Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the impact of the removal of the additional Limited Capability for Work payment in 2017 on the likelihood of claimants applying for the Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity payment.

The removal of the Work-Related Activity Component in the 2017 change made the financial distinction between those found to have Limited Capability for Work (LCW) and those with Limited Capability for Work and Work Related Activity (LCWRA) sharper.

The Department has not made an assessment of whether this led to rising LCWRA claims. Although, in their “Welfare trends” report for October 2024, the Office for Budget Responsibility did mention this issue. Specifically, the OBR noted an increase of people’s claims to incapacity benefits being approved from 2018-19 to 2022-23, nearly entirely in the more severe incapacity group. They say that this might be in part explained by the reduced generosity of the 2017 policy for the less severe incapacity group creating higher incentives to be placed in the more severe group, as well as a reflection in claimants having more serious health conditions than in the past.