Incapacity benefits – reassessing claims
From October 2010 Jobcentre Plus will start reassessing the claims of people who are receiving Incapacity Benefit, Income Support paid on the grounds of disability and Severe Disablement Allowance to see if they are fit for work.
- People who are capable of work will move onto Jobseeker’s Allowance where they satisfy the conditions of entitlement for that benefit.
- People who need more support while they prepare for work will get that help on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).
- Those people who are most disabled or terminally ill will not be expected to look for work and will get the extra support they need on ESA.
We will trial these new processes with 1,700 customers in and around Aberdeen and Burnley from October 2010. We will then start to reassess people nationally from February 2011. This process will take place over the following three years.
The change will not affect:
- claims for Attendance Allowance
- people who are already being paid Employment and Support Allowance
- people who reach State Pension age before March 2014.
We are not reassessing claims to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) as part of this process.
- Incapacity benefits – the reassessment process – explains how we will contact customers, how we will reassess their claims and what happens afterwards.
Additional support for advisers
We are currently working with a range of third sector organisations to develop communications to help our customers and the advisers that support them as we reassess incapacity benefits claims. As we approach the start of the reassessment process we will be publishing this information here. Please check back for any updates.
PDF version
Sirs, will this affect my current claim for Reduced Earnings Allowance?
Further information on Reduced earning Allowance can be found at http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOth...
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/specialist-guides/technical-guidance/...
The government yesterday announced an independent review of the methods used to assess the work fitness of those claiming incapacity-related benefits.
Disability charities say the current tests are too inflexible – failing to take into account the variation in long-term conditions.
The review will chaired by Professor Malcolm Harrington, who will produce a report by the end of the year in a bid to see if the assessments are fair and transparent .
The announcement came on the day that ministers said they were starting two pilots into reassessing 2.6 million existing incapacity benefit claimants. The government will start reassessing 1,700 claimants in Burnley and Aberdeen from October 2010, and then start – as Labour planned – a national process from February next year.
The assessments will try to determine whether claimants are in fact able to work or whether they need additional support or "unconditional help".
Ministers also announced details of plans for how private companies should compete to run the new multibillion-pound contracts in getting millions of unemployed people into work.
The contracts will in many cases not give private firms any money until they have found work, with the fee rising probably after someone has stayed in work for six months, 12 months or even two years. Emma Harrison, director for A4E , the largest private contractor, said she was delighted that the government was merging the different welfare to work schemes into one work programme, saying it would cut time and the cost of bidding for many small contracts.
She said contractors were in discussion with banks to see if they would provide loans to cover the new regime of payment by results.
The welfare-to-work scheme, potentially costing about £3bn a year, will see providers paid almost exclusively by results and out of savings made from getting people off benefits, and payment would come after delivery.
Chris Grayling, the employment minister, said the reforms would help "break the cycle of benefit dependency that has blighted some communities".
"We expect that our delivery partners should be able to demonstrate the capital strength to take on the risks inherent in an exclusively or heavily outcome-based approach where we seek to deal with the cases of millions of people on out-of-work benefits," government advice says.
An internal government memo seen by the Guardian shows that thousands of Jobcentre staff are expected to be made redundant by next March.
The Public and Commercial Services union says the government's actions were unprecedented as in the past frontline staff had only been let go in an economic boom – rather than in the depths of a recession.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "When unemployment is still rising, it's economically absurd to drive even more people out of work and sever the lifeline for thousands and thousands of vulnerable people in our communities."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/30/incapacity-benefit-tests-...