in touch – October 2010
Each month, in touch keeps you up to date with the latest news from Jobcentre Plus.
In this edition we include:
- Get Britain Working
- Reassessing incapacity benefit customers
- Changes to the Work Capability Assessment
- Work Choice – a new package of support for disabled people
- Online services
- Jobcentre opening hours changes
- The future of in touch
Get Britain Working
To get Britain working Ministers have set out a number of major welfare to work reforms which aim to fight poverty, support the most vulnerable and help people break the cycle of benefit dependency. These include radically simplifying the back to work system and replacing existing employment schemes, pilots and projects with one new Work Programme.
The Work Programme will be an integrated package of support providing personalised help. It will support a wide range of customers – from Jobseeker’s Allowance recipients who have been out of work for some time, to customers who may previously have been receiving incapacity benefits for many years. The Government aims to introduce the Work Programme by summer 2011.
Although the Work Programme provides a central core of support, we need to do more and harness a wide range of talent, ideas and good practice. Doing this will require the help of business, the public and voluntary sectors and local deliverers of services. With this help we are working to enhance the support that remains at the heart of our commitment to help newer customers into work.
On 4 October, Ministers announced the launch of Work Together and Work Clubs.
Through Work Together, Jobcentre Plus is encouraging more unemployed people to consider volunteering as a way of improving their employment prospects while they are looking for work. Unemployed people now also have greater access to thousands of volunteering opportunities through the Directgov website. Furthermore, Jobcentre Plus will be working with the voluntary and community sector locally to ensure that more opportunities are available to the unemployed to help people develop new skills.
By supporting the development of a network of local Work Clubs we aim to provide unemployed people with a place to meet, share experiences, find opportunities and get support to help them in their return to work. Each Work Club should provide support that effectively meets the needs of its participants and the local labour market. Jobcentre Plus will work with a wide range of stakeholders including voluntary sector organisations, local authorities, community groups and employers to encourage and support the creation of Work Clubs. Jobcentre Plus advisers will signpost customers to local Work Clubs where available. Advice and guidance for those wishing to get involved is now available on the DWP website.
We are also developing further options to encourage;
- pre-employment training and work placements through Service Academies,
- greater insight into the world of work through Work Experience, and
- self-employment as a route off benefits.
These additional Get Britain Working measures will be available in areas where the unemployment challenge is greatest.
If you would like to find out more about Get Britain Working and how you may be able to get involved, please get in touch with your usual Jobcentre Plus contact or email us at GetBritainWorking@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
Reassessing incapacity benefit customers
Earlier this year the Government announced plans to reassess customers claiming Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance and Income Support paid because of an illness or disability, to see if they are capable of work. Those who are will be moved onto Jobseeker’s Allowance, if eligible. People who need more support while they prepare for work will get that help on Employment and Support Allowance and will be placed either in the Support Group or the Work Related Activity Group.
Evidence points to the negative impacts of being without work and that work is generally good for people regardless of whether they are disabled or not. Many people with health conditions or disabilities are able to progress in employment. The reassessment is a key part of the Government’s reform agenda to create and deliver a twenty first century welfare system by ensuring that those people who can work are given the correct help and support to do so.
A trial of the reassessment process is running from 11 October 2010 through to January next year. The trial is taking place in east Lancashire and northern Scotland. A relatively small number of customers, a total of 1700 across both locations, are being reassessed during the trial. The trial will provide us with a valuable opportunity to test the effectiveness of the reassessment process. The Government recognises that some of the customers we are reassessing may require extra help: this has been recognised in the design of the process. The trial will provide early feedback to make sure we get the reassessment process right for them.
National roll out will begin in spring 2011 with completion early in 2014.
To help support advisers and intermediaries we are developing a package of communication tools. These are being developed in conjunction with members of the Jobcentre Plus Customer Representative Group Forum They include:
- an information pack which provides an introduction to reassessment;
- unbranded information for customer representative groups to use in their own communications; and
- a customer factsheet.
These products are available on the adviser pages of the DWP website.
More information about IB Reassessment is available at www.direct.gov.uk/ibchanges or www.direct.gov.uk/newidiadauba for Welsh speaking customers
Independent review of the Work Capability Assessment
The Work Capability Assessment, introduced in October 2008 to assess entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance, was designed to be more functional and more work-focussed than the old Personal Capability Assessment.
