The government began consultation on proposals to reform disability living allowance (DLA). It said that the existing system had grown too complex; that assessment could be subjective, with no systematic way of regularly checking that an award remained correct; and that DLA could act as a barrier to work rather than enabling people to live independent lives. There was a need for a clearer, more targeted benefit, with an 'objective' assessment, designed to enable disabled people to participate more fully in society. Claimants would have to have had an impairment or health condition for 6 months, instead of 3. DLA would be renamed 'Personal Independence Payment'.
Source: Disability Living Allowance Reform, Cm 7984, Department for Work and Pensions/TSO
Links: Consultation document | Summary | Hansard | DWP press release | Disability Action press release | Labour Party press release | Scope press release | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Dec
Researchers examined the operation of the work capability assessment from a customer and staff perspective, and highlighted a number of implications for policy. Many claimants would benefit from the provision of additional support in completing the application form for employment and support allowance.
Source: Helen Barnes, Jane Aston and Ceri Williams, Employment and Support Allowance: Customer and Staff Experiences of the Face-to-Face Work Capability Assessment and Work-Focused Health-Related Assessment, Research Report 719, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Notes: The work capability assessment is used to assess entitlement to employment and support allowance (ESA). ESA was introduced in October 2008, replacing incapacity benefit.
Date: 2010-Dec
The government published an equality impact assessment of changes from November 2010 to national insurance contribution conditions for employment and support allowance and jobseeker's allowance (originally proposed by the previous Labour government in a 2008 White Paper). For ESA specifically this meant reducing the number of qualifying tax years – from one of the previous three years, to one of the previous two years. The assessment found that there was a risk that strengthening the link between recent work and contributory benefit would disproportionately affect middle-aged people with disabilities.
Source: Equality Impact Assessment: Changes to National Insurance Contribution Conditions for Employment and Support Allowance and Jobseeker's Allowance, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Equality impact assessment
Date: 2010-Dec
A think-tank report said that the government could reduce disability poverty more effectively, and for larger numbers of people, by reducing costs rather than increasing income. Disability costs were not generated solely by factors that the government could not change, such as impairment, condition, or age. They were driven by a range of environmental factors that, with the right interventions, could reduce disability costs significantly.
Source: Claudia Wood and Eugene Grant, Counting the Cost, Demos
Links: Report | Summary | Demos press release
Date: 2010-Dec
A paper said that the idea that there were a million or more people receiving incapacity benefit who should not be was 'greatly exaggerated'. Since 1995, policies to drive large numbers either into work or on to unemployment benefits had resulted in unacceptably harsh consequences for too many people who were genuinely unfit for work. Policy with regard to unfitness to work needed to be dismantled and reassembled – emphasizing health support and appropriately targeted support towards employment, rather than 'biased assumptions'.
Source: Steve Griffiths, Dark Times for Those Who Cannot Work: No competence, no compassion in incapacity benefit reform, Compass
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Dec
A briefing paper examined the changes in entitlement to disability living allowance and employment and support allowance proposed by the government in its 2010 'emergency' Budget and Spending Review.
Source: Steven Kennedy, June Budget and Spending Review 2010: DLA and ESA Changes, Standard Note SN/SP/5749, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Nov
A paper examined proposed reforms to attendance allowance and disability living allowance (benefits intended to help older people with the extra costs of disability). Despite their non-means-tested nature, withdrawal of the benefits would affect mainly low-income people. Official reports had overstated recipients' capacity to absorb the loss of these benefits.
Source: Ruth Hancock and Stephen Pudney, The Distributional Impact of Reforms to Disability Benefits for Older People in the UK, Working Paper 2010-35, Institute for Social and Economic Research/University of Essex
Links: Working paper | Abstract
Date: 2010-Nov
A think-tank report said that the impact on disabled people of benefits reforms announced in the 'emergency' Budget in June 2010 had not been fully considered. Rather than simply incentivizing work, cutting benefits would have unintended consequences on households where finding and keeping work was only achievable with personalized welfare-to-work support. The losses in income to disabled people and their carers over the course of the following five years were estimated at over £9 billion. The report presented alternative reforms designed to introduce a greater focus on capability-building and supporting the move into employment.
Source: Claudia Wood and Eugene Grant, Destination Unknown, Demos
Links: Report | Summary | BBC report
Date: 2010-Oct
An article compared disabled women's experiences in accessing information, services, and public policy relating to income support in Canada and the United Kingdom. Policy in both contexts was not only written in an inaccessible and confusing way but also directed toward an able-bodied, independent, resource-rich ideal citizen. The UK offered a breadth of services and avenues for advocacy that were unavailable in Canada, and its policy appeared to be less adversarial and surveillance-based.
