UK government looks to roll back sickness benefits
More people with disabilities and long-term health conditions will be expected to look for work under reforms of the UK benefits system set out by the government on Tuesday.
Mel Stride, secretary of state for work and pensions, said the proposed changes to the work capability assessment — a test used to identify people who qualify for a higher rate of benefits without any job-search requirements — would help individuals, while also boosting the economy and labour market.
“Health assessments haven’t been reviewed in more than a decade and don’t reflect the realities of the world of work today,” he said, adding that the reforms would “mean that many of those currently excluded from the labour market can realise their ambition of working”.
The government argues that a post-coronavirus pandemic embrace of remote working and other forms of workplace flexibility means that many people who would previously have been unable to hold down a job could now work from home, or for an employer who accommodated their needs.
Under the proposals published for consultation, people who struggled with mobility, social engagement or bowel and bladder control could in future be expected to look for work.
Ministers are also considering scrapping a provision that exempts people from work-search requirements if there would be a “substantial risk to mental or physical health”. Stride said this had been intended as a safety net but was now being used far more widely, usually by people with mental conditions, who might be better served by tailored help to enter work.
However, unions and think-tanks said the proposals were a thinly veiled move to cut the welfare bill that would leave vulnerable people in hardship without any significant boost to the number employed.
“Reducing the number of people who can claim sickness benefits is not a magical solution that will make people well enough for work. These reforms will take away much needed financial support,” said Vicki Nash, head of policy, campaigns and public affairs at the mental health charity Mind.
Government spending on incapacity benefits has risen from £15.9bn in 2013-14 to £25.9bn this year, a real-terms increase of 62 per cent, and is set to climb to £29.3bn by 2027-28 on current projections. The number of people receiving the highest award, with no work-related requirements, has risen by 30 per cent to more than 2.3mn over the past three years.
“This is a blatant attempt to cut costs rather than support people at work,” said Kate Bell, assistant general secretary of the Trades Union Congress. She argued that disabled workers still did not have enough protection under UK law to secure the flexibility they needed from employers.
Sam Ray-Chaudhuri, a research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said previous reforms aimed at cutting the cost of disability benefits had often failed to deliver the intended savings. Because the government planned to phase out the work capability assessment entirely over time, the changes proposed would “at most deliver a short-run saving before becoming irrelevant”, he said.
Tom Pollard, head of social policy at the New Economics Foundation, a think-tank, said the government was using conditionality “to push people into support schemes, as well as paying them a lower rate of benefit” but that genuine engagement with employment services would only occur “if people feel safe, secure and trusting of the support on offer”.
“This is more stick than carrot,” said Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies, adding that it was counterproductive for the government to link eligibility for benefits with employment support — as it led people to see jobcentres as a hostile environment.
The consultation ends in eight weeks — ahead of the government’s Budget on November 22. Policy changes would not come into effect until 2025 at the earliest.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Delphine Strauss