The Government has a statutory commitment to commission an independent review of the WCA, annually for the first five years. The first of these annual reviews has now begun and is being led by Professor Malcolm Harrington.
The review has a broad remit to evaluate how well the WCA operates and how accurate it is, and is engaging with customers, health care professionals, specialist disability charities and other stakeholders to find out what their experiences of it are. Professor Harrington’s report is due by the end of the year.
Prior to Professor Harrington’s work began DWP led a review of the assessment from March 2009 to March 2010 to look at whether the WCA was fair and accurate. Having consulted closely with medical and other experts and with specialist disability groups the review concluded that generally the WCA is accurately identifying people for the right benefit. The review also made a number of recommendations to improve the WCA.
We are now implementing these recommendations by amending the WCA from spring 2011. This will;
- treat patients awaiting or in between courses of chemotherapy in the same way as those already receiving it
- treat people receiving residential treatment for drug or alcohol misuse in the same way as hospital in-patients
- expand the support group to cover more people with certain communication problems and severe disability due to mental health conditions.
- make the assessment better account for how someone has adapted to their condition or disability. This develops the original policy intent that the assessment should look at what someone's functional capability is.
In only a relatively small number of ESA claims will these changes result in a different decision being reached than currently.
Work Choice
Work Choice goes live on 25 October 2010, replacing WORKSTEP, Work Preparation and the Job Introduction scheme across England, Scotland and Wales.
The programme will support disabled people with more complex needs, primarily those requiring more intensive specialist support to find employment or to retain their position when they have started work.
Jobcentre Plus Disability Employment Advisers will refer customers to the programme.
Emphasis will be on helping customers develop and move into unsupported employment, recognising that for some, this may not be possible and support may always be required.
It uses a modular format providing a flexible service, responsive to an individual’s employment needs whatever their disability, and encompassing Work Entry Support, In-Work Support and Longer-term In-Work Support, moving into unsupported employment, where appropriate.
Work Choice has been developed in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders and will be delivered in partnership with organisations from the public, private and third sectors.
Get online
Directgov is a one-stop shop for information about all public services.
The jobseekers’ pages include help and advice for people wanting to claim a benefit, plan a career change or support in getting back into work including searching for jobs online.
Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) Online is available on Directgov as a straightforward way for people to apply for JSA Contribution and JSA Income-based. We recognise that online services will not be for everyone and this does not replace other ways of applying for JSA.
DWP is committed to providing more of its services online in future, and support Martha Lane Fox’s Manifesto for a Networked Nation and the RACE online. We are introducing Digital Champions in our Jobcentres, who will work with partner organisations to provide opportunities for customers to develop their online skills and access the internet.
Over 220,000 customers have so far successfully applied for JSA online.
Customers can also get advice on which benefits they might be entitled to and an estimate of the amount they might receive with the online Benefits Adviser. People can also try out ‘what if’ scenarios for advice on the impact of taking work might have on their benefit entitlement.
Revised service hours
From 1 November, all large and medium sized Jobcentres will open from 08.30 to 09.00 offering an ‘appointments only’ service, and then opening for the full service as now, from 09.00 to 17.00.
Small Jobcentres will continue to open from 09.00 to 17.00.
All Jobcentres retain the flexibility to open between 17.00 and 18.00 for an ‘appointments only’ service where there is sufficient business demand.
The new Touchbase e-zine
From next month, intouch will join with the new Touchbase e-zine to create a single DWP newsletter covering welfare and benefits.
The aim is to create single source of information for front line advisers, intermediaries and other professionals who work with our customers. The new e-zine replaced the printed quarterly Touchbase magazine.
Available in the first week of each month, Touchbase will provide you with up-to-date news about welfare, benefits, pensions and other DWP services and relevant news from other government departments and agencies.
Many intouch readers are employers or recruiters and have an interest in our services for businesses such as vacancy placement, support for small businesses and partnerships with the private sector. We are currently looking at a variety of options to provide news and updates for organisations interested in these areas.
If you would like to be kept informed of any developments, please email julian.anderson@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk
