The coalition government announced (following consultation) that it would not proceed with its plan to remove the mobility component of the new personal independence payment from people living in residential care homes.
Source: Written Ministerial Statement 1 December 2011, columns 77-78WS, House of Commons Hansard, TSO
Links: Hansard | DWP press release | Dimensions press release | EDCM press release | Mencap press release | Radar press release | BBC report | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Dec
A think-tank report said that the coalition government's failure to adequately explain and communicate changes to welfare benefits had left disabled people in a 'no man's land' between the existing system and the new universal credit that was due to come into effect in 2013.
Source: Claudia Wood, Destination Unknown: Autumn 2011, Demos
Links: Report | Summary | Scope press release
Date: 2011-Dec
An independent review made a series of recommendations designed to improve the sickness absence and benefits systems. It said that the government should fund a new 'Independent Assessment Service' (IAS). The IAS (rather than family doctors) would provide an in-depth assessment of an individual's physical and/or mental function, and would also provide advice about how an individual on sickness absence could be supported to return to work: this service would usually be accessed when an individual's absence spell had lasted around 4 weeks. The review also recommended that the government should end the employment and support allowance assessment phase: this should be supported by changes to Jobcentre Plus claims policies and processes to prevent large numbers of people being inappropriately directed towards ESA.
Source: Carol Black and David Frost, Health at Work: An Independent Review of Sickness Absence, Cm 8205, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO
Links: Report | Hansard | DWP press release | ABI press release | BCC press release | CMH press release | CSP press release | TUC press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Personnel Today report | Telegraph report
Date: 2011-Nov
A review report said that the coalition government's proposal to remove mobility benefits from disabled people living in residential care would be 'a serious step backwards for disability rights'.
Source: Low Review, Independence, Choice and Control: DLA and personal mobility in state-funded residential care, Leonard Cheshire
Links: Report | Summary | Review press release | Childrens Society press release | DBC press release | Disability Alliance press release | Mencap press release | Scope press release | Community Care report
Date: 2011-Nov
A study examined the likely impact of reforms to incapacity benefits proposed by the coalition government. It estimated that the headline total of 2.6 million people on incapacity benefits would be cut by nearly 1 million by 2014. Most of these would be existing claimants who would lose their entitlement: 600,000 would be pushed out of the benefits system altogether, forcing a big increase in reliance on other household members for financial support. By far the largest impact would fall on the older industrial areas of the north of England, Scotland, and Wales, where local economies had been struggling for years to cope with job loss and where the prospects of former claimants finding work were weakest.
Source: Christina Beatty and Steve Fothergill, Incapacity Benefit Reform: The local, regional and national impact, Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research (Sheffield Hallam University)
Links: Report | Sheffield Hallam University press release | Citizens Advice press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2011-Nov
A report presented the findings from qualitative research with family doctors designed to evaluate the new statement of fitness for work ('fit note').
Source: Beth Fylan, Fiona Fylan, and Lauren Caveney, An Evaluation of the Statement of Fitness for Work: Qualitative research with general practitioners, Research Report 780, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2011-Nov
The second independent review of the work capability assessment (for employment and support allowance) made a series of recommendations focusing on: introducing checks on benefit decisions to ensure fairness and consistency; working with disability groups to help develop guidance for healthcare professionals and decision makers; improved support and communications for people who moved on to jobseeker's allowance to make sure they got the help that they needed; and regularly publishing data on performance and quality to improve the transparency of the face-to face assessment. The coalition government said that it endorsed the recommendations.
Source: Malcolm Harrington, An Independent Review of the Work Capability Assessment – Year Two, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Coalition response | Hansard | Liberal Democrats press release | DBC press release | ERSA press release | Mind press release | Community Care report
Date: 2011-Nov
The coalition government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the work capability assessment for incapacity benefit claimants. It said that it was committed to continuously improving the assessment to ensure that it was 'as fair and accurate as possible'.
