Citizens Advice have responded to the Government’s consultation on changes to the work capability assessment (WCA). The response was informed by evidence provided from advisers across the Citizens Advice network. It concluded that the WCA is the source of many issues for the people that Citizens Advice supports, but that the organisation has serious concerns that almost all the options under consideration ‘would do more harm than good’ if implemented, and risk undermining the longer term aims of the Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper.
The response states that:
- moving claimants from the limited capability for work-related activity group to the limited capability for work group would reduce the income of disabled claimants who are already struggling to cope with the essential costs of living
- the rationale that the changes are needed due to changes in the nature of the workplace – with more home and hybrid working – is not justified by evidence. Statistics show that working Universal Credit claimants are more likely than other workers to move into jobs that require them to work from a physical workplace
- the proposals do not address the barriers that prevent most disabled people from working and introduce new barriers in relation to the likelihood of achieving this outcome
- the consultation time for such a major change is too short
- the proposals risk further eroding the trust of benefit claimants in the Government’s long term ambitions and are at odds with the stated aims of the ‘Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper’.
You can read the full Citizens Advice response on our website.