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Work Capability Assessment Consultation
05 September 2023
Lead MP
Mel Stride
Debate Type
Ministerial Statement
Tags
NHSBenefits & Welfare
Other Contributors: 22
At a Glance
Mel Stride raised concerns about work capability assessment consultation in the House of Commons. A government minister responded. Other MPs also contributed.
How the Debate Unfolded
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:
Government Statement
The Minister announced proposed changes to the work capability assessment, aimed at ensuring no one who can work is permanently excluded from employment opportunities. He highlighted that nearly 4 million more people are in work compared with 2010, and over 2.5 million remain economically inactive due to long-term sickness and disability. The proportion of individuals receiving the highest level of support under this assessment has risen significantly since 2011. Stride emphasised the importance of modernising employment support and announced £2 billion in investment, including a new universal support employment programme and an individual placement and support in primary care programme to help over 25,000 people find work. He also mentioned ongoing reforms through the health and disability White Paper and plans for a consultation on updating the assessment to reflect modern working practices such as flexible working and home-working. The changes aim to help individuals move into or closer to employment while ensuring those with severe disabilities are unaffected.
Liz Kendall
Lab
Leicester West
Question
The Labour MP criticised the Government's plan as a minor adjustment rather than comprehensive reform. She questioned how proposed changes would address problems such as high tribunal overturn rates and increased Access to Work assessment backlogs, along with insufficient care services for families.
Minister reply
The Minister responded that the consultation aims at modernising the work capability assessment to reflect current working practices better but did not provide specific details on addressing tribunal overturn rates or care service issues mentioned by the shadow.
Liz Kendall
Lab
Leicester West
Question
The MP thanked the Secretary of State but criticised the Government's failure to address systemic issues such as inadequate decision-making in personal independence payment assessments and long waiting lists for Access to Work. She urged for a more substantial plan.
Minister reply
The minister acknowledged the importance of work and the need for reforms, defending the £2 billion investment and the White Paper reforms. He emphasised ongoing consultations on mental health and occupational health support.
Question
Why does it take so long to implement these initiatives? The MP urged speeding up the process to help address workplace shortages.
Minister reply
The minister expressed a keenness for rapid implementation but noted that IT systems and changes in providers would be required. He assured that efforts will be made to move forward at speed.
Question
The MP criticised the perception of claimants as 'on the make' and highlighted psychological distress experienced by disabled people due to assessments, questioning if the Secretary of State had seen recent reports on Access to Work.
Minister reply
The minister defended against the accusations, stating there is no evidence of such assertions. He noted that 88% of Access to Work applications are processed within 10 days and emphasised the Government's commitment.
Question
The MP questioned how many people out of the cited group would be reassessed before scrapping the WCA, inquiring about the impact of these changes.
Minister reply
The minister stated that around one in five people on benefits want to work given the right support. He noted that exact figures will not be available until after the consultation.
Debbie Abrahams
Lab
Oldham East and Saddleworth
Question
This will lead to a lot of fear among disabled people. I appreciate the tone that the Secretary of State has taken, but the record of the past 13 years has been one of excluding the most vulnerable disabled people from more support than they need. We know that disabled people are a group who are living in huge poverty. We also know that some of them have died, not just through suicide, but because of the lack of safeguarding in the Department and how it operates. So I urge him to ensure that the safeguarding system within the Department ensures that people are protected. I agree with the SNP spokesperson about Access to Work; we are talking about 4 million disabled people able to work and 35,000 being provided with it through Access to Work.
Minister reply
I listen to the hon. Lady’s remarks with great respect; having appeared before her at the Select Committee, I know how serious she is about the issues she raises and how strongly she promotes her ideas and concerns. She mentioned the lack of support available for the people in the situation we are describing, which is precisely why I want to start providing more support to them by making these reforms. Let me make an important point in an area where I am in agreement with her: we need to do this in the right way. We need to listen carefully to those who will be affected by any changes we may bring forward, which is why we have a full eight-week consultations. My Ministers and I will be engaging closely with the various stakeholders, disabled people and so on. We will of course welcome her comments as part of that process.
Question
When I was a Minister, whenever I went on a visit I would ask young disabled people what they would do if they were the Minister. They said that they would always want to have the same career opportunities as their friends. I therefore welcome any moves to make more personalised and tailored support available, to build on our record disability employment. However, we lose more than 300,000 people a year from the workplace and the majority of long-term health conditions and disabilities develop during the working age. So during this consultation I urge the Secretary of State to work with employers to see what more support and advice they need to make sure that people do not ever have to even enter the WCA system.
