On the 15th of March, 2025, Dr Charles Shepherd, MEA Hon. Medical Adviser, wrote to Rt Hon Liz Kendall to express the ME Association's deep concern around press reports indicating she would announce cuts to welfare benefits. This letter was sent prior to the the parliamentary announcement and the release of the Green Paper on 18th March.
The ME Association intends to send a follow up letter to Rt Hon Liz Kendall and provide a response to the Green Paper consultation.
Letter
On the 3rd of April, the DWP replied – as follows:
Dear Dr Shepherd,
Thank you for your recent correspondence about benefit reforms.
The Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper was published on 18 March 2025. The consultation sets out plans and proposals to reform health and disability benefits and employment support.
The Green Paper is an important staging post on a journey of reform, building on the vision and approach set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper in November 2024. It sets out our vision, strategy and proposals for change.
The Government wants to improve and refine its plans by consulting on certain measures as described within the paper. It is committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people and people with health conditions at the heart of everything it does.
The consultation – Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working – can be responded to via a Microsoft Form using the following link:
By emailing Consultation.pathwaystowork@dwp.gov.uk or; by post at: Pathways to Work Consultation, Disability and Health Support Directorate, Department for Work and Pensions, Level 2, Caxton House, Tothill Street, London, SW1H 9NA.
Further details about the Green Paper can be found by accessing the following link:
Yours sincerely,
Head of the Ministerial Correspondence Team
Dr Charles Shepherd,
Trustee and Hon. Medical Adviser to the ME Association,
Member of the 2018-2021 NICE guideline on ME/CFS committee,
Member of the 2002 Chief Medical Officer's Working Group on ME/CFS
Further Information
- GOV UK: Biggest shake up to welfare system in a generation to get Britain working | 18th March 2025
- DWP: Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working | March 2025
- MP Jo Platt: Parliamentary Question to DWP: Employment: ME/CFS and Long Covid | 17th March 2025
- The ME Association: MEA signs Scope’s open letter to the chancellor regarding welfare cuts | 18th March 2025
- Disability Rights UK: Green Paper published – £5 billion cuts proposed by scrapping the WCA and changed PIP assessment | March 2025
- Guardian: Councils and NHS could face millions in extra costs due to disability benefit cuts | 24 March, 2025
- Disability Policy Centre: Welfare reforms likely to deliver no significant savings in “all pain and no gain” scenario, according to new analysis. | 24 March, 2025
- The ME Association: Science Norway: Almost no ME/CFS patients return to work | 25 March, 2025
- GOV UK: Government to listen, learn and deliver as consultation on transformational welfare reforms begins | 7 April, 2025
