Dear colleagues,

I am pleased to inform you that from 23 January 2012 both Incapacity Benefit (IB) Reassessment and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants found to have no Limited Capability for Work following the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) will be sent the Decision Maker’s reasons for the disallowance decision.  This delivers recommendation 6 of Professor Harrington’s first independent review of the WCA.

Professor Harrington recommended that all assessment reports included a personalised summary statement completed by the Atos Healthcare Professional and that this was routinely shared with claimants. The personalised summary statement was included in the Atos assessment report and made available to DWP Decision Makers from 6 June 2011.

However the statements have not been routinely shared with claimants. A trial was completed between July and September 2011 to issue the personalised summary statement to disallowed ESA claimants.  Following this, a separate trial commenced in Oldham Benefit Centre to routinely share with disallowed claimants the Decision Maker’s reasons for the decision instead of the Atos statement. Based on these trials, the issuing of the Decision Maker’s Reasoning is being introduced nationally.

The Decision Maker’s Reasoning will be included into the existing form ESA65 (new version available from 23 January) which provides the detailed findings from the WCA.

Issuing the Decision Maker’s Reasoning will provide the claimant with a clearer explanation of the decision and all the evidence considered by the Decision Maker not just the Atos assessment.

Issuing the Decision Maker’s Reasoning instead of the Atos statement better aligns with the IB Reassessment and ESA process for the Decision Maker to be at the heart of the decision making process, including  telephoning claimants likely to be disallowed ESA prior to a final decision being made. This call provides the opportunity for the claimant to identify any inaccuracies in the Atos assessment and to provide additional information to support their claim.

As part of his second review, Professor Harrington has recommended the ongoing monitoring of all his year one recommendations, which has been endorsed by the Government. DWP will continue to evaluate the impact of all the changes made and through this identify further opportunities for improving the claimant experience.

We are committed to proactively engaging with customer representative groups and I would welcome your views on the changes being introduced nationally.

If you have any questions about the content of this note, in the first instance please contact Kirsty Scholefield (kirsty.scholefield@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk)

Regards

Ron Platt

Harrington Review Implementation Project