Minister of State (Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work)
Responsibilities
Responsibilities include:
- disability policy and cross-government responsibility for disabled people
- oversight of Disability Unit, and convenor of Disability Champions
- work and health strategy, including sponsorship of the joint Department for Work and Pensions / Department for Health and Social Care Work and Health Unit, and disability benefit reform
- disability employment, and disability employment programmes
- financial support for those at risk of falling out of work, and disabled claimants including Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Carer’s Allowance (CA)
- Serious Case Panel
- Devolution Framework
- fraud, error and debt
Current role holder
Tom Pursglove MP
Tom Pursglove was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions on 27 October 2022.
He was previously Minister of State (Minister for Immigration) at the Home Office between 7 September 2022 and 25 October 2022.
He was previously Minister of State jointly at the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice from 7 July 2022 to 7 September 2022.
Before that, he was Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration from 17 September 2021 until July 2022 and an Assistant Government Whip from August 2019 until 17 September 2021.
He was the Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for Youth from 27 July 2018 until 15 January 2019, and previously served in various roles including: Parliamentary Private Secretary to Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill MP, Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox MP and then Home Secretary, Sajid Javid MP.
Tom was first elected as the MP for Corby in May 2015.
Education
Tom attended Sir Christopher Hatton School in Wellingborough and attended Queen Mary, University of London where he graduated with a degree in politics.
Political Career
Before becoming an MP, Tom was a Councillor on Wellingborough Borough Council, representing the Croyland ward. He also worked as a Parliamentary Assistant for Chris Heaton-Harris MP.