Source: The Role of Incapacity Benefit Reassessment in Helping Claimants Into Employment: Government Response to the Committee's Sixth Report, Seventh Special Report (Session 2010-12), HC 1641, House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee, TSO
Links: Response
Notes: MPs report (July 2011)
Date: 2011-Nov
A report said that the new personal independence payment (being introduced by the coalition government to replace disability living allowance) would not be directed to those who needed the greatest support, because the assessment to test for eligibility was flawed. Unless the assessment considered the social, practical, and environmental barriers that disabled people faced, thousands of people could be left with the wrong levels of support and in some cases no support at all.
Source: Eugene Grant, The Future of PIP: A social model-based approach, Scope
Links: Report | Scope press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Oct
A briefing paper examined how disabled people would be affected by the introduction of the proposed new 'universal credit'.
Source: Issues for People with Disabilities in Universal Credit (UC), Citizens Advice
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Jul
A study found that around 60,000 people in Wales would be thrown off incapacity benefits as a result of the coalition government's welfare reforms. In most of Wales the high incidence of worklessness was rooted in a shortage of jobs: welfare reform was therefore unlikely to move people into work without a commensurate increase in job opportunities.
Source: Christina Beatty and Steve Fothergill, Tackling Worklessness in Wales, Industrial Communities Alliance (Wales)
Links: Report | Sheffield Hallam University press release
Date: 2011-Jul
A report said that people with disabilities were facing unnecessary extra difficulties when trying to tackle debt problems because creditors were failing to recognize their specific needs.
Source: Peter Tutton, Cathy Finnegan, Alex MacDermott, Sue Edwards, and Richard Huzzey, Double Disadvantage: The barriers and business practices making debt a problem for disabled people, Citizens Advice
Links: Report | Citizens Advice press release
Date: 2011-Jun
A report was published of qualitative research into claimant and Jobcentre Plus staff views/experiences of trial incapacity benefits reassessment for employment and support allowance. Claimants who were disallowed ESA were generally 'stunned and/or angry'.
Source: Lorna Adams, Katie Oldfield, Catherine Riley, and Madeline Nightingale, Trial Incapacity Benefits Reassessment: Customer and staff views and experiences, Research Report 741, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2011-Jun
A report was published of follow-up survey research into a sample of 'customers' who made a claim for employment and support allowance, focusing on whether people's circumstances had changed over time, their ongoing ESA claim experiences, and the activities of those who left ESA. Views on work-focused interviews were positive: but there was no clear relationship between attitudes to work, as measured by level of agreement with a series of statements about the benefits of work, and the number of work-focused interviews attended.
Source: Helen Barnes, Paul Sissons, and Helen Stevens, Employment and Support Allowance: Findings from a Follow-Up Survey of Customers, Research Report 745, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2011-Jun
A report called for reforms to the test of eligibility for employment and support allowance, on the grounds that it was failing people with fluctuating conditions.
Source: Employment and Support Allowance Work Capability Assessment Review: Making It Work for Fluctuating Conditions, Multiple Sclerosis Society and others
Links: Report | MS Society press release | BBC report | Community Care report
Date: 2011-May
A new tracking study followed the lives of 5 disabled families, documenting the impact on them of fiscal tightening measures. It highlighted the first-hand experiences of disabled families living on the edge of financial stress and poverty.
Source: Claudia Wood and Eugene Grant, Destination Unknown: Spring 2011, Demos
Links: Report
Date: 2011-May
An article examined the decline in incapacity benefit payments for musculoskeletal complaints relative to those for mental and behavioural disorders. One possible explanation was 'culturally determined' changes in health beliefs and expectations, which began in London and the south-east before later spreading to other regions.
Source: A Cattrell et al., 'Regional trends in awards of incapacity benefit by cause', Occupational Medicine, Volume 61 Issue 3
Links: Abstract | BBC report
Date: 2011-May
The government published its response to a consultation on disability living allowance reform. It said that it would proceed with the proposals, although it would put on hold plans to remove the mobility component of DLA from publicly funded care home residents in October 2012.
Source: Government's Response to the Consultation on Disability Living Allowance Reform, Cm 8051, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO
Links: Response to consultation | Hansard | DWP press release | Contact a Family press release | DBC press release | EDCM press release | Community Care report
Notes: Consultation document (December 2010)
Date: 2011-Apr
A working paper considered how well coded data from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) adult claim packs could predict the outcome of these claims.
