A Benefits and Work member has received an email this week from the central office of the Labour Party setting out ‘three crucial changes’ the party proposes to make to the way the work capability assessment (WCA) works. But how crucial are they really?{jcomments on}
Our member emailed the Labour party on the subject of the WCA and forwarded us the email they eventually received in response.
Three problems
The email sets out what Labour see as the current problems with the WCA, whilst underlining that they believe that ‘a test will always be necessary’. The three main problems identified are:
That the WCA is ‘not integrated with employment support’ and so is not helping claimants back into work;
That the WCA ‘lacks credibility with disabled people, causing anxiety and stress’;
That the system is ‘riven with poor decision making’, leading to a ‘staggering 45 per cent of appeals against the test’ being upheld last year.
Critics may point out that not only did Labour devise and introduce the WCA, but also that the level of appeal success under Labour was very similar to what it is now.
Three changes
However, Labour have come up with ‘three crucial changes to the way that the test works’ that they will introduce if they get into power.
1 Labour will ‘start by transforming the way the WCA is designed to make it more effective at helping disabled people into work’. There are no details of what this transformation will involve, except that ‘disabled people would receive a copy of the assessor's report of how their health condition may affect their ability to work, and information about the support that is available in their local area to help them’.
2 Labour will also ‘continue to produce an independent review of the WCA’. In addition, they will ‘ask the Office for Disability Issues to support an independent scrutiny group of disabled people to work together with the independent reviewer to assess whether the test is being conducted in a fair and transparent way’. Labour says it will only ‘commit to responding to the recommendations of this report’, there is no undertaking to actually act on them.
3 Labour will introduce ‘penalties for poor performance by assessors, measured both on the number of times decisions are overturned by DWP decision makers, and the number of times they are overturned on appeal.’
Critics may argue that: offering unspecified changes to the WCA amounts to very little; that a group of disabled people put forward by, for example Disability Rights UK, may not command universal support, especially if there is only a commitment to ‘respond’ to recommendations, and that penalties that are hidden behind a cloak of ‘commercial confidentiality’ – as they undoubtedly will be – will offer no reassurance whatsoever.
But would Labour’s proposals be an improvement on what we have already? Tell us what you think in the comments section below and we’ll ask the Labour party for their response.
The full text
The full text of the email is reproduced below:
With Labour, disabled people would receive a copy of the assessor's report of how their health condition may affect their ability to work, and information about the support that is available in their local area to help them - a first vital step towards a more integrated system of support.
Labour believes that the Government must work to support people with disabilities fulfil their own ambitions to enter paid work. That’s also the best way to control the costs of social security within an overall cap on spending, and to make sure there is a system that supports those who need it, including those who may never be able to take up jobs.
When the last Labour Government introduced the Work Capability Assessment we wanted it to be part of a system that helped support more disabled people into work. We have always said that a test will always be necessary, but it is abundantly clear that at the moment the WCA is not working.
First, the test is not integrated with employment support, which may help explain why the Work Programme is performing so miserably for disabled people, with just five per cent helped into sustained jobs. Second, the test lacks credibility with disabled people, causing anxiety and stress. That is in part because of the third failure – a system that has been riven with poor decision making, causing hardship for disabled people, and huge costs to the public purse. Last year, a staggering 45 per cent of appeals against the test were upheld.
So a Labour government would make three crucial changes to the way that the test works. We will start by transforming the way the WCA is designed to make it more effective at helping disabled people into work. With Labour, disabled people would receive a copy of the assessor's report of how their health condition may affect their ability to work, and information about the support that is available in their local area to help them - a first vital step towards a more integrated system of support.
Secondly, we would continue to produce an independent review of the WCA, and ask the Office for Disability Issues to support an independent scrutiny group of disabled people to work together with the independent reviewer to assess whether the test is being conducted in a fair and transparent way. We will commit to responding to the recommendations of this report.
Finally, a Labour government will go further in ensuring that the assessments get it right first time. We would make sure that in the new system there would be clear penalties for poor performance by assessors, measured both on the number of times decisions are overturned by DWP decision makers, and the number of times they are overturned on appeal.
Disabled people have suffered for too long in a system that has too often been unfair, ineffective, and non-transparent. Labour will build a Britain that works for everyday people, save the NHS, and turning decisively away from a Tory government run for the privileged few.
