Overview

• Ministers announced a £167.2m rollout over five years to extend Connect to Work to Cumbria, Oxfordshire, West Sussex, Brighton, Devon, Plymouth, Torbay, the North East and the South Midlands, offering intensive help to more than 40,000 additional people.
• Specialist advisers will be based in GP practices and hospitals, working with clinicians to provide job coaching, confidence and communication workshops, virtual reality interview training, help with childcare and engagement with local employers.
• The service is voluntary and open to working-age people with long-term conditions or disabilities, with priority support for groups such as care leavers, ex‑offenders, veterans and victims of domestic abuse.
• The Department for Work and Pensions says total funding tops £1bn with a goal to support about 300,000 people, and ministers say the service will be available across England from April.
• Officials present the expansion as part of efforts to curb rising long‑term sickness and benefit costs, citing roughly 2.8 million people out of work with ill health, while formal effectiveness figures from early pilots are due next year.