Social Security Benefits: Medical Examinations

(asked on 1st June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to support (a) people who have recently received a cancer diagnosis and (b) other people who would normally require work capability assessments for (a) universal credit and (b) new style contributory employment support allowance to access additional support.


Answered by
Justin Tomlinson Portrait
Justin Tomlinson
This question was answered on 4th June 2020

From 17 March 2020 we suspended all face-to-face assessments for sickness and disability benefits, initially for three months, to protect vulnerable people and assessment centre staff from unnecessary risk of exposure to COVID-19. We continue to complete paper based assessments where possible and have introduced telephone assessments.

Where a claimant declares they have cancer in the ESA/UC50 Health Questionnaire a Health care practitioner considers this evidence and in the majority of cases a recommendation will be made at this stage based on the papers alone.

If it is not possible to complete an assessment based on the paper evidence, a WCA will be conducted, where possible, over the telephone in coming months. We anticipate customers may experience a longer wait to be referred for their assessment and for the assessment to take place during this period, as we have redeployed some staff to manage unprecedented volumes of demand for benefits. Backdating rules mean that claimants will not lose out in the long-run.

Reticulating Splines