Employment: Long Covid and ME/CFS
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 February 2025 to Question 30791 on Employment: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Long Covid, whether the proposed reforms will (a) ensure appropriate assessment of the work capability of individuals with fluctuating conditions and (b) provide adequate support for people with ME who are unable to work due to their illness.
Answered by Sir Stephen Timms
The Government believes there is a strong case to change the system of health and disability benefits across Great Britain so that it better enables people to enter and remain in work and to respond to the complex and fluctuating nature of the health conditions many people live with today. The system must also work to support disabled people and those with health to live independently.
We are therefore working to develop proposals for health and disability reform and will set them out in a Green Paper ahead of the Spring Statement. This will launch a consultation on the proposals, with a conclusion to be set out in a white paper later this year.
This Government is committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of all that we do, so we will consult on these proposals, where appropriate, with disabled people and representative organisations.
Ahead of the formal consultation for the Green Paper, we have already started to explore ways of engaging with disabled people and their representatives, including through stakeholder roundtables and public visits. We look forward to progressing these initiatives over the coming months.
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