Can see now where many of the recent changes we've seen stem from, hopefully there's far more to come.
Thanks to reallymadwomen @CAG for the link.
http://www.publications.parliament.u...en/302/302.pdf
Can see now where many of the recent changes we've seen stem from, hopefully there's far more to come.
Thanks to reallymadwomen @CAG for the link.
http://www.publications.parliament.u...en/302/302.pdf
Last edited by Jard; 25-07-14 at 09:19.
Good find on this document.
Only read the summary as yet, but it seems that as least someone has their head screwed on and has been taking note of the curent shambles.
Lets hope these recommendations get put into practice quickly.
Cheers nuke
It's a PDF so you can download it to your machine then read it at your leisure. The changes that have occurred this year in the way things have been run are really noticeable to what they were when I got transferred over some 2 years ago. Yep lets hope it all gets implemented ASAP.
All the best
The Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee has been generally very effective, and this is another excellent piece of work under the chair of Dame Anne Begg MP.
Unfortunately, the Government has wide discretion to delay or even ignore Select Committee recommendations. Wholesale changes look to be some four years away if they are going to happen, though it would be good if some of the more egregious problems highlighted by the Select Committee were adopted in the shorter term.
@Jard, I had already downloaded it as a PDF but it is fairly long and took 1-1/2 hours to read the whole thing.
Also downloaded some of the docs referenced by this report.
@Flymo, I also worry that the recommendations will get shelved in light of the upcomming, (I dont like that word), changes to benefits where ESA WRAG is going to be made part of UC.
Another laugh, whilst looking at this I subscribed to the W&P Commitee website updates.
I got 2 confirmation emails, sent to my JUNK folder.
Seems my email provider also thinks that @parliament.uk puts out some junk.
It's Income Related ESA that is supposed to become part of Universal Credit, with Contributions Based ESA remaining as a separate benefit. In other words, the split is on the basis ESA is paid, not the group the claimant is placed in.Originally Posted by nukecad
There are separate ESA regulations for ESA as part of Universal Credit (the ESA Regulations 2013 - other types of ESA are governed by the ESA Regulations 2008), but they are broadly comparable. The Work Capacity Assessment in both variants of the regulations is essentially the same.
One big change in Universal Credit is that the difference in money between the WRA Group and the Support Group is much larger. Under ESA it's currently £7/week. Under Universal Credit, it's currently £187/month, which is £43.15/week, though this partly reflects that there is no Severe Disability Premium under UC.
I don't foresee a divergence between the tests for ESA outside UC and "ESA" inside UC, not least as that would mean anyone entitled to UC on top of Contributions Based ESA or after Contributions Based ESA payments end in the WRAG would need assessing to a different test.
It is possible that the tests for medical inability for work under UC and the eventual replacement for ESA will be different, but I have my doubts this will be the case. There would have to be very good reasons to adopt two entirely different tests for what is essentially the same thing.
Cheers Flymo,
My worry was not with the assesments/tests but that the gov. will say,
'We dont need to act on these recomendations because we are changing to UC anyway'
,and then just let things carry on as they are now.
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