he Conservative party manifesto stated an intention to speed up the process for migrating incapacity benefit (IB) claimants onto employment and support allowance or jobseeker's allowance.

A question about this issue, raised by Baroness Thomas of Winchester, indicates that the Government will now follow the existing timetable.

Question - Asked by Baroness Thomas of Winchester

"To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to start re-testing incapacity benefit claimants with the work capability assessment before moving them to replacement benefits; whether they will take into account the most recent work capability assessment the claimant has had; and whether they plan to re-test any claimant of the employment and support allowance.[HL60]"

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud):

"Employment and support allowance was introduced in October 2008 and existing incapacity benefits continued in payment. The current plans are to begin the reassessment of cases receiving the old style incapacity benefits in October 2010 with a small trial to test and learn from the process, with the national reassessment programme planned to run from spring 2011 to March 2014. The key tool to support reassessment is the work capability assessment which is carried out by a healthcare professional and delivers an assessment of the extent to which a claimant is capable of work. We are aware that some people need much more support to manage their conditions and get help to find work and moving them to employment and support allowance is the best way to do that. We know this is a big undertaking and are working on plans to make the change happen as smoothly as possible for all customers. We also plan to evaluate how employment and support allowance is working in order to ensure that it meets its objective of helping people back to work."

Note: From 1 October 2010 trials begin to test the migration of existing incapacity benefits claimants (incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance and income support on disability grounds) onto employment and support allowance. From February 2011 this migration will be rolled out nationally. It is intended that all migration will be completed by March 2014.

More information

• lords hansard - 8 Jun 2010: Column WA32

http://www.disabilityalliance.org/ibmigrate.htm

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/esa_statistics#comment-8959

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/jsaesa_statisics#incoming-70604

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/esa_statistic#incoming-43216

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/esa_statistics#incoming-43452

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/employment_support_allowance_upp#i...