Employment and Support Allowance debate28/07/2010
Employment and Support Allowance (Transitional Provisions, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit) (Existing Awards) Regulations 2010
House of Lords debate, Tuesday 20 July 2010
Responses from Lord Freud, DWP Lords Minister, are set out below in edited form by theme. Key points to note:
- Government intends to press ahead with a new WCA that assesses "someone's capability for work not on the nature of their health conditions or disabilities but on how severely those conditions impact on each individual's ability to function".
- Prof Malcolm Harrington's review seems to be out in the cold: "we will have Professor Harrington's report later in the year. Timing (of implementing any of his recommendations) depends on the exact nature of any recommendations that he may make. Obviously, we would like as many of those recommendations to be included as we can."
Transitional protection
"Where a customer is converted to ESA, the regulations provide not only for the protection of their incapacity benefit, income support or severe disablement allowance but any housing benefit or council tax benefit which may also be in payment at the same time. I hope the House will agree that this is a generous transitional protection which will enable people on the old-style benefits to move over time to the same rate of benefit as new ESA customers. The regulations also make consequential amendments to housing benefit and council tax benefit provisions."
Where there is no eligibility for income related JSA due to partner's income, pension or savings
"My noble friend Lady Thomas asked about people on JSA who could not access help because of the change in the contribution basis. I am pleased to assure her that those not entitled can sign on for national insurance credits and then access all the help available via the work programme that those on JSA can access."
Tax exemptions for people on IB & SDA post 1995
"It means that, unlike all other IB claims and new contributory ESA claims, this diminishing number of claimants have never had to pay tax on their benefit if their income reaches the level at which tax becomes payable. We recognise that individuals in this position, especially if they also receive tax credits, could experience a significant reduction in their overall income, even if their benefit income is maintained by the regulations that we are debating today. On the other hand, they have received transitional protection for more than 15 years, which does not apply to more recent claimants, who have to pay tax on the same amount of income.
"We have not yet come to a final decision on this issue. My colleagues in the Treasury, who have responsibility for all taxation matters, are considering the position and a decision will be announced in due course."
Jobcentre Plus capacity for migration
"The reassessment of 1.5 million incapacity benefit claimants will be a challenge for the department and particularly Jobcentre Plus, but is one that we are equipped to deliver. The business case has established the level of staffing required for all three arms of the business to deal with the impact of all aspects of reassessment. The business processes will predominantly be based on customer contact via the telephone, but allowance has been made to deal with the contacts expected in Jobcentre Plus offices.
"Implementation planning in terms of Jobcentre Plus staff is progressing at local level to ensure that resources are in place in the run-up to the start of reassessment. Resource recruitment, capacity planning and provision for healthcare professionals continues to progress in line with delivery plans, and is on target. IT provision to support reassessment remains on target. When Jobcentre Plus is at full capacity, it will be dealing with 10,000 cases per week or 700 cases per processing site. To mitigate capacity issues, sites purposely have been selected where it is known that the required capacity can be built to undertake this work. As part of monitoring the reassessment process, Jobcentre Plus will be able to control the flow of cases and if required move cases around the network to ensure that cases are processed in good time."
Work Capability Assessment review
"In March this year, a DWP-led review of the work capability assessment found that generally it is accurately identifying individuals for the right support. That said, the review also made a number of recommendations for improving the assessment, and we announced on 29 June our intention to implement these recommendations. Among them were the mental health issues which the noble Lord, Lord Knight, referred to. We will now begin to revise the work capability assessment accordingly. Implementing the recommendations of the review will ensure that the work capability assessment is fairer, more consistent and transparent. In line with our statutory obligations, we have also commissioned an independent review of the work capability assessment which will be led by the highly respected occupational physician Professor Malcolm Harrington.
We want everyone to have the opportunity to engage in work and the support needed to enable them to do so. It is important that we assess someone's capability for work not on the nature of their health conditions or disabilities but on how severely those conditions impact on each individual's ability to function. Having a list of exempt conditions was entirely the wrong approach. It led to people being written off and parked on benefit.
Appeals and the Tribunals Service
"Joint work is under way across the DWP and the Tribunals Service to mitigate the impact of increasing workloads by focusing on four key areas: streamlining processes within both DWP and the Tribunals Service, including an end-to-end review of the appeals process; reducing the number of appeals by looking at the messaging we use to manage customer expectations and in particular the language in the disallowance letter; increasing capacity in the Tribunals Service through increasing administrative, judicial and medical resources; and strengthening the working relationship between DWP and the Tribunals Service. We believe that this will lead to an improved appeals service for our customers in due course."
Supporting vulnerable groups
We will be developing additional sources of information for the reassessment process, focusing on how we will support our vulnerable customers in consultation with customer representative groups and advisory bodies. Details of these measures will be in place for the trials in October this year. We are also committed to engaging with customer representative groups so that they can support their customers through the migration journey. We have already consulted with national stakeholders over the development of key products for our customers."
Supporting people who move onto JSA from IB
"…we recognise that some customers will still be managing their health condition or disability and may have greater challenges to overcome. We are therefore looking at what additional support may be required before they enter the work programme."
Research on staff and customer views of ESA
"The department has commissioned a programme of research to examine staff and customer views on delivering and claiming ESA. The first report-of qualitative research examining staff and customer views
and experiences of early ESA implementation in May to July last year-was published in March this year. Interviews for a large-scale representative survey of people's experiences and views on claiming ESA were concluded in February this year, and that report should be published in the autumn of this year.
"We plan to re-survey respondents on their ongoing experiences of ESA, and that follow-up will include people who were found fit for work at the work capability assessment. We will be conducting further qualitative research on customer and staff views on both the WCA and the work-focused health-related assessment, with, again, publication expected in the autumn."