UK: Disability benefits (UC, ESA and PIP) - news and updates 2023 (including government plans to scrap the work capability assessment)

So, as usual, what the DWP announces to the media, and what they actually do, are completely different things.

Diametrically opposed things in this case.

Almost as if they were telling porkies to the public.

For some reason.

 

And what they're able to do, in the face of staffing chaos, is yet another unknown.

 

And yet, rather than tell us they won't have the capacity to review everyone, they keep us all on tenterhooks assuming that the brown envelope could land on the doormat any day. It's psychological torture.

 

Do you have a link to the FOI result please @BazzaBoyle ?

or perhaps that would be too personally identifying? - not sure how these things work never having made an FOI request.

At any rate I hope you'll be able to let Benefits and Work know? so they can put people out of their misery. I've been reading the comments on the news article about this , so so many terrified and confused people. There is a 'contact us' link where you could email it to them if you wanted to stay private.

 

Here is the link to it:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/uc_wca_reassessments_policy#incoming-2497028

I did message Benefits and Work on Twitter but didn't get a response.

 

Brilliant thanks, a big well done for doing it.

Ah well as long as B&W are aware of it they can tell their people/commenters themselves. Its been interesting to read some of the comments on their news story about this. There seem to be a couple of people in same position as me with a reassessment due soon & no way to know whether its going to happen or not.

Ugh well we trudge on.

People sometimes ask me what i would do if i was suddenly healed - i'd be straight down the job centre to get a job, almost any job, so i could tell the DWP to keep their assessments. Anyone who thinks being on benefits is a 'secondary gain' has a screw loose.

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/stati...ry-reconsiderations-and-appeals-december-2023

This is a different report to the Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment posted earlier (Post #519)

National statistics
ESA: outcomes of Work Capability Assessments including mandatory reconsiderations and appeals: December 2023
Published 14 December 2023

 

Thank you, that's interesting. It appears they've done two or three thousand at the most during the last year; it's feasible that some or all of those weren't routine reassessments, but were prompted by changes of circumstances.

The 2015 drop in reassessments coincides with a large peak in new ones, and the opposite seems to happen in the latter half of 2019. Post-pandemic, new assessments climb again as reassessments fall, but far fewer than in previous years after the benefit was redesigned. So perhaps the rate at which reassessments were done always tended to reflect the pressure on capacity from new claims.

Anyway, the last couple of years really doesn't look like the picture of a department strongly committed to reassessing current claimants. It looks as if they've been working steadily towards the phase out of IR-ESA.

 

the thing is though that graph only goes to June 2023 & they warned they were stepping up reassessments in sept
More WCA reviews to be carried out, DWP warns (benefitsandwork.co.uk)

I agree it certainly looks like the number of reassessments depends on number of new claims, there seems to be a consistent capacity and it gets directed to new claims first. Which, for once, is the way it should be.

What i object to is the way they almost seem to revel in keeping existing claimants hanging, not giving any info about how the decisions are made about who to reassess, so you just have no idea whether this horrific event, this thing which is going to take ALL your strength and make you physically unwell, stop you being able to look after yourself as you and your carer have to spend the time/energy you'd normally spend on cooking/personal care etc sorting out the forms etc. And the thing which is going to make you very mentally unwell too, increasing ideation etc. They dont want you to know whether its coming or not.
They act as if a reassessment is a casual, minor thing, an hour fillin in a basic form, but we all know it's a MASSIVE, seriously life impacting thing.

But they just keep us hanging
We ask 'is the sword of damocles going to fall, or not?'

And their answer, as the ones holding ALL the power, the ones in control of our very survival... Is... 'Well we might do and we might not, that's for us to know and you to find out'.
It really is extraordinarily callous. I experience it as abuse.

But i suppose if you believe that 99% of claimants are the lazy, malingering, scum of the earth, fraudsters that we are represented as, then that attitude of almost enjoying keeping us hanging, must feel justified.

 

Not sure if there is anything new in this news item but it may clarify some points.

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/n...sues-will-be-largest-group-hit-by-wca-changes


New claimants with mobilising issues will be largest group hit by WCA changes
PUBLISHED: 29 JANUARY 2024
New claimants with mobilising issues will be the largest group hit by the proposed changes to the work capability assessment (WCA) planned for 2025, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has predicted. However, hundreds of thousands of claimants who may be a risk to themselves or others will also be caught by the changes.

Background
The government revealed last year that it is proposing to make changes to the work capability assessment to make it tougher for new claimants.

The proposed changes are:

Mobilising: the points will be unchanged, but the highest scoring descriptor will no longer give claimants limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA).

Getting about: the highest scoring descriptor will still give limited capability for work (LCW), but the scores for the other descriptors will be reduced.

Substantial risk for LCWRA: this will be unchanged for physical health. But for mental health the criteria will be made much stricter. We don’t have details yet, but it may only apply to people with specified mental health conditions who are experiencing an acute episode for which there is medical evidence.

