Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Conclusion 12
3rd Report – Get Britain Working: Pathways to Work
Published 29 Jul 2025
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Get Britain Working: Pathways to Work All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We agree with the principle of a streamlined, single health and disability assessment, given the distress caused by repeated and unnecessary assessments. The objection to the Government’s proposal to abolish the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and to link eligibility for UC health to receipt of the daily living component of PIP is that the two assessments assess different things: one a person’s capacity for work and the other the impact of a disability on a person’s daily living. This objection seems to miss the point, however, since the Government is explicit that it wants to decouple access to UC health from an assessment of a person’s capacity for work. (Conclusion, Paragraph 117) 66
From: Work and Pensions Committee, 3rd Report – Get Britain Working: Pathways to Work (HC 837), 29 July 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 23 October 2025 (deadline 29 September 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government "supports" the Committee's conclusion that the incapacity benefit system is broken, welcomes the report, and on most recommendations sets out existing measures or says it is considering consultation responses, with plans to follow "in due course".
- On raising the age of access to the UC Health Element to 22, it is "considering the responses to this consultation" and "will set out the policy direction in due course".
- On conditionality for disabled people, it "recognise[s] the need to provide further detail and clarity" and will share its proposals "in due course".
- On standard allowance increases and the UC health element, it points to the Universal Credit Act 2025, states the lower health element "will take effect on 6 April 2026", and says it "will keep standard allowance rates under review".
- On devolution, it says discussions with the Scottish Government on "the interactions between the devolved and reserved systems" are "ongoing".