Source: Claudia Malacrida, 'Income support policy in Canada and the UK: different, but much the same', Disability & Society, Volume 25 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Oct
A paper said that there was no evidence that older recipients of disability living allowance exhibited higher levels of income deprivation than those receiving attendance allowance, in terms of equivalized pre-benefit family income.
Source: Stephen Pudney, Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance Claimants in the Older Population: Is there a difference in their economic circumstances?, Working Paper 2010-27, Institute for Social and Economic Research/University of Essex
Links: Working paper | Abstract
Date: 2010-Jul
A literature review examined the needs, preferences, and experiences of people with mental health conditions and/or learning disabilities when accessing benefits, specifically disability living allowance and attendance allowance.
Source: Andrew Butters, Mike Webster and Matt Hill, Literature Review: Understanding the Needs of People with Mental Health Conditions and/or Learning Disabilities and the Implications for the Pension, Disability and Carers Service, Research Report 654, Department for Work and Pensions Links: Report | Summary
Date: 2010-Jul
Researchers examined the use and impact of disability living allowance and attendance allowance, in order to increase understanding of the difference these benefits made to people s lives,
Source: Anne Corden, Roy Sainsbury, Annie Irvine and Sue Clarke, The Impact of Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance: Findings from exploratory qualitative research, Research Report 649, Department for Work and Pensions Links: Report | Summary | Appendices | DWP press release
Date: 2010-Jul
A paper evaluated the effectiveness of disability benefits for elderly people.
Source: Francesca Zantomio, Older People's Participation in Disability Benefits: Targeting, timing and financial wellbeing, Working Paper 2010-23, Institute for Social and Economic Research/University of Essex
Links: Working paper | Abstract
Date: 2010-Jul
Researchers examined why people receiving disability living allowance appeared to behave differently from other disabled people. In particular, the research sought possible reasons for the very low level of employment among recipients.
Source: Rita Griffiths and Andrew Thomas, Disability Living Allowance and Work: Exploratory research and evidence review, Research Report 648, Department for Work and Pensions Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2010-Jul
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced an independent review (chaired by Malcolm Harrington) of the methods used to assess the work fitness of those claiming incapacity-related benefits. The review would produce a report by the end of 2010.
Source: Written Ministerial Statement 29 June 2010, columns 39-42WS, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Hansard | Guardian report | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Jun
An article examined the replacement of incapacity benefit by the employment and support allowance, from a public health perspective. It said that this change represented a broader international transformation from welfare to workfare states, the re-emergence of labour discipline, and a political shift in how people suffering from ill-health were categorized as disabled or not and perceived as 'deserving' or 'undeserving' of state support.
Source: Clare Bambra and Katherine Smith, 'No longer deserving? Sickness benefit reform and the politics of (ill) health', Critical Public Health, Volume 20 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Mar
A special issue of a journal examined the issues of health and employability, and in particular the associated challenges for the incapacity benefits system.
Source: Policy Studies, Volume 31 Issue 2
Links: Table of contents
Date: 2010-Mar
Two reports examined low satisfaction rates among minority-ethnic customers of the Disability and Carers Service. Minority-ethnic customers appeared to be less aware and knowledgeable about the benefits available to them, and took a long time to find out about the help available – increasing the risk of their claim being rejected.
Source: Meghann Jones and India Tracy, Ethnic Minority Customers' Experiences of Claiming Disability Benefits, Research Report 609, Department for Work and Pensions | Richard Stockley, Sinead Lawless and Zoe Slade, Summary Report on the Potential Causes of Lower Overall Satisfaction from Non-White Customers and Customers with a Longterm Illness or Disability, Research Report 568, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report 609 | Summary | Report 568
Date: 2010-Feb
A paper examined survey data on the relationship between disability and receipt of attendance allowance by older people. Despite being non-means-tested, the allowance was implicitly income-targeted and strongly targeted on those with care needs. Higher-rate payments were negatively related to age and income, in addition to care needs. The allocation of higher-rate awards strongly favoured people with physical rather than cognitive disabilities.
Source: Stephen Pudney, Disability Benefits for Older People: How Does the UK Attendance Allowance System Really Work?, Working Paper 2010-02, Institute for Social and Economic Research/University of Essex
Links: Working paper | Abstract
Date: 2010-Jan