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Welfare Reform Act summary part 1 -
employment and support allowance (esa)
how much is esa?
sanctions
support component
part 2 – Housing benefit
local housing allowance
anti-social behaviour – pilot scheme
part 3 – Social security administration: general
sharing of social security information
fraud
part 4 - Miscellaneous
widowed mothers allowance/widowed parents allowance
disability living allowance age conditions
social fund
vaccine damage payments: overseas vaccinations
compensation for pneumoconiosis
attendance allowance/disability living allowance and care home residents
independent living funds
more information
This will replace incapacity benefit and income support paid on the grounds of incapacity. It is is intended to start for new claimants from October 2008. From April 2010 all existing incapacity benefits claimants will be required to take the work capability assessment.
ESA will be paid to people in Great Britain (separate legislation will be introduced for Northern Ireland) who satisfy the following:
Anyone claiming ESA will be assessed during a 13 week period, or longer if necessary, to determine whether they have a limited capability for work but also whether or not he or she is capable of ‘engaging in work-related activity’.
The method of assessment has not yet been decided but a number of consultative groups are looking at different aspects of the pca test with a view to amending it.
These groups are looking at the mental health activities/descriptors, physical activities/descriptors, the test as a whole, appeals and work related health issues. Some of these groups involve voluntary organisations and some do not.
The findings of the physical function and mental health technical working groups have now been published - "Transformation of the personal capability assessment". You can view this document and a brief summary of their findings by clicking on the link below.
Healthcare professionals will be allowed to carry out examinations under the amended assessment. Only health care professionals who are members of regulated professions will be allowed to do this. They will be bound by the same duties of confidentiality as departmental staff with respect to information about individual customers.
The Secretary of State will be required to lay an annual independent report before Parliament on the operation of the revised personal capability assessment.
The amount of ESA will be determined by whether someone is entitled to a contributory or income-related allowance or both, and whether they are entitled to the work-related activity or support component.
Following the response to the Green Paper the Government has stated that young people under age 25 will receive the same basic allowance to for the main phase of ESA as everyone else. However this does not seem to apply for the 12 weeks prior to the medical assessment (where the rates will be similar rate to that for jobseeker's allowance).
Those who cannot engage in work-related activity will receive a 'support component'. Those who can engage in work-related activity will receive a 'work-related activity component' but may be required to do three things as part of the ‘conditionality’ for receiving this component.
The detail of this will be contained within regulations. Initially, it seems, conditionality will be satisfied by attending and participating in a work-focused interview. The number and frequency of work-focused interviews someone has to attend may be varied in the future.
The Secretary of State will have an obligation to review the relevant ESA amounts in each tax year to determine whether they have retained their value.
Benefit can by be reduced (sanctioned) if a claimant fails to undertake such assessments, interviews or activity as required without good cause. The definition of "good cause" will be similar to the definition used for work-focused interviews in Pathways to Work pilots.
The Secretary of State will not be able to authorise a contractor to undertake decision making that could lead to sanctions under the ESA conditionality regime.
The regulations relating to entitlement to benefit components and the loss of benefit will be subject to the affirmative procedure - i.e. the regulations will be debated by MPs before being set down in law. This is in response to the Joint Committee on Human Rights and the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee report on the Bill.
Though not required to undertake a work-related activity, those receiving the support component are free to volunteer to take part in these if they wish to do so.
Local housing allowance will be extended across the deregulated private rented sector. In addition, housing benefit measures in the Act would make changes to the design and administration of the benefit.
Note that following the response to the Green Paper the Government LHA will not be extended to tenants in social housing.
Housing benefit could be reduced in circumstances where a person has been evicted from his home on grounds of anti-social behaviour and then refuses rehabilitation and support services offered by the local authority to help address any problem behaviour.
It will be up to the local authority to decide the appropriate course of action for a particular case. If a housing benefit sanction is considered the authority will have to do a risk and vulnerability assessment of the claimant.
There will be a right of appeal against any decision to sanction a claimant.
This measure will be piloted in 9 local authorities in England for a period of two years from 1 November 2007. Pilots will not be allowed to continue beyond 31 December 2010, unless primary legislation is introduced.
The pilot areas will be:
The starting date for the pilots will be 1 November 2007. Regulations have now been published - Housing Benefit (Loss of Benefit) (Pilot Scheme) Regulations 2007 (SI.No.2202/2007).
The Act will enable the sharing and use of social security information between ‘relevant authorities’ (local authorities, county councils and the Department for Work and Pensions) to support joint working arrangements, improve the take-up and delivery of benefits and other services, including welfare services. It will be an offence if someone makes an unauthorised disclosure of information to someone who is not attached to a relevant authority.
The sharing of information is to be used solely to encourage people to claim the benefits to which they may be entitled.
Local authorities will be given powers to investigate (and share information with the DWP and other local authorities) and prosecute offences relating to national benefits where there is also fraud against local benefits.
Currently certain specified benefits can be reduced or withdrawn where someone is convicted of a benefit offence within three years of a previous benefit conviction (the "two strikes" rule). The Act will extend the three year limit to five years.
This removes the requirement, where a child is not living with the claimant, to make contributions to the cost of providing for the child of an amount which is not less than the rate of guardian's allowance in respect of the child.
This clarifies the position for people on or around 16 years old to ensure that the correct test is applied for the Disability living allowance care and low rate mobility components. For example the cooking test should not be applied to someone under 16 and someone over 16 should not be required to show they need substantially more guidance or supervision than someone of the same age who is in normal physical and mental health.
The Act allows a more flexible approach by allowing allocations from the social fund to be made in different ways.
Allows claims to be made under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 where disablement results from vaccinations given outside the UK and the Isle of Man by, or on behalf of, Her Majesty's Forces, a specified government department or any other specified body. The Act also allows appeals tribunals in Northern Ireland to hear vaccine damage payment cases.
It amends the Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers' Compensation) Act 1979 in order to clarify when a person suffering from such a disease may make a claim under the Act. It also widens the group of dependants who may make a claim to include civil partners as well as same and opposite sex partners.
The Act will amend the rules governing the withdrawal of attendance allowance and the care component of disability living allowance, in cases where someone has been resident in a care home for more than four weeks, to widen their scope.
The Act makes amendments to the Disability (Grants) Act 1993 to enable government grants to be paid to the Independent Living Fund (2006), which is scheduled to replace the current Independent Living Funds.
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