DWP research casts new doubt on Labour’s disability employment strategy

Three new pieces of research published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have cast fresh doubt on whether ministers will be able to move more disabled people into work by providing them with more intensive employment support.

The reports were released as part of a series of DWP publications and announcements linked to reform of disability benefits.

One report showed that providing disabled claimants with extra time with a work coach – through the Additional Work Coach Support (AWCS) programme – had no impact on whether they found a job.

Ministers used similar free, voluntary support from advisers as an excuse for cutting the health element of universal credit for most new claimants in April.

The AWCS scheme was rolled out to a small number of jobcentres from 2022, with full roll-out across Britain completed in 2025.

But the report found “no significant evidence” that AWCS had an impact on whether “customers” reported being in paid work, with about a fifth (18 per cent) of both AWCS and non-AWCS claimants in paid work at the time of the follow-up survey.

There was also “very little significant evidence that AWCS had an impact on customers’ level of wellbeing”.

Despite the research, ministers announced this week that they were rolling out a DWP programme that is similar to AWCS.

They will extend the Support Conversation scheme from six to 33 jobcentres.

Under this scheme, disabled people and those with health conditions on out-of-work benefits are offered a one-to-one, voluntary, hour-long conversation to “discuss their support needs and identify extra help”.

The aim of the conversations, delivered by healthcare professionals, Pathways to Work advisers, and disability employment advisers, is to “identify and overcome the barriers stopping them from moving into work or into meaningful activity”.

A second DWP report found that the Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES) scheme, which took on more than 11,000 claimants across England and Wales between December 2019 and December 2023 and provided targeted support for disabled people with “complex support needs”, led to just 15 per cent of participants being in paid work after completing the programme.

The report did not offer comparison figures for a similar group who did not receive support through the scheme.

But it concluded that “given the complex barriers to work that IPES participants experience and the detrimental impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Labour Market as a whole, the relatively low proportion of participants currently in work is not surprising”.

A third DWP report published on the same day (25 June) offered similar conclusions.

This report examined the controversial Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC) programme, which provides support for people “with mild to moderate, common mental and physical health disabilities” by bringing employment advisers into health settings and “encouraging recognition of employment as a driver of an individual’s health and wellbeing”.

It works by “embedding Employment Specialists within primary care settings, such as GP surgeries”; similar policies have caused anger and alarm among many disabled activists.

But the new research found that engaging partners within the NHS was a “complex and time-intensive undertaking”, while “the integration of work and health services was limited, with challenges in co-locating Employment Specialists within GP practices and accessing patient records”.

Although survey findings showed that the proportion of claimants in paid jobs increased from 28 per cent to 39 per cent, the increase was similar among those who remained engaged with IPSPC (27 per cent to 34 per cent) and among those who had “disengaged” from the programme (38 per cent to 46 per cent).

The report also found that IPSPC “appears to be more effective for participants with lower-level support needs”.

Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden also chose this week to brag that tax rises imposed on the Motability scheme that were announced by Labour at last November’s budget – and came into effect this week – would save “taxpayers” £1 billion by 2030.

He claimed in a press release that the taxes imposed on disabled people were driven by “fairness for the taxpayer, fairness for disabled people, and fairness for the country”.

In a third announcement this week, DWP implemented its pledge to audio record all face-to-face and telephone assessments for disability benefits, a commitment made in last year’s Pathways to Work green paper.

Claimants being assessed for personal independence payment (PIP) and those undergoing work capability assessments will – from Monday this week (29 June) – have their assessments automatically recorded, unless they choose to opt out.

Previously, claimants had to ask for an assessment to be recorded.

Sir Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, said: “Improving transparency and trust in the benefits system is one of this government’s key aims, which is why we’re making this important change.

“Audio recording health assessments as standard will mean we are available to make improvements and increase assessment quality, resulting in a better experience for claimants.”

Meanwhile, DWP has published the results of a survey of universal credit claimants.

It found that one in three (34 per cent) recent claimants applied for an advance when making a new claim, and one in four (26 per cent) of them then struggled with these repayments.

The survey also found that claimants with a health condition usually reported “lower levels of knowledge and understanding” of universal credit and its features compared to those without a health condition, with lower general understanding of features such as the claimant commitment, the universal credit statement, and deductions.

Another DWP publication showed that complaints to the department have risen by 29 per cent in the quarter ending in March 2026, compared with the same quarter in 2025.

There were 3,985 complaints about universal credit, a 41 per cent increase on the quarter ending March 2025.

And there were 1,595 complaints about disability services in the latest quarter, a 62 per cent increase on the March 2025 quarter.

Complaints to the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) – which deals with cases where someone is unhappy with DWP’s final response to a complaint – rose by 36 per cent to 2,835, compared with March 2025.