No one Written Off: Reforming Welfare to Reward Responsibility

7 August 2008

‘No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility’, published 21 July 2008, is a wide ranging consultation on the future of welfare. The Green Paper sets out plans for improving support and work incentives to create a system that ‘rewards responsibility’.
Its aim is that the majority of people of working age - who can work now or at some point in the future - and their families, will no longer be on benefits for life.

The paper seeks views on the following:

Employment and support allowance (ESA)

• enact powers within the Welfare Reform Act 2007 to require ALL new customers in the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) work related activity group to undertake general work related activity

• no one who is severely disabled will be expected to take part in work related activity

• benefit rating to be decided on the Rossi index rather than the Retail Price Index (the Rossi index is the Retail Price Index less the element representing housing costs)

• the first contribution condition test for ESA will be reduced from three years to two

• modernisation of the qualifying conditions so that people will have to work for around six months before they can qualify for contributory ESA

• overhaul of the medical certification system, as proposed by Dame Carol Black in Working for a Healthier Tomorrow

The abolition of Incapacity Benefit (IB)

• between 2009 and 2013 IB claimants will be reassessed using the new ESA work capability assessment and those who pass the assessment will be transferred over to ESA (the others will move onto JSA)

• IB claimants who are placed in the support group will receive a higher basic rate of benefit
• claimants who get the age addition will begin to have their rate of benefits brought into line with those for ESA from April 2009

Abolition of Income Support (IS)

• replacing IS with a dual system of ESA for sick and disabled people and an expanded Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) which will include those who cannot work because of their responsibilities, such as caring for young children or those providing long term care

• the replacement of IS is seen as a step towards a single working age benefit in the future

Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA)

• all new claimants to have a skills health check

• after six weeks there will be mandatory back to work group session to ‘reinforce the importance of work and encourage people to use the help that Jobcentre Plus offers’

• at three months, claimants to enter the ‘directed job search stage’ where they must widen the scope of jobs they look for and sign on weekly for a period of up to six weeks

• at six months, claimants to enter the ‘supported job search stage’ when they will be allocated a specific personal adviser and be referred to suitable jobs, with a 26 week benefit sanction for non attendance or failure to take a job. (There will be an additional two week sanction for failure to comply with an agreed activity in the claimant's action plan)

• claimants who have a history of long term unemployment and 18 year olds who have been out of education, work or training for six months will be fast tracked onto the ‘supported job search stage’

• after a year claimants will be transferred over to a public or voluntary sector provider and required to do at least four weeks ‘full time activity’, but which can be as long as needed if it is relevant in preparation for the goal of sustained work

• further requirements after two years, with proposals to test full time work programmes with private and voluntary sector providers

• tougher sanctions for those who fail to take steps to get back to work or refuse a job

• carers who migrate from IS will not be expected to take part in work related activity

• modernisation of the qualifying conditions so that people will have to work for around six months before they can qualify for contributory JSA
  Other benefits

• a discussion of changes to bereavement benefits, industrial injuries disablement benefits and reform of the social fund

Support

• implementation of Reducing Dependency, Increasing Opportunity: Options for the Future of Welfare to Work (the Freud review) devolving back to work powers to private and voluntary sector providers (paid by results)

• increased funding for Access to Work and WORKSTEP programmes (Access to Work will receive double its current funding). ACTION question: Where is the money coming from? It is to be assumed that money saved on the programme will be used to fund the additional £64 million needed

• return to work credit will be available for IB and ESA claimants for 52 weeks after their return to work

• attendance of compulsory training with consultation on whether this will apply to those on IB, ESA and lone parents with children above the age of five

• the possibility of allowing claimants to choose their back to work provider

• exploring ways that disabled adults can be given greater control over the combined budget which the government spends on their support. ACTION question: Why was the opportunity not taken here to look at DLA and in particular the right of severely sight impaired people to apply for high rate mobility?

• drug users will be required to undergo treatment to overcome their addiction and get back into work

Lone parents

• A ‘full disregard’ for child maintenance, so that payments will not be taken into account when calculating how much out-of-work benefits a parent should get

Devolved assemblies

Consultation with Scottish Executive, Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland administration will be required for

• changes in relation to employment, education and skills

• changes to the benefit system (Northern Ireland only)

• changes to health services

• changes to criminal law (not Wales)

Closing date for responses

The consultation period began on 21 July 2008 and runs until 22 October 2008.

You can respond by post, email, fax as follows:

Post:
Room 249
Level 2
The Adelphi
1-11 John Adam Street
London
WC2N 6HT

Email: welfare.reform@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
Fax: 020 7712 2458
Telephone: 020 7712 2316

Copies of the Green Paper can be obtained in large print, Braille and CD from welfare.reform@dwp.gsi.gov.uk telephone 020 7928 8380 the document can be viewed at www.dwp.gsi.gov.uk/welfarereform