• 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 / News Archive / Harrington review: IB reassessment programme ‘must be delayed’

Harrington review: IB reassessment programme ‘must be delayed’

By guest on 26th November 2010 Category: News Archive

Listen

Disability organisations have called on the government to delay its programme to reassess all those disabled people who claim “old-style” incapacity benefit (IB).

The call came after the publication of an independent review of the work capability assessment (WCA), the controversial new test used to determine eligibility for out-of-work disability benefits.

Professor Malcolm Harrington who led the review, made a series of recommendations for improvements to the WCA, which he said would make it “fairer and more effective”.

But although the government accepted all of his recommendations, only a handful will be implemented by next spring, when the reassessment programme is set to start.

Since the WCA’s introduction two years ago, it has been used to determine eligibility for employment and support allowance (ESA), the replacement for IB.

But from next April, the government will start a national “migration” programme to reassess the estimated 1.6 million people who will still be claiming IB and move them either on to ESA or the less generous jobseeker’s allowance.

Employment minister Chris Grayling said many of the Harrington recommendations would be implemented in time for next April.

But the charity Disability Alliance said it appeared that only about a quarter of the 25 recommendations would be implemented by April, which would mean disabled people currently claiming IB being subjected to an “ineffective” test at “substantial social and material cost”.

Dr Mark Baker, co-chair of the Disability Benefits Consortium, said the recommendations “clearly indicate” that the WCA is “deeply flawed”.

Baker said the government “should not proceed with moving claimants of older incapacity benefits onto ESA, via the WCA, until it is clear that the assessment is working fairly and effectively”.

And Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, said it was “imperative” that the recommendations were implemented before the migration began.

He said if the test was not ready by April it would be “unjust and unethical” to start putting disabled people through the WCA when it was “still not fit for purpose”.

A DWP spokesman said there was no need to delay the migration as they were planning to implement “as many as possible” of the recommendations before it started.

He said that, although the migration process would begin in April, the first reassessments of people on IB would not start until the summer.

He added: “The time is right. Time is of the essence. [The WCA] will be under review for the next five years and there will be a constant process of reviewing and monitoring.”

25 November 2010

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

Access

Latest Stories

DWP staff admit inflicting ‘psychological harm’ on claimants during coalition years

Government ‘treats disabled people with contempt’ by handing £2.4 million to charities

Legal threat to PM over lack of BSL interpreter in £2.6 million briefing room

Government faces legal action over ‘disrespectful’ strategy consultation

‘Vaccine passport’ scheme is ‘deeply troubling’, say disabled artists

DWP decision to resume face-to-face assessments ‘is too soon and too dangerous’

DWP admits number of disability employment advisers plunged during pandemic

DPOs call on minister to scrap ‘unfair’ SEN coronavirus measures

Government’s ‘shocking’ pandemic rights list of shame

Disabled student’s ‘five years of sheer hell’ at university

Advice and Information

DWP: The case for the prosecution

Readspeaker

Footer

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

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

Copyright © 2021 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web