Incapacity Benefits Migration Update 28/10/2010

Between October 2010 and March 2014 existing incapacity benefits claimants (those on incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance and income support on disability grounds) will be reassessed under the employment and support allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) instead of the Personal Capability Assessment.

Key aspects of migration

• no new claim will be required for the move to ESA, the process will be triggered by a notice to the customer;

• the date of a customer’s re-assessment will be based on the review date of their Personal Capability Assessment;

• people who reach State Pension Age during this reassessment period 2010-2014 will not be reassessed to avoid having to change benefits twice in a short period;

• where possible, the DWP will use existing data held for IB/IS to determine entitlement to ESA;

• DWP has pledged to help customers adapt to their new circumstances and ensure continuity of payment is maintained;

• existing incapacity benefits will continue to be paid to the day before the change;

• where people who are eligible for ESA receive more on existing incapacity benefits than the appropriate ESA rate, their existing rate of benefit will be frozen at the point of conversion;

• where people who are eligible for ESA receive less on incapacity benefits than the appropriate ESA rate, their benefit will immediately be increased to the ESA rate on conversion;

• all claims to incapacity benefits on or after 31 January 2011 will be treated as new ESA claims - there will be no link to earlier claims for incapacity benefits;

• appeals may be brought against the decision not to award ESA as a result of failure to meet the WCA threshold;

• ESA will be paid at the same rate as for new ESA claims where a person is appealing against a decision that they are not entitled because of not meeting the WCA threshold;

• DWP have amended Housing Benefit (HB) / Council Tax Benefit (CTB) Regulations to ensure that the majority of customers will see no reduction in their overall benefit income solely because of this change (however, some Child Dependency Allowance customers may be affected by the change). See more information below.

• following careful consideration, it has been decided that the Work Focused Health Related Assessment (WFHRA) element of the WCA will be suspended for a period of 2 years. This will provide DWP with an opportunity to reconsider the WFHRA’s purpose and delivery. It will also improve the capacity to focus on and manage this change.

Full details can be read HERE

so is the ESA test in use now (the same as the one on this site you can try out) the one that will be used to move people over to ESA ? or the one thats shown here

www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/work-capability-asse...-review-addendum.pdf

Hi Dave

The new test that you linked to is not expected to be passed in law until March 2011. Before it is approved by parliament, the current test will be applied.

Note however, that the new harsher test is scheduled to be in place when the mass migration of IB claimants to ESA begins.

Regards

Derek

I don't think the DWP have decided what test is to be used, especially as Professor Malcolm Harrington is currently conducting a review of the WCA.

I understand however, that the pilot ESA migration being conducted in Aberdeen and Burnley, uses the original WCA.

Crazydiamond wrote:

I don't think the DWP have decided what test is to be used, especially as Professor Malcolm Harrington is currently conducting a review of the WCA.

I understand however, that the pilot ESA migration being conducted in Aberdeen and Burnley, uses the original WCA.

so if at a future date someone fails on the new test, but would have got through on the old .... what can they do ?

also thoses that go through on the old test will they get passed into a group.... but with a quick review date so some can be filtered out by the new harsher test? after 2011

Interesting that the test is being looked at and that descriptors were being revisited in March 2010

From the descriptor reviews I picked up 2 things in a brief look

1. One was concerning bowel incontinence

"loss of dignity resulting from the associated soiling is considered severe enough to make it unreasonable to expect an individual with severe incontinence to work. "

A very distressing disability indeed especially in the social environment of the workplace. But I thought of two things about this

If someone has other difficulties that cause them to have frequently a 'loss of dignity' at work, such as crying spells, panic attacks, fits and the like, ought that not also command this level of points i.e it is not reasonable to expect them to work, or that they have a terrifying experience due to phobia trying to get to work let alone stay there and frequently cannot manage to get there


2. The other from the same document was

"Aggressive or disinhibited behaviour can present a significant challenge to entering employment "

This is typical of the deceptive langauge they use. Whatsuch aggressive and disinhibited behaviour is likely to mean is

a) The person won't get a job if these features are made known
b) The chances are they will lose the job if they managed to get one through such outbursts, upsetting or injuring others
c) They become injured themselves, by an angry or frightened colleague or a member of the public

A 'significant challenge' they wrote

It is such an understatement.