Minister reply
I thank my hon. Friend for that typically sensible and astute intervention. May I personally thank him for the advice and input he has given over the preceding months, particularly in this area? He is right that we should be proud of our record of assisting disabled people into work—2 million more in work since 2013. Equally, he is right about addressing the hundreds of thousands of people with these kinds of difficulties and challenges who are leaving businesses and the workforce every year. I recognise that it is essential to get help to those people as early as possible, before they progress too far along that health journey. That is why we are already consulting on occupational health, so that we can make sure that is rolled out more effectively across large and medium-sized businesses.
Wendy Chamberlain
Lib Dem
North East Fife
Question
In his statement, the Secretary of State mentioned that four descriptors would be reviewed, but there were no plans for any other changes. He certainly did not mention adding any descriptors. At yesterday’s Westminster Hall petition debate on disability assessment, one of the key issues discussed was remitting and relapsing conditions, particularly fatigue. Will the Secretary of State commit to looking at fatigue, and either adding it as a descriptor or telling us what he is going to do about it instead?
Minister reply
Nothing in the consultation excludes bringing forward exactly the point that the hon. Lady makes. I hope she will do just that, and encourage others to do so as well.
Question
The Secretary of State is quite right to refer to the 2 million additional people with disabilities who have come into work since 2010. He will recall that the first Disability Confident event, held in 2013, was in Gloucester. His Department worked closely with charities and employers to ensure that more opportunities happened. I have met many people who benefited from that programme, so I support him in the principle. Can he confirm that he will engage closely with charities and organisation such as Seetec Pluss, which has a lot of experience in helping to bring people with disabilities back into the workplace?
Minister reply
I thank my hon. Friend for all the passion and intelligence he brings to these issues. I can confirm that our door will be open to Seetec Pluss. In fact, I will go further and make sure that our officials reach out to my hon. Friend to ensure that that happens.
Jon Trickett
Lab
Normanton and Hemsworth
Question
In a key paragraph of his statement, the Secretary of State appears to envisage that he will either remove or reduce the descriptors giving access to benefits for people who have problems with mobility or are incontinent. Will he explain what he means by that? Will he also tackle problems on the other side of the world of work, including rogue employers exploiting people through low-paid part-time or temporary jobs? One in nine workers are in poverty as a result. Is it not time that he took on the employers rather than the poorest in our society?
Minister reply
That sentiment of taking on the employers is probably not conducive to having an economy that is generating the jobs that have occurred under this Government. As to the descriptors—indeed, the activities—that the hon. Gentleman refers to, there is a plethora of information out there about exactly what those mean. If he has trouble finding that, I would be very happy to have my Department point him in the right direction.
Question
The Secretary of State rightly points to the tripling of the number of people receiving the highest award after a work capability assessment. Does he share my concern that a false assumption is growing not only that those people cannot work, but that they should not work, which therefore writes them off? Do we not have a serious moral obligation to remove all sorts of barriers that come between those individuals and the workplace? His approach is exactly right in trying to target those obstacles that most get in the way of people enjoying the agency and autonomy that activity in the workplace brings.
Minister reply
I thank my hon. Friend for the advice and support he has given me when we have discussed these issues over the last few months. I know he is extremely knowledgeable in this area. He is absolutely right that we do not want people to be trapped, to use that expression, on benefits. We want to help people to move into the labour market and work. That is better for the economy and the labour market, but most importantly it is better for the physical and mental health of the individual concerned, as shown by all the evidence.
Question
I declare an interest as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on myalgic encephalomyelitis. The Secretary of State has said that the work capability assessment is not fit for purpose, and many disabled people with invisible or fluctuating conditions would agree with him entirely. They report not being believed, their medical evidence being disregarded and leaving the assessment feeling as though they have been belittled by the assessors. The Department of Health and Social Care is undergoing a massive change in the way it deals with people with ME and other conditions like ME. Can he provide an assurance that his Department will look at how people with ME and other invisible disabilities are being considered through work capability assessments?
Minister reply
I can give the hon. Lady exactly that assurance when it comes to ME. I point her to the White Paper that we published in March, in which we made a clear commitment on fluctuating conditions and said that we would test and trial around those conditions, as part of the White Paper process.
Question
I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement and thank him for his offer of more personal, tailored support for disabled people, who we must always do our best to help and support. Given that this is the 21st century and there have been huge advances in medical treatments, adaptations of buildings to help disabled people, improvements in mobility devices and a rapid rise in digital connectivity, it is staggering that the proportion of people going through a WCA who are deemed to have no work-related requirements at all has gone up from a fifth to almost two thirds in just over a decade. Why does the Secretary of State think it is like that?
