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

We finally applied for UC in mid Feb. We spent the first 3 months of the year researching and filling in the WCA application. This totally wiped my daughter out.
We had been due to see her GP in early Feb, but when we turned up it was adifferent one. So we didn't ask re fit note, but about Fludrocortisone, which had been recommended by her cardiologist the previous year. Luckily I had taken copies of the relevant letter, as it wasn't on their system!

When we saw her GP, a few weeks later, she was fine about signing a 3 month fit-note, and ticked the substantial risk to health box.

So, before the Jobcentre received this, we had an initial appointment of 45 mins, with a new, friendly and understanding work coach. Amber was asked to complete an online "work skills" type questionnaire. This asked things like "do you prefer working in teams, do you like problem solving"...
All questions which were really irrelevant because she hadn't been able to work or study for over 10 years. She developed ME, aged 16, following viral labyrinthitis.

She had also been asked to fill in a health pathway form. Just doing these two things, plus a weekly call or visit totally exhausted her over the 3 or 4 weeks before she got the fit note. She was put in the LCWRA category, based on the form alone, but only for 18 months, as they expect her to get better. Now 13 years of moderate ME.

She has deteriorated since developing it.

 

Sorry @MEMarge i'm confused. I dont understand anything about UC, dont know what a fit note has to do with the WCA? Are fit notes required for UC even once you been put in LCW/LCWRA groups?
Under what rules/grouping you were at the job centre at that point?

My initial question was what do the DWP consider 'Work Related Activity' to be for those in the WRA group of ESA (or the LCW group of UC).

So if your ESA/UC claim had not yet been decided, were you seeing a work coach as a person who they considered fit for work until the ESA/Health component of UC (or whatever its called) claim, was decided?

In which case the work related activity they would make someone do who hadnt yet been determined as having a health condition that made them have limited capability either for work or WRA, surely wouldnt be the same as the activities they would consider appropriate for a person who had been determined to have limited capability.

??

not suggesting you know the answers to this & i appreictae you sharing your experiences, am just wondering.

Hope your daughter improves soon, its appalling how it makes us all.

 

https://www.wired-gov.net/wg/news.n...iers+to+work+for+millions+23112023121000?open

The UK's No.1 government & public sector news alerting service.

A new ‘Chance to Work Guarantee’ will transform the prospects of millions of people currently out of work, supporting them to realise their aspirations and potential.

• Changes announced at Autumn Statement will tear down barriers to work for over 2.4 million claimants, who will be able to try work without fear of reassessment or losing health benefit top-ups
• New measures will help to grow the economy by providing long-term sick and disabled claimants a Chance to Work Guarantee – brought forward from the White Paper reforms announced earlier this year – and by making the Work Capability Assessment fit for the modern world of work
• These changes to support the most vulnerable represent the next step in Government’s welfare reforms, alongside the new £2.5 billion Back to Work Plan and following the landmark Health and Disability White Paper published earlier this year

The changes announced yesterday as part of the Government’s next generation of welfare reforms will free up claimants to try work with no fear of losing their benefits, including health top-ups, with the prospect of re-assessments removed entirely for most claimants.

Alongside the Chance to Work Guarantee, Universal Credit claimants will benefit from boosted Work Allowances meaning that long-term sick and disabled claimants can keep £404 of earnings every month without this affecting their welfare payments, effectively ‘de-risking’ the journey into work.

As part of the offer, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will also provide targeted help as part of its £2.5 billion Back to Work Plan, including through an expanded Universal Support scheme which places people into jobs and provides wraparound care to give the best chance of success in a role.

Alongside this, the Work Capability Assessment is being overhauled for those newly moving onto health benefits so work preparation requirements better reflect the opportunities available in the modern world of work, whilst protecting those unable to work.

The proportion of people on the highest level of award and assessed as having no work-related requirements has risen from 21% in 2011 to 65% in 2022 – meaning people are over three times more likely to be written off work today than they were over a decade ago.

One in five people currently on the highest tier of health benefits, with no work preparation requirements, would like to work in the future with the right support. But more than half of those who felt they could work within the next two years saw a fear of not being able to return to benefits as a barrier to work.


Further info on the website

 

Hi @JemPD, sorry to be confusing.

As this was my daughter's first application for benefits, she needed a "fit note" from the GP, to avoid having to do work related activity until the assessor decided she was not fit for work or work related activity.

