• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / Benefits and Poverty / Fresh doubts over impact of government’s ‘scrap the WCA’ plans
DWP entrance at Caxton House, Westminster

Fresh doubts over impact of government’s ‘scrap the WCA’ plans

By John Pring on 25th May 2023 Category: Benefits and Poverty

Listen

Fresh doubts have been raised about the impact on disabled people of government plans to scrap the work capability assessment as part of a controversial package of welfare reforms.

As part of their Transforming Support white paper, ministers plan to abolish the assessment and introduce a new “health element” of universal credit, with eligibility linked to receipt of personal independence payment (PIP) or disability living allowance (DLA).

But among concerns raised about the plans – which would see DWP work coaches deciding if a disabled person could carry out work-related activity – are fears that they will lead to a sharp drop in the number of disabled people eligible for extra financial support because they are not able to work.

Last month, Disability News Service asked the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in a freedom of information request to explain its insistence that the changes would be “broadly cash neutral”.

It continues to refuse to release the figures on which it bases this conclusion because it says the policy is “still in development”.

But, in its response, it also said its internal costings show that “broadly the same number would be eligible for the new [universal credit] health element as the number of those who would no longer receive an additional element”.

When asked to clarify this response, a DWP spokesperson said this meant that “the total number of recipients of a work/health element will be broadly the same after the reform as before”.

DWP has previously confirmed that any legislation to scrap the work capability assessment would not be introduced until after the next general election.

Ken Butler, welfare and benefits policy adviser at Disability Rights UK, said: “The health element proposals will mean that around 632,000 disabled people who receive the employment and support allowance or universal credit support component will lose this as they do not receive PIP or DLA.

“Are the DWP really saying that around 632,000 disabled people who receive PIP but not currently the support component will then replace them?

“This seems very difficult to believe, and impossible to check given the sparse content of official DWP universal credit statistics.

“As ever, instead of increasing trust and transparency, the DWP plays at smoke and mirrors.

“Whatever, there is no justification for reducing some disabled people’s benefit entitlement by the equivalent of around £4,700 a year*.”

Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, told disability minister Tom Pursglove in parliament last month that his proposal to “essentially collapse the work capability assessment into the PIP assessment” would mean up to one million people with fluctuating health conditions, or those recovering from treatment, could lose out on up to £350 a month, which he said was “causing considerable distress”.

Ashworth declined to comment this week on the latest information released by DWP.

A DWP spokesperson said: “The health and disability white paper commits to removing the financial disincentives that exist within the current system by scrapping the work capability assessment, improving support and the experience for people when applying for and receiving benefits.

“These are the biggest reforms in a decade.

“That’s why we will take time to carefully consider how best to implement the changes – and give security and certainty to claimants, continuing to engage with disabled people and people with health conditions, and our stakeholders, as our proposals develop, before the reforms are rolled out on a staged basis.

“We will put protections in place to ensure that no one experiences financial loss at the point at which the reform is enacted, while improving our offer of tailored support to help people find and stay in sustainable work.”

*The annual equivalent of the universal credit support component rate

 

A note from the editor:

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations.

Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009.

Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit

Tags: Disability Rights UK DWP Jonathan Ashworth PIP universal credit wca

Groundhog Day at the Old Vic, access performances, with icons for audio description, captions, relaxed performances and British Sign Language, and a picture of a groundhog

Related

DWP hands hundreds of millions more to firms linked to claimant deaths… but not Atos
1st June 2023
Disabled mum took her own life after actions of DWP and Capita ‘magnified’ anxiety
25th May 2023
Cost-of-living debate sparked by petitions ‘provides campaigning momentum’
25th May 2023

Primary Sidebar

Access

Latest Stories

DWP hands hundreds of millions more to firms linked to claimant deaths… but not Atos

Review finds multiple agencies failed over Whorlton Hall abuse scandal

Regulator tells government’s access advisers to act on unlawful secrecy

Government breaks pledge to consult on improvements to housing adaptations

Broadcaster’s silence over ‘rabblerouser’ tweet on disability benefits

Met’s mental health emergency warning ‘risks creating serious harm’

Call for direct action protests to build support for ‘radical’ social care reform

Disabled mum took her own life after actions of DWP and Capita ‘magnified’ anxiety

Public inquiry on inaccessible footbridge will be ‘line in the sand’, say activists

Thousands of disabled people tell MPs: Cost-of-living crisis is affecting our health

Advice and Information

Groundhog Day at the Old Vic, access performances, with icons for audio description, captions, relaxed performances and British Sign Language, and a picture of a groundhog
Readspeaker

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web