Iain Duncan Smithy will warn in a speech today that he is planning major changes to the work capability assessment in order to make it harder to claim employment and support allowance (ESA), according to the Independent.{jcomments on}
IDS will say that:
“When ESA was introduced in 2008 it was intended to be a short-term benefit, with the vast majority of people being helped to return to work.
“ESA may have been designed with the right intentions, but at its heart lay a fundamental flaw. It is a system that decides you are either capable of work or you are not. This needs to change – things are rarely that simplistic.
“We need to look at the assessment we use for ESA – and I want to look at changing it so that it is better geared towards helping to get people prepared for and into what work they may be capable of, rather than parking them beyond work.”
IDS has not yet given a timetable for when any changes are likely to happen or what form they will take.
The only certainty is that the announcement will lead to more fear and misery for sick and disabled claimants as they wait to discover how the WCA is to be made even harsher.
