Margaret Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Greenwood on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will carry out a trial of the introduction of personal budgets for employment support for disabled people.

Penny Mordaunt

The Government recognises that people need support that is tailored to their needs. Personal Budgets are currently being trialled in Access to Work to offer customers greater flexibility to manage their Travel to Work or Support Worker costs. Initial findings from the trial are expected in early 2017.

A Personal Budgets model was previously tested in the Right to Control Trailblazers, which ran from 2010 to 2013. Disabled people taking part in the trailblazers were offered greater choice and control over the support they received, as well as the option to take a direct payment and arrange their own support. The final evaluation report did not find any evidence that the Right to Control Trailblazers had a significant positive impact on customers, both overall and by subgroup.