There’s more details on the changes here.

Projected numbers
The OBR have now produced a supplementary forecast to the November 2023 Economic and fiscal outlook giving estimates of how many people will be affected by the changes.

It should be noted that these changes, according to the DWP, will only affect new claimants, not existing ones.

The OBR estimate that by 2028-29:

371,000 additional claimants will be placed in LCW group rather the LCWRA group because of changes to the mobilising descriptors;

230,000 additional claimants will be placed in LCW group rather the LCWRA group because of changes to the substantial risk regulations;

29,000 claimants will be placed in the intensive work search group rather than the LCW group.

This means that 59% of the new claimants affected will have mobilising issues, 36% will be those who would currently be deemed to be at risk and 5% will be those with problems ‘getting about’.

Still going ahead
In evidence to the Commons Work and Pensions Committee earlier this month, the DWP confirmed both that it is still intending to introduce the changes to the WCA in 2025 and that they will only affect new claims:

Our plan with the changes to the work capability assessment is to introduce them from 2025, and then we have said that we will roll out the White Paper reforms. Really importantly, the WCA change is for new claims only.

The “White Paper reforms” relate to the complete abolition of the WCA. The DWP confirmed in the same meeting that it still plans to introduce the White Paper reforms from 2026 for new claims and from 2029 for existing claimants:

“The White Paper changes, beginning with new claims, will happen on a staged geographical basis from 2026, and then will move across the stock of existing claims from 2029.”

If there is a change of government this year, then none of the proposed changes may go ahead.

Vicky Foxcroft, shadow minister for disabled people, told the Disability News Service in October 2023 that Labour would not introduce the changes to the WCA. However, there has been no official policy announcement on this topic or the White Paper changes by Labour.

Full details of the OBR’s estimates of the effects of changes to the WCA are available here.

 

There's also an update on the page about the migration of claimants from income-related ESA to Universal Credit:

Four years is a long time away, and given the DWP's history of serial postponements and the possibility of a change of government before then as well, it offers a bit of respite. (Personally, I'm quite relieved to have a date for it, as I now know I'll reach pension age before then.)

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/updated-esa-to-uc-migration-materials

 

From Benefits and Work on the Severe Disability Group -

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/n...and-work&utm_content=13+March+2024+Newsletter

There is a specific section for ME/CFS -

ME/CFS

Syndromes characterised by chronic pain and fatigue where symptoms are longstanding, affect multiple activities of daily living (ADLs) and confirmation that all treatment options provided by specialist pain and fatigue services have been exhausted

Problematic in so many ways, but I'm not up to commenting at the moment.

 

To clarify for readers who not aware, the 'Severe Disability group' is a new thing, whereby for the people who qualify wont have to go through the usual process of applying for ESA/UC/PIP.

To be honest i was pretty shocked that they included ME/CFS at all! I was expecting it to be excluded. Not saying its not problematic just that its a surprise they think anyone with ME is incapable of getting better - the BPS ideologues wont like that!

You can read more about the SDG & criteria for it here Shambolic Severe Disability Group assessment system revealed (benefitsandwork.co.uk)

 

I just looked, and plenty of people have already.

 

I have some worries about conditions being named, to be honest.

DWP assessments have always been about how impairments and disabling illnesses affect people, not what they're called. Although it's often implemented very badly, it is arguably the fairest approach. For instance, it recognises that a person trying to manage four different chronic conditions can be severely impaired, even though someone with only one of them might be able to live a reasonably full life and not qualify for benefits.

This recognition of a compounding effect is so important, but it could be seriously undermined by prioritising specific conditions.

 

I agree @Kitty

 

ESA Work Capability Assessments

Quarterly volumes of completed assessments by type of assessment, December 2008 to September 2023


A lot more information here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/stati...atory-reconsiderations-and-appeals-march-2024

 

I agree @JemPD, I was shocked too, and ME/CFS rather than cfsing us. I don't like the description though - syndromes (plural) which seems to be a bps thing, to make it more vague. Yes it may end up being several different illnesses, but we don't know that. Plus the emphasis on pain, which isn't a required symptom, and "fatigue", of course. The main worry is

Since most clinics are offering the same old under new names that's very dangerous. Implies forced treatment.

The general problem with this SDG category is that evidence has to come from a specialist. That's obviously a problem for us, but a quick look at the comments suggests people with many conditions don't have any ongoing secondary care.

I've edited my previous post, where the link was originally back to this thread. I suppose I could pretend it was some sort of postmodern thing.

 

I've re-edited incorrectly 3 times. Over and out.

 

I had a look at the webpage on which the Benefits and Work article is based, and it doesn't actually mention ME/CFS as such. That seems to have been added by Benefits and Work. The original web page refers to 'Syndromes characterised by chronic pain and fatigue', which obviously includes ME/CFS and ME-type Long Covid, but may also refer to other conditions.

The original webpage is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...ability-group-test-information-for-clinicians