Work Capability Assessments

Anne Begg Excerpts

Monday 16th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Dame Anne Begg (Aberdeen South) (Lab)]

As the previous debate wound up earlier than expected, I have the chance to say a few words on this subject.

I do not think anyone is saying that a reconsideration process in deciding whether someone should receive a benefit is a bad thing. I do not think anyone would complain if it cut the number of appeals, caused less stress on the claimant, could be done very quickly—in less than a month—and benefits were secure during the process, but that is not what is happening. People are having to face very long delays before they get a decision the other side of the mandatory reconsideration and that is probably causing the most anxiety.

On top of that, people are never very sure to which benefit they are entitled. Will the Minister confirm that we are talking not only about people who were on incapacity benefit and have been found to be fit enough for work and should therefore be on jobseeker’s allowance, and it is to that that the appeal applies, but about those who in the original assessment were awarded employment and support allowance in the work-related activity group and are appealing because they think that they should have been in the support group? In other words, someone has been found eligible for ESA, appeals to go into the support group but still has to go through the mandatory reconsideration, at which stage their benefit stops and they are expected to apply for JSA. I have heard anecdotal evidence from a number of different people that those who have gone through the mandatory reconsideration find themselves in the support group, so no longer need to visit a personal adviser in Jobcentre Plus. During the period of the mandatory reconsideration, however, they were expected to be signing on for JSA, but were so ill in the meantime—that is why they ended up in the support group—that they could not make the weekly signings, as a result of which they and their benefits have been sanctioned. I would like the Minister to clarify that position.

The other problem is the interrelationship between the benefit someone receives and other benefits. Sometimes, a person undergoing the mandatory reconsideration who is not yet in payment of JSA might find that their housing benefit or council tax rebate has been stopped because the council has been told that they are no longer eligible for ESA, which they are not, but because of some of the problems highlighted by my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh East (Sheila Gilmore) they have not yet put in an active claim for JSA. As a result, their housing benefit might be disrupted, even though they are entitled to it on the basis of their overall household income. There should not have been a break in the claim, but that is not how the system works.

If the changes could be made smoothly and very quickly, with the person being very clear about the benefits to which they are entitled and being able to remain on them without a break in the claim, the reconsideration might be acceptable. So far, however, that is so far from the reality of what is happening that it is no wonder that people are so anxious.

[Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend share my concern about other anecdotal evidence that crops up all the time—about people who during this period of reconsideration and upheaval, end up taking their own lives, dying or making themselves much more ill? Financial worries are not the only ones at stake, because people’s health and lives can be put at risk, too.

[Dame Anne Begg]

We know that people can get incredibly anxious about any kind of health assessment that they are put through. We know, too, that people are not only anxious at the time of the mandatory reconsideration; they will have been anxious much earlier, perhaps when they first received an ESA50 form through the door to fill in. That may be followed by the worry of the work capability assessment, after which they might be found fit for work when they do not think they are fit for work; and they may be put in the WRAG when they think that they are ill enough to be in the support group. There is a whole range of pinch points at which people feel extremely anxious.

Let me give an anecdotal example. Two community psychiatric nurses came to see me in my surgery a few months ago. They were very concerned about their clients, whom they had fostered and helped, and who were almost reaching a stage at which they could start thinking about work and how they might return to the workplace. At that very point, however, the ESA50s dropped through the door, and their health suffered a setback.

The nurses were particularly concerned about a very vulnerable group of people who found the whole process—which was not helped by all the publicity surrounding it—terrifying and worrying. The extra burden imposed by the mandatory reconsideration is yet another reason for the deterioration in people’s health as they go through that process. It is not a zero-sum game. A whole range of external forces can worsen the condition of people who are in ill health, who may have mental health problems, and whose condition may fluctuate. People can be made to feel very ill, and we know of cases in which the process of applying for ESA has been cited as the reason for suicides. That is a tragedy. I am not suggesting that mandatory reconsideration is entirely responsible for it, but it constitutes yet another pressure on people who are already vulnerable, already quite ill, and already finding it difficult to cope with illness or disability.

I hope that the Minister will examine the process, and how it is working in practice. I cannot believe that it is working in the way he would like it to work. I am pretty sure that long delays, failures to reach a determination, and the fact that people may not know to which benefit they are entitled and may end up with nothing as a result—perhaps with huge rent arrears because of problems with housing benefit claims—are not part of the Minister’s plan, and I hope that, if they are not, he will be able to give us some idea of how he will improve the process.