Fortunately her work coach had some empathy that she was not well, so asked her to do minimal WRA. This, even though a very small amount exhausted her alongside the weekly check-ins with the work coach in person or by phone.

I was really just trying to give an example of the impact of even a small amount of WRA. Under UC they can expect you to do 35 hours of WRA per week.

She could not apply for ESA, as she had not paid any NI in the previous 2 years.

 

thanks @MEMarge its not you thats confusing its the regime!

so the work coach visit was *before* the fit note was issued? or in the interim between fit note being issued & LCWRA being granted.

I'm trying to determine whether these WRA she was given, were given to her as a general UC claimant, or as someone who it was already acknowledged was 'off sick'. Officially acknowledged i mean, not whether the coach was sympathetic or not.

 

She was given this until she got the fit-note from the GP. We heard no more from the work coach once this was noted on her online journal.
As the fit note was for 3 months and she got assessed as LCWRA before this expired we haven't needed to see the Gp again.

(Unfortunately, this GP has now left the surgery!)

 

It's a hard system to understand. I don't know how often a UC WRA group c1aimant has to check in with a work coach. When I was in the WRA group of ESA (back in 2011-13) they were a11owed discretion to on1y have an interview once every 6 months, which cou1d be by phone (a1though I wasn't to1d that initia11y).

I do remember getting a threatening 1etter in the second year stating I had missed the schedu1ed in person interview. Of course I'd never actua11y been informed of it by 1etter (this was before the on1ine journa1 of UC). They accepted this and offered a phone interview instead, giving me a date and time to ca11 them for it (I've never provided the DWP with a phone number).

I broke down during the ca11 (this happens during any phone ca11 with an 'officia1' as I can't process the verba1 information) and the job coach (a different one from the one I'd seen twice in person) was actua11y very understanding. To1d me she didn't expect anything from me WRA wise and she wou1d schedu1e the next interview for the maximum 6 months time. I was put in the support group before that was needed anyway.

 

From @Simbindi 's post up thread, which quotes from the DWP consultation response document i believe.

Which appears to say (assuming the word 'currently' is used in the normal way to mean 'at the present time'), that those of us who are, right now (Nov 2023) in that category - ie have been assessed as having LCWRA will not face a reassessment except in exceptional circumstances. Which would in effect mean all our future scheduled reassessments are cancelled

However, the next point in the doc. says

Which appears to be contradictory.... I mean does it apply to those of us who have been assessed as LWCRA right NOW, or is it those who are in that group at the time of/after the changes are implemented? In which case all planned reassessments for those in that group will continue until 2025 when the changes come in.

If it wont apply to those in the group at the present time then why say 'currently'? It doesnt make sense, but i dont trust them, they have a long history of being disingenuous at best!

I am desperate to get clarity on this because my reassessment is due in February. And with the extremely limited cognitve energy, & absurdly limited time with support/carers that i know you will all understand... it means i have to start work on it now, and it will take up the lions share of my "well enough without tipping into PEM" time for the next 2 months, before the form even arrives!
Not to mention having t go through the nightmare of trying to get GP appointment to get a support letter etc. So i will not have even the meagre christmas that is doable with severe ME, or any energy for anything else at all, & things like carer support with personal care will have to be sacrificed in order for her to help me do this. And the anxiety & fear...

So to go through all that & have my life hijacked by something which isnt even going to happen... Only fellow ME sufferers will get the size of the blow that would be.

So if anyone has any further info, or hears/reads from a reliable source whether it actually applies to us, now, or whether it wont apply till the changes come into force. Please would you let me/us know.

I'm hoping Benefits & Work or some other organisation who have the ability to ask the DWP will clarify that point but there is so much new info i doubt it will come in time, so please keep you eye out/ear to the ground.


Edited to add:
Just reading down the document i quoted from above Government Response to the Work Capability Assessment: Activities and Descriptors Consultation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) (these points are right at the end, i havent read the rest its waaayyy too much) it says:

surely the word 'today' is unambiguous?

Interested to hear your thoughts on thisn @Simbindi but only if you feel up to it of course

 

I agree this is contradictory. I think the on1y hope in terms of not being reassessed before 2025 (if the changes actua11y come in) is that there is a1most certain1y sti11 a huge back1og in new WCA assessments for UC, so the DWP probab1y aren't triggering any reassessments themse1ves. I did read that during the pandemic they stopped a11 of them, even where c1aimants in the WRA group had reported their condition worsening (hoping to get into the support group on reassessment).

