DWP disability benefit reforms could see 650,000 people lose support – including surgery patients

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DWP disability benefit reforms could see 650,000 people lose support – including surgery patients

Postby dutchman » Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:09 am

The Chancellor announced what he called the 'biggest change to our welfare system in a decade' in his Budget on Wednesday

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More than half a million people on disability benefits could see their support cut back as a result of the Governments reforms, a think tank has warned. It comes after the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the “biggest change to our welfare system in a decade” in his Budget yesterday (Mar 15), as he said the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) would be scrapped.

The Government says the reforms will shift the focus of assessments onto what people can do rather than what they cannot, and would mean that the only the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) would remain in future, the Daily Record reports. Mr Hunt said he wanted to remove barriers to work and insisted that disabled benefit claimants “will always be able to seek work without fear of losing financial support”, as he told the Commons that half of the vacancies in the economy could be filled by people who want to work but are inactive due to sickness or disability.

But the Resolution Foundation warned that the Government must be cautious, as hundreds of thousands of people who currently receive support could be affected. The Think Tank said that someone who does not have a long-term illness, mental or physical health condition, or disability, would not necessarily qualify for PIP, meaning that despite being too ill to work, they could miss out.

In its quickfire analysis of the Budget, the organisation said: “The scrapping of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) amounts to the biggest change in disability benefits in a decade. It will rightly be implemented slowly given that there will be significant winners but also losers.

“Up to 650,000 people currently receiving support after going through the WCA do not receive Personal Independence Payments. In future, this group, which includes people recovering from surgery, are likely to see support cut back.”

The Government has promised claimants they will get “transitional protection” to “ensure that no one experiences financial loss at the point at which the reform is enacted”. The changes are likely to be implemented a few years from now.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said in a white paper published on Wednesday that the Universal Credit Limited Capability for Work and Work Related Activity (LCWRA) financial top-up would be replaced with a new 'UC health element'. It acknowledged that some people who receive the UC health element as they are determined to have LCWRA do not receive PIP.

The White Paper on GOV.UK states: “As we develop our reform proposals, we will consider how disabled people and people with health conditions who need additional financial support may receive it.”

Cancer patients would be among those given protection from the changes, the DWP said. It continued: “We are committed to protecting those claimants who are currently treated as LCWRA due to pregnancy risk or because they are about to receive, receiving or recovering from treatment for cancer by way of chemotherapy or radiotherapy. We will provide explicit provision to allow these claimants to access the new UC health top-up, even when they are not in receipt of PIP.”

The reforms would begin to be implemented in 2026, the Government said, with the rollout for new claims intended to be complete within three years from then. Only at that point, when the existing caseload of claims are moved onto the new system, would the “transitional protection” be provided – initially for people who are not getting PIP at the point that they move to the new system.

Louise Murphy, economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Scrapping the Work Capability Assessment - the biggest reform to disability benefits in a decade - is a welcome move that should help more people with ill health or a disability back into work.

“However, with up to 650,000 people at risk of receiving lower support in future, the Government is right to be proceeding slowly with this reform, which wouldn’t begin until at least 2026, and then take over three years to be fully implemented.

“This will help the Government put in place proper protections to ensure that vulnerable people - for example those recovering from major surgery - don’t have their incomes cut.”

You can read the full ‘Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper’ on the GOV.UK website here.

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Re: DWP disability benefit reforms could see 650,000 people lose support – including surgery patients

Postby dutchman » Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:13 am

It's a cost-saving measure - pure and simple - nothing to do with 'helping people back into work'.

Few commentators noticed that PIP would in future be means-tested for the first time, something I predicted years ago. Middle income claimants will no longer receive anything like the amounts they do now.
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Re: DWP disability benefit reforms could see 650,000 people lose support – including surgery patients

Postby dutchman » Wed Sep 06, 2023 2:57 am

Sickness benefits crackdown shelved until after election

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A crackdown on people claiming sickness benefits will not come into force until 2025, the Work and Pensions Secretary has admitted.

Under plans unveiled by the Government on Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to find it harder to claim they are too sick to work. The number doing so has risen to almost three million post-pandemic.

However, Mel Stride [pictured], the Cabinet minister in charge of the brief, accepted that any changes would only take effect after the next general election.

He told the Commons: “If the proposals were taken forward following consultation, the earliest we could implement any change would be from 2025, given the need to make changes to regulations and ensure appropriate training for health assessors.”

The delay has surprised many Conservatives, with the ballooning cost of the welfare budget having been blamed for undermining economic growth and restricting the ability to cut taxes.

Supporting those deemed too sick to work will cost the taxpayer £26 billion this year alone, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies – £6 billion more in real terms than before the pandemic.

The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that one in eight of all working age people will be claiming some form of disability benefit by 2027 at a cost to the taxpayer of £77 billion a year, according to Department of Work and Pension forecasts.

However, despite the costs and repeated pledges to address the situation, there has been speculation that the Government is wary of tackling sensitive issues before the election.

The delay also means that if Labour wins the election, as polls currently predict, it would have to decide whether to go ahead with changes, which are likely to prove controversial with some of their supporters but popular with the public.

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Re: DWP disability benefit reforms could see 650,000 people lose support – including surgery patients

Postby dutchman » Wed Sep 06, 2023 2:57 am

Stride will probably be replaced before then, as were all his predecessors. :roll:
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