Source: Diana Kasparova, Karen Mackinnon, and David Wilkinson, Predicting the outcome of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) adult claims, Working Paper 99, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Working paper
Date: 2011-Mar
A report said that disabled people in Wales were experiencing increasing poverty and hardship – more so than anywhere else in the United Kingdom. Disabled people in Wales were almost twice as likely as non-disabled people to live on a low income.
Source: Joe Allen, Disability Poverty in Wales, Leonard Cheshire
Links: Report | Leonard Cheshire press release
Date: 2011-Mar
A think-tank report set out proposals for reforming incapacity benefits. The proposals were aimed at getting people back into work before they became long-term unemployed, by encouraging individual responsibility and 'engaging with' the insurance industry. Employers would be compelled to insure their employees against sickness, ill-heath, and accidents – so that an insurance company, rather than employers themselves, would be responsible for paying statutory sick pay.
Source: Max Wind-Cowie, Of Mutual Benefit: Personalised welfare for the many, Demos
Date: 2011-Mar
A working paper sought to identify any impact of receiving disability living allowance (DLA) on recipients' care and mobility arrangements, their standard of living, and measures of social inclusion/exclusion, through quantitative secondary analysis of existing data. A propensity score matching approach was used, applied to data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and the Family Resources Survey disability follow-up survey.
Source: Karen Mackinnon, Sergio Salis, and David Wilkinson, Assessing the Impact of Receiving Disability Living Allowance (DLA): Secondary Analysis of Existing Data, Working Paper 98, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Working paper
Date: 2011-Mar
A report examined disabled people's experiences of the benefits system. Over one-half of respondents who had been for a medical assessment for employment and support allowance had found it stressful; and over one-half of those who had received a decision on their application disagreed with the decision. The report highlighted concerns over the impact on disabled people and their families of proposed reforms to employment and support allowance and disability living allowance.
Source: Benefiting Disabled People?, Disability Benefits Consortium
Links: Report | DBC press release
Date: 2011-Mar
A report examined the impact of the proposed removal of the mobility component of disability living allowance from adults and children living in state-funded residential care. It said that the measure threatened to greatly reduce the independence, autonomy, and opportunities of this group of people.
Source: Don't Limit Mobility, Mencap (with 26 other organizations)
Links: Report | EDCM press release
Date: 2011-Mar
A briefing paper said that the proposal to remove the mobility component of disability living allowance from people living in state-funded residential care 'directly undermined' the government's commitment to social justice for disabled people.
Source: DLA Mobility: Sorting the Facts from the Fiction, Mencap and 39 other organizations
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Mar
A report (by an official advisory body) said that government plans to replace disability allowance with a 'personal independence payment' appeared to be driven by a need to cut costs. It also criticised plans to scrap the mobility component of DLA for publicly funded care home residents and residential special school pupils.
Source: Disability Living Allowance Reform Consultation: A Response, Social Security Advisory Committee
Links: Report | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Feb
A briefing paper examined government plans to replace disability living allowance, starting from 2013-14, with an entirely new benefit called the 'personal independence payment'.
Source: Steven Kennedy, Disability Living Allowance Reform, Standard Note SN/SP/5869, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Notes: Disability living allowance (DLA) is a non-means-tested benefit introduced in 1992 to help with the extra costs of disability. It has a care component and a mobility component.
Date: 2011-Feb
Campaign groups called on the government to abandon plans to abolish the mobility component of disability living allowance for people in residential care. They said that the payment was vital to meeting some of the extra costs disabled people could face getting around. Without assistance for extra costs, such as electric wheelchairs, mobility aids, and taxis where there was no accessible public transport, people faced being trapped at home.
Source: Don't Limit Mobility: The impact of the removal of the mobility component of disability living allowance from adults and children living in state-funded residential care, Mencap and 26 other organizations
Links: Report | Disability Alliance press release | Community Care report
Date: 2011-Jan