Overview
- The Pathways to Work Innovation Fund was launched on Monday July 13 with £60 million available for public, private and voluntary sector bids to test new ways of moving disabled people and those with long-term health conditions into work.
- The fund sits inside a wider £3.5 billion Pathways to Work package and will open for applications in September with an expert panel led by Paralympian Tanni Grey‑Thompson set to shape the programme and advise which projects receive grants.
- The DWP says its Pathways to Work programme has already offered specialist adviser support that has reached around 100,000 people and that about 2.7–2.8 million people are out of work due to ill health, a gap ministers want to close.
- An interim Timms review has judged Personal Independence Payment to be 'no longer fit for purpose' and Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden has signalled a move away from simply paying benefits toward active, funded support, a shift that could prompt politically sensitive changes when final reports arrive later this year.
- Ministers plan to use pilots, face‑to‑face advisers and AI or machine‑learning tools to test what scales, with the stated aim of improving employment outcomes for claimants and reducing long‑term economic inactivity if trials prove effective and are rolled out.