit means that the count of individuals in families on Universal Credit who lived in households accessing a food bank in the last 12 months increased by 0.2 million compared to 2023/24. For further trends, refer to the table below:

You can find individual level statistics on food bank use and associated statistics (e.g. food insecurity) in the annual Households Below Average Income statistics publication: Households below average income (HBAI) statistics – GOV.UK and on Stat-Xplore.

Statistics on the number and proportion of children living in relative poverty, including in parliamentary constituencies, are published annually in the Children in low income families: local area statistics https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-2022-to-2025.

Our Child Poverty Strategy sets out immediate action to reduce child poverty while delivering the foundations for long-term change. This includes removing the Universal Credit two-child limit, which is expected to lift 450,000 children out of relative poverty in the final year of this Parliament. Taken alongside other measures, including extending Free School Meals to all children in households in receipt of Universal Credit, the strategy will lift 550,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this Parliament, which is expected to lead to the largest reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began.

The Strategy is supported by wider investment in families, including over £30 million for breakfast clubs, measures to cap branded school uniform costs, the introduction of Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority, £600 million over three years for the Holiday Activities and Food programme, and expanded free childcare. We are also strengthening local efforts to tackle child poverty through community projects and family services, including the £500 million Better Futures Fund

The DWP delivers a range of interventions to help disabled people and people with long-term health conditions to find and stay in work. Measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants, as well as joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies, Connect to Work and WorkWell. Additionally, the Joint DWP and DHSC Work and Health Directorate has developed a digital information service for employers and continues to oversee the Disability Confident Scheme.

Evaluation is a key driver in delivering DWP’s priority outcomes and ensuring alignment with the Government’s Plan for Change. As set out in the DWP Evidence and Evaluation Strategy, ongoing evaluation of policies to support disabled people into appropriate employment is crucial in assessing whether they are achieving intended results and informs future policy design.

For example, an evaluation of the WorkWell pilot is underway to assess the effectiveness of WorkWell and is conducted by an independent consortium of evaluators using surveys, interviews and econometric measures of success. The evaluation is tracking several outcome metrics, including reported health and wellbeing and earnings. Outcomes for participants are monitored across the length of the pilot, and for a further 2 years. The first pilot evaluation report has been published here: WorkWell Pilots Evaluation Early Implementation Findings - GOV.UK. A final report in Autumn 2028 will aim to give a full assessment of the impact and effectiveness of the pilot.

A similar evaluation is being commissioned for the national rollout of WorkWell and will explore the feasibility of using a randomised control trial design. The learnings from these evaluations will inform any future decisions on the Programme.

The Connect to Work Business Case, published January 2026 (29 January 2026: Connect to Work - Programme Business Case 1 Summary - GOV.UK), estimates that an additional 22,000 people will be in work over the lifetime of the programme. These, and wider, impacts are being monitored through a comprehensive national evaluation, with a final report expected in 2031.

Other recent policy evaluations include assessments of Additional Work Coach Support (Evaluation of Additional Work Coach Support - GOV.UK) and the Intensive Personalised Employment Support scheme (Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES) Programme Evaluation - GOV.UK).

The Department for Work and Pensions is committed to helping autistic and neurodivergent people to enter and remain in work.

DWP delivers the GB-wide (England, Scotland and Wales) Disability Confident scheme, encouraging employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. It provides employers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace. Disability Confident reforms, announced in January 2026, will introduce clearer standards, improved verification mechanisms, and embed lived experience at the heart of the process. Test and learn activity has started, with a strengthened scheme launching later in the year and further enhancements to follow.

Practical workplace support is available through Access to Work, a demand-led, personalised discretionary grant delivered across Great Britain. It supports workplace adjustments that go beyond an employer’s responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010. The scheme is available to people with disabilities or health conditions, including neurodivergent conditions, where these affect their ability to work. Since September 2013, Access to Work has provided funding for the in-work support needs of young disabled people participating in a Department for Education Supported Internship or the Scottish and Welsh equivalent programs.

In England and Wales, our specialist Supported Employment programme, Connect to Work, is for anyone who is disabled, has a health condition or is experiencing non-health related barriers to work. Participants are given a dedicated specialist employment support adviser who works alongside them to understand their career goals and help them to address any specific barriers to employment. Connect to Work has a specialist pathway for neurodivergent and learning-disabled participants, using the Supported Employment Quality Framework (SEQF).

In 2025, DWP launched an independent advisory panel of academics with expertise and lived experiences of neurodiversity to advise us on boosting neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work. The panel considered the reasons why neurodivergent people often have poor experiences in the workplace, and a low overall employment rate. Their findings and the Department’s response will be published in due course.

The Department for Work and Pensions offers a range of employment support that those aged 25-30 can benefit from. This includes financial support through the Flexible Support Fund to help with interviews or starting work, and tailored, flexible support through Jobcentre Plus. Alongside targeted job-search support, Work Coaches offer personalised advice to help individuals secure roles which reflect their skills, qualifications and prior experience.

Where appropriate, Work Coaches identify skill gaps and signpost jobseekers to relevant training and provision, such as Skills Bootcamps, apprenticeships, sector-based work academy programmes, and free courses for jobs, as well as essential English, maths and digital skills.

For those who have been on Universal Credit for 6 months or more, the Restart Scheme provides 12 months of more intensive support, including bespoke action plans.

Alongside this, we are developing tailored support for those with health conditions and disabilities through our Pathways to Work, backed by £1 billion a year of new funding by the end of the decade.

We are also delivering 11 Economic Inactivity Trailblazers, led by Mayoral Strategic Authorities and the Welsh Government, which are testing local approaches to support people who are hardest to reach to move towards work.

Through Jobcentre Plus, we work with employers to provide work experience opportunities and help businesses access talented candidates. Employers can receive support through the Employer Services Line and local Employer Advisers, who can help promote opportunities, connect employers with suitable candidates and support recruitment activity. This underpins our commitment to expand work experience and training placements by 300,000 as part of the Youth Guarantee.

Unemployed graduates can access personalised support through Jobcentre Plus, including targeted job search assistance, CV and interview preparation, and help to identify opportunities that reflect their skills, qualifications and experience. Unemployed graduates aged 16 to 24 can also access additional support through Youth Hubs, including mental health support, essential and vocational skills provision, and employer engagement.

Jobcentre Plus also works with expert organisations such as Milkround (www.milkround.com) and Prospects (www.prospects.ac.uk) to support graduates in navigating the early career labour market and identifying suitable opportunities. In addition, the National Careers Service provides free, impartial careers advice in England, including support with applications, interviews and career planning, helping individuals gain experience and progress towards sustainable employment.

Since March 2025 more than 100,000 disabled people and people with health conditions with a Limited Capability for Work and Work Related Activity decision have received employment support from a Pathways to Work Adviser on a voluntary basis to help them move towards and in to work.

The latest published Universal Credit sanction rate figures for claimants aged 20 to 24 for February 2026 are available in the latest Benefit Sanction Statistics bulletin and accompanying data tables to February 2026, as well as through Stat-Xplore from the UC Sanction Rates dataset.

The Department keeps the operation of conditionality and sanctions under continuous review to ensure the system remains fair and proportionate.