Chapter 2
Addressing the needs of all those on the benefit: engagement and support for existing claimants
109 The benefit structure and conditionality requirements outlined above will only apply to new claimants. Existing claimants will remain on their current benefit level. However, many existing claimants will have potentially manageable conditions, which may have changed or improved while they have been on benefits. We propose to work more proactively with this group of people, balancing their responsibilities to prepare for a return to work with the need to treat them fairly.
110 The Pathways to Work pilots have, since February 2005, been extended to require some existing claimants to take part in three mandatory work-focused interviews, and will be extended to cover more of the caseload on a mandatory basis in the pilot areas from April 2006. And, as has been the case in all of the original seven Pathways to Work pilots from their inception, anyone already on incapacity benefits may volunteer for the support we offer – support that we will highlight to individuals so that they are fully aware of what is available to them, for example by providing information at medical examination centres when claimants attend for review. This will be especially important for people whose health condition has changed or improved.
111 In addition to this option of volunteering for help, in time we will increase the frequency with which claimants are assessed and have to attend work-focused interviews. As resources allow, we will, over time, consider extending work-focused interviews to existing claimants to ensure that they are aware of the opportunities available to them, including Pathways to Work support as it becomes available. This will be in addition to the regular Personal Capability Assessments that people will undergo to gauge whether their condition has changed or improved.
112 It is estimated that around 1.2 per cent of expenditure on incapacity benefits is overpaid through fraud and error – this is one of the lowest rates across the benefits system. Despite this relatively low level of fraud and error, we are not complacent and we continue to seek to drive out all types of error in incapacity benefits, as we do with all other benefits, through our current and developing range of policies aimed at tackling fraud and error.
113 The more proactive and more frequent engagement with future claimants that is envisaged under the new Employment and Support Allowance will itself reduce the risk of fraud and error creeping in. It will help ensure that the level of benefit in payment remains correct over time.
114 But we recognise that there may be a minority of claimants who, although able to undertake some work, will seek to prolong unnecessarily their time on the protected level of incapacity benefits. It is important, therefore, in the interests of fairness to genuine claimants and to the taxpayer, that we identify any such cases and review them. Therefore, in line with our core principle of balancing rights with responsibilities, we will complement the existing routine case review (currently held at varying intervals) by introducing the additional safeguard of randomly selected, ad hoc case checks, to be carried out by a dedicated team which will be specially created for this purpose. Where these checks produce doubt about the nature or extent of an individual’s incapacity, a fresh Personal Capability Assessment will be required.
115 This process will provide confirmation to the genuine claimant of the appropriateness and correctness of their ongoing entitlement and also assurance to the taxpayer of the integrity and security of the benefit.
116 Building on these measures, and learning from the evidence gained, we will set out later a strategy specifically aimed at the barriers faced by existing claimants. A key part of this strategy will be the initiative on cities, described in Chapter 5. We will discuss our developing strategy, as well as ways of ensuring fairness for existing claimants, with stakeholders.
Addressing the needs of all those on the benefit: raising expectations
117 Disabled people looking for work face a range of barriers – discrimination, policy design and delivery, physical and environmental barriers, and a lack of empowerment. We need to change the current culture and raise the expectations of employers, health professionals and disabled people themselves that these barriers can be overcome.
118 Since 1997, we have set about implementing the most profound extension of disability rights this country has ever seen. We have strengthened civil rights for disabled people in such areas as access to goods and services, and to public transport, and we established the Disability Rights Commission in April 2000 to help disabled people understand and enforce their rights.
119 In October 2004, we extended the employment provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to provide protection against discrimination for an additional 600,000 disabled workers. A further 7 million jobs and 1 million employers were brought within the scope of the employment provisions of the Act. Most recently, amendments made to the Disability Discrimination Act in 2005 require public authorities to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. The legislation will ensure greater opportunities for disabled people to work by tackling discrimination in recruitment and employment.
120 The Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit report Improving the life chances of disabled people 21 sets an ambitious 20-year vision to bring disabled people fully within the opportunity society. The radical programme of service delivery reform set out in this report; the Department of Health’s Green Paper Independence, well-being and choice;22 and the forthcoming Department of Health White Paper Well-being in our communities: A new direction will increase the opportunities available to disabled people to take fuller control of their lives.
121 The Strategy Unit report proposed a new cross-government Office for Disability Issues, to act as a focal point within government and drive forward the implementation of the overall strategy. This was established on 1 December 2005.
122 The report also recommended measures including:
- improving support for families with young disabled children;
- helping a smooth transition into adulthood by, for example, removing ‘cliff edges’ in service provision;
- improving the support and incentives for entering and staying in employment; and
- encouraging more employers to recruit and retain disabled people while making the Government’s welfare-to-work initiatives respond more effectively to the needs of both employers and disabled people.
123 The Government is developing individual budget pilots in 13 local authorities in England. These will build on the existing direct payment schemes operated by social services departments to give severely disabled people and others more choice and control over the support provided by different agencies. The aim will be to ensure that people who receive support or services are at the centre of the process and have the power to use their budget in a way that best suits their own particular requirement.
124 The pilots will look at practical ways of streamlining assessments and pooling funding streams, including social services support, the Supporting People and Access to Work programmes, and Disabled Facilities Grants for housing adaptations. Just as importantly, the pilots will also be looking at support arrangements, including effective advocacy for disabled people, to ensure that they are confident in managing their budgets independently.
125 Each local authority is trialling a different mix of services, client groups and support to test out different potential arrangements. Severely disabled people who receive incapacity benefits will be among the service users involved in these pilots. This means that, as the pilot programme works to develop viable models of individual budgets, the needs and requirements of this group will be taken fully into account. We will also ensure more broadly that we join up the developmental work on individual budgets and the continuing development of the welfare reform programme.
Delivering the reforms
126 Given the significant resource commitment that these reforms represent, we will clearly wish to ensure that we base our reforms on the best possible evidence. As well as building up the evidence base through rolling out the Pathways to Work pilots to the rest of the country, we will wish to build up increased conditionality on the basis of what evidence tells us is most effective. We would envisage doing this from 2008. However, many of the other measures outlined in this Green Paper will be implemented across the whole country before the new Employment and Support Allowance comes into full effect.