I tried to get up to date figures on the WCA back1og, but apparent1y the DWP aren't keeping the statistics for UC (just ESA)! So there rea11y isn't any c1arity here. However, if reassessed before 2025 it shou1d be on the existing scoring as the government sti11 needs time to update software and train staff even if changing the WRA criteria. I understand that's why they have cited 2025 for these changes.

Removing the WCA itse1f requires primary 1egis1ation so hopefu11y 1abour wi11 not fo11ow through with this proposa1.

 

Yes. When ESA c1aimants move to the new Universa1 Credit this is technica11y a 'new' c1aim, even though they don't have to have a new WCA on transfer. So it's a11 very woo11y. However, the DWP are making their statements based on a11 these proposa1s going through (which they may we11 not if 1abour are the new government in a year's time). So they are making a11 these changes to the WCA that aren't proposed to start unti1 2025, when they a1so are proposing to abo1ish the WCA from 2026 anyway!

A cynic might think it's being done as 'red meat' to their core voters (with their right wing media framing the 1ong term sick and disab1ed c1aimants as shirkers who are actua11y fit to be working).

 

This was the situation up to last December

 

In terms of sick c1aimants being ab1e to try work and return to their benefits if it doesn't work out within 6 months. This was a 1abour proposa1, but 1abour actua11y gave the more rea1istic timesca1e of 12 months!

Under the o1d 1egacy ESA, support group c1aimants were ab1e to try work for up to 15 hours a week on minimum wage (or the equiva1ent in monetary terms) indefinite1y without it affecting their benefits! This amount was reduced dramatica11y under UC and the new 'more generous' amount announced is sti11 substantia11y 1ess than the 1egacy ESA amount.

 

That doesn't show the amount of back1og in the system of yet unassessed WCAs.

We know they appear to have stopped repeat WCAs up to the end of 22, but the question is whether they have restarted them and/or are triggering them based on award dates.

 

Benefits and Work News item regarding restarting reassessments as of september 2023
More WCA reviews to be carried out, DWP warns (benefitsandwork.co.uk)

 

did they give you the figures for ESA or was that not what you were interested in? I'm on legacy ESA

 

Not the recent ones.

 

yeah so it looks like there is no assurance of the 'currently' & 'today' comments being accurate in a literal way doesnt it? IT looks like i have no choice but to spend all my strength & more on prepping for a reassessment that may not even happen

One wonders how they make these decisions - i mean what the internal process is for deciding who gets reassessed & who doesnt & what the order is.

Whats happened to me - same every time after the 2016 reassessment (after which they said the nxt one would be March 2018 (which means feb as they always send the form out 28days before the date of the assessment - they dont tell you that but they do it).
So in Nov/Dec '17 we rang them to find out when the reassessment is due - & then again in January 2018 to confirm that its going to happen March (feb), & were told yes its due.

When the form didnt arrive by mid feb we rang them to find out what was happening & were told 'its not due till March 2020.

The exact same thing happened for the supposed March 2020 reassessment - rang in Dec 2019 & then again in January... no sign of it so rang in feb to be told it not due till 2 yrs later (2022)..

And again it happened exactly the same last yr - told it not till '24. Rang them last wk & its still showing as due March 2024.

So it seems clear to me that someone is looking at it end jan/beg feb & deciding whether to go through with the planned reassessment or not.

I do think its an utter disgrace to put vulnerable people though that, its a form of abuse keeping you hanging like that and giving no information, its such an abuse of power imo.

So even with these new developments, unless someone can clarify with the DWP that all reassessments for those in SG/LCWRA stop today as they are stating, then i still got no way to know if it will be happening or not.

Its shitty

ETA and a waste of NHS time gathering evidence that may not even be needed. Disgusting, but par for the course

 

Yes. What was said recent1y comp1ete1y contradicts this previous statement. A1though they may be targeting particu1ar groups. If they've accepted you on grounds of mobi1ity the WCA is definite1y not going to change before 2025. And that's sti11 provisiona1 as it depends on whether the Conservatives get back in government and then what the 1abour party does if it wins (more 1ike1y than the former).

 

We are all making ourselves sicker trying to read up & understand it all, & the added terror & distress. Its so very wrong.