Charity warns new DWP plans to scrap Work Capability Assessments could lead to 'broken benefits system'
21.03.2023 - 16:59
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
The UK Government recently published the Health and Disability White Paper, which lays out proposed reforms to the benefits system. As part of its shake-up of the welfare system, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced plans to scrap the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) to encourage people who need to claim benefits back into work.
It’s important to keep in mind that these planned changes in the White Paper are proposals and will be debated in Parliament before coming into force in 2026/27. WCAs currently provide decisions on whether a person is fit for work for the purpose of their Employment Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit (UC) allowance.
Disability campaigners, including mental health charity Mind, have long-called for reform to, or the scrapping of, the WCA, on the basis that the assessment process is ‘harmful, discriminatory and ineffective’. Mind warns that under the new proposals, instead of undergoing a WCA, the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment would be used to decide whether a person will receive the new UC health element.
Mind’s research, Reassessing Assessments, highlighted that PIP assessments share many of the same issues as WCAs do, and are often more problematic. Some 69 per cent of people with mental health issues who experienced PIP assessments were left feeling their mental health had declined, compared to 62 per cent for the WCA. A further 46 per cent of people felt their PIP assessor did not understand mental health problems, compared to 36 per cent assessed under a WCA.
Mind is also concerned about the effect of these changes on people who are unable to work but would not currently be eligible for PIP. PIP is for people with long-term health conditions or
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