Minister reply
It is correct that we have gone from 21% to 65% in that short space of time and I recognise that that statistic is simply unacceptable. We know that one in five people in that group wants to work, given the right support, and we need to do something about that. Quite rightly, my hon. Friend also raises the fundamental change in the way that work is conducted in the modern world. The last time the work capability assessment was reviewed for reform was 10 years ago. That is inadequate and it is now time to make appropriate changes.
Question
There are 76,000 people in Wales with a severely limiting condition. New research this summer shows that four in 10 of them are having to skip or cut down on meals or have gone without heating. Is the Secretary of State confident that the proposed changes will remedy that?
Minister reply
It is a fact that people are better off, on average, being in work than being on benefits. I pay tribute to my predecessor who introduced universal credit, which makes that the case. Bringing people into work who would not otherwise be in work means that they will, on average, be better off. This Government have increased the national living wage by over 9%—it has been £10.42 since April—and have introduced cost of living support for 8 million low-income households, 6 million disabled people, pensioners and so on. In response to the hon. Gentleman, the proposed changes are another step in exactly the right direction.
Question
In response to my hon. Friend the Member for Kettering (Mr Hollobone), the Secretary of State referred to the statistic of 65%. It strikes me that out of that 65% of people, a number of them could work, should work or want to work, because that is the best thing for them. Building on the 2 million people with disabilities who we have got back into work, is it not the case that there must be people who are trapped in that 65%? Is it not imperative for the Secretary of State and his officials to get those people into the world of work as soon as possible?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend has used exactly the right word: it is imperative that we get those people into the world of work. If somebody is on benefits—and we know that one in five of those people would, with the right support, like to get into work—it is our duty as a Government and as a society to do whatever we can to support them.
Neil Coyle
Lab
Bermondsey and Old Southwark
Question
In 2011, the Government said they would help 100,000 disabled people into employment through Access to Work. Since then, only a marginal increase in numbers supported by Access to Work has been seen. Considering the Department's failure and wider context of cuts, is this further reduction masked as modernisation?
Minister reply
Not at all; we have set a target for 1 million more disabled people in employment from 2017-2027, which was broken after five years.
Question
The number of people economically inactive due to long-term sickness has hit a record high. What level of reduction in those figures would measure success? How does the Government plan to improve Access to Work?
Minister reply
Economic activity is below average across EU, OECD and G7; it has declined by 360,000 since pandemic peak due to government policies.
Toby Perkins
Lab
Chesterfield
Question
The Secretary of State did not answer the question about why there is a trebling of maximum verdicts under WCA. What assessment has he made on how many people are likely to win their appeals after changes?
Minister reply
One in five benefit recipients want to work and we look at reforming WCA to facilitate work for those who can do it.
Question
A disabled student is unable to access universal credit as their WCA was not completed before starting studies. He cannot support himself through course due to disability and no social security either. What resources or flexibilities are there for his situation?
Minister reply
The hon Gentleman can feed into the consultation, but I encourage him to get in touch with my private office if he wants me to look at circumstances raised.
Christine Jardine
Lib Dem
Edinburgh West
Question
Can the Minister assure that in work being undertaken and consultation there will be discussion between DWP and Scottish Government to ensure recipients in Scotland are not put at a disadvantage?
Minister reply
No plans on part of government to make changes to way PIP operates. I have written today to my Scottish counterpart to open door for discussions.
Question
Disabled charities come regularly with doubts and worries about the way disabled people are being treated. What is Government going to change regarding WCA?
Minister reply
My hon Friend Minister for Disabled People will be meeting her soon where these matters can be discussed in greater detail; there will be support to help train and place individuals in work, staying with them for up to 12 months.
Shadow Comment
Liz Kendall
Shadow Comment
The Shadow Secretary of State criticised the Government's lack of a serious plan, pointing out that 2.6 million people are now out of work due to long-term sickness, an increase since the pandemic. Labour supports transforming employment support by personalising it and addressing NHS backlogs. The shadow response noted issues with current assessments being overturned at tribunal frequently and highlighted the tripling of Access to Work assessment backlogs. She questioned how proposed changes will tackle these problems or reduce waiting lists for anxiety and depression treatment, as well as care services needed for families. Kendall argued that without reforming social care and addressing NHS failures, the system continues to fail sick and disabled people.
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