Welfare reform

1
Welfare reform people with mental health issues

• 21 May 2008
• Sue Christoforou
• Mind Policy Unit

2
Employment Support Allowance

• Incapacity Benefit (IB) to be phased out
• Replacement benefit is Employment and Support
  Allowance (ESA)
• from 27 October 2008 all new claimants go onto
  ESA
• from October 2008 repeat claimants have to go
  through Work Capability Assessment (WCA)
• one million people off IB by 2015

3
Employment Support Allowance

• complete claim form
• 13 week assessment period - JSA rate paid 60.50
• written evidence
• face-to-face medical
• work-focussed health-related assessment
• allocation to either work-related activity group
  or support group

4
Work Capability Assessment (WCA)

• WCA replaces current IB eligibility test, the
  Personal Capability Assessment (PCA)
• Vast majority of claimants will be subject to a
  face-to-face medical assessment
• Mental health element of WCA is more
  sophisticated than that of PCA
• Government view is that 50 per cent of those who
  take WCA will not pass it.
• Approximately 40 per cent of IB claimants claim
  on mental health grounds

5
Work Capability Assessment (WCA)

• Reduced awareness of the risks of everyday
  hazards would lead for the majority of the time
  to instances of or to near-avoidance of injury to
  self or other, or significant damage to property
  or possessions to such an extent that overall day
  to day life cannot successfully be managed
  without supervision from another person.
• Is unaware of impact of own behaviour to the
  extent that
• (i) has difficulty relating to others for longer
  periods, such as a day or two or
• (ii) causes distress to others for the majority
  of the time.

6
Work-focussed health-related assessment (WFHRA)

• requirement for claimants to take part in one or
  more WFHRA in order to receive full ESA rate
• assesses what barriers claimants believes blocks
  their route to employment
• information from WFHRA provided to Personal
  Adviser

7
ESA work-related activity group

• Work-related activity group - 84.50 a week
• Required to attend work-focused interviews
• Required to engage in work-related activities
• Can be subject to sanctions
• Government expects the vast majority of ESA
  claimants to fall into this group

8
ESA support group

• Support Group - guaranteed income of 102.10 a
  week (17.60 more than the long-term rate of
  Incapacity Benefit), while everyone else in this
  category will receive a minimum of 89.50 a week
• no work-focussed interviews or any other
  conditions
• no sanctions
• a minimum of 89.50 a week

9
What ministers said

• The then Minister for Welfare Reform, Jim Murphy
  said, our approach is that no one should be
  automatically written off as they were in the
  past.
• The then DWP Secretary of State, John Hutton said
  that he would design, a fairer assessment of
  peoples mental health problems.

10
Context for people with mental health issues
seeking work

• More than 60 per cent of employers disregard
  applications from people with drug or alcohol
  problems, a criminal record, a history of mental
  health problems or incapacity.
• More than half employers said nothing would
  persuade them to recruit from these core
  jobless groups.
• Less that one in ten had an official policy on
  mental health.
• Employers want workers with communication and
  interpersonal skills.
• The JSA regime offers only extremely limited
  health or disability-related support to claimants.

11
Support for JSA claimants

• They may be referred to Disability Employment
  Adviser (DEA).
• There are only between 500 and 700 DEAs in the
  UK. People getting JSA are not eligible for help
  from New Deal for Disabled People.
• People who move into work from JSA will receive
  no in-work support, unless they qualify for
  Access to Work.
• Access to Work is often difficult for people with
  mental health issue to secure. Nobody has a right
  to Access to Work support.

12
What happens to JSA claimants with health issues

• One in five repeat JSA claimants report serious
  health problems or disability that has a direct
  impact on ability to work.
• Over a quarter of claimants who hadnt worked for
  previous two years had serious health problems or
  disability. This is double the proportion of
  people without serious health or disability
  issues.

13
What happens to JSA claimants with health issues

• There is a strong correlation between temporary
  jobs and repeat JSA claims.
• Over 40 per cent of people who claimed JSA three
  or more times in the preceding four years could
  only secure temporary work.

14
What happens to JSA claimants with health issues

• Over 25 per cent of repeat claimants had
  experience of benefit being stopped or reduced as
  a result of sanctions.
• 66 per cent of respondents to Minds survey on
  debt and mental health identified living on a low
  income as the reason for accruing debt.
• Almost half of repeat JSA claimants had debt
  problems at least some of the time.

15
New welfare reform bill

• Measures to enable people to take advantage of
  the considerable help on offer to them where
  appropriate to undertake training that is
  considered essential to finding employment.
• A range of measure which strengthen the benefit
  contract between the individual and society - the
  individuals right to support in exchange for
  clear personal responsibility for improving their
  own circumstances

16
Welfare reform people with mental health issues

• 21 May 2008
• Sue Christoforou
• Mind Policy Unit