ME Association: The Work Capability Assessment Consultation

The government has proposed the abolition of the Work Capability Assessment, and the Department of Work and Pensions is moving ahead with changes to the current assessment descriptors. In this blog, we provide background to the stakeholder consultation which has a deadline 30 October. We have set out the charity’s position below, and have made some suggestions that you might like to use if you want to submit your own response to the consultation.

ME Association Statement

It is the charity’s belief that changes to the WCA ahead of its abolition are unnecessary and based solely on short-term attempts at reducing the number of people who rely on the enhanced payment from Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit (UC) for being unable to work or having limited capability to work because they are disabled.

The decision about when or if a return to work if feasible and what type of work is suitable, should remain with the person who is disabled. The government could provide appropriate and voluntary employment support for people in this situation without the need for legislative changes. They could, for example, make the permitted work rules more flexible, especially for people who might try to work but who find it impossible to maintain or who relapse and need to return to the enhanced benefit payment.

Our key response, therefore, is that no changes should be made to the WCA ahead of its proposed abolition in 2026, especially when we could have a new government in 2024. The main reason for this is that the proposed changes reflect an assumption that there are more opportunities to work from home for disabled people and that people who currently receive the enhanced payment can work from home – when neither of these core assumptions have been established as facts.

Read the ME Association’s full statement and background to the proposed changes:

• The ME Association: The Work Capability Assessment: proposed abolition and open consultation | 17 October 2023

Ellie Jones, Welfare Rights Adviser. The ME Association.

Dr Charles Shepherd,
Trustee and Hon. Medical Adviser to the ME Association,
Member of the 2018-2021 NICE guideline on ME/CFS committee,
Member of the 2002 Chief Medical Officer's Working Group on ME/CFS

A. Background

In March 2023, the UK Government published Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper.

Its stated aim was to propose changes to the welfare system to support more disabled people into work and then help them remain in work. It also aimed to respond to changes in how people work, such as an assumed increase in opportunities for home or remote working that might be more amenable to people with long-term health conditions and disabilities.

The central proposition was to remove the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and replace it with the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment. This would remove the need to be found to have limited capability for work and limited capability to prepare for work in order to receive additional income-related support for a disability or long-term health condition.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) opened a consultation into the possibility of making changes to the WCA ahead of its abolition. The white paper did not reveal that these changes were being considered.

The consultation will run until 30th October 2023, but any changes to the WCA will not come into place until 2025 at the earliest. You can respond to the consultation online here. Read on for more information and some suggestions about how you might respond to the questions.

B. The WCA consultation

Activities and descriptors

The consultation is seeking views on the proposal to make changes to the following activities:

• Mobilising.
• Managing incontinence.
• Coping with social engagements.
• Getting about.

The reason these activities have been chosen is that home working might mean that people need to do these activities less frequently. For example, if you have trouble walking, driving, or getting public transport, homeworking may mean you can effectively overcome these barriers to work.

• For the Mobilising activity, the consultation is asking if this activity should be removed, or if it should be changed to make it more like the PIP ‘moving around’ descriptor (i.e., replacing 50 metres with 20 metres), or whether the points attributed to the descriptor should be reduced.
• For Managing Incontinence, the consultation is looking at whether to remove this activity, to reduce the points attributed to it, or to change the descriptor. Changing the descriptor would involve changing the requirement from experiencing incontinence weekly to experiencing it daily.
• For Coping with Social Engagements, the consultation is looking at whether to remove this activity, or to reduce the points attributed to it.
• For Getting About, the consultation is looking at whether to remove this activity, or to reduce the points attributed to it.

Substantial risk

The consultation is also considering the possibility of changing the rules around ‘substantial risk’. At present, if the points someone scores on the WCA mean that they would be put in the work-related activity group but where work related activity would pose a substantial risk to their health and wellbeing, they can be placed in the support group. 

The first option in the consultation is to change the definition of substantial risk, so that this would not apply if the person could take part in a minimal level of work preparation. The second option is to remove the substantial risk criteria entirely.

C. Responding to the consultation

The ME Association does not agree with any of the proposed changes, and we believe that the WCA should remain intact until it is abolished, which will depend on a bill being passed by a potentially new government in 2026 or later.

As such the charity’s response to the consultation will be along the lines of the answers we have provided below. You can use them as a template to respond to the WCA consultation and adapt them to fit your own personal experience if you want to take part.

Question 1: What are your views on the three Mobilising options?

I believe that no changes should be made to the WCA. There is no guarantee that people will be able to find a job which allows them to work fully from home, or that they can work from home, which means that a person’s ability to mobilise is just as relevant to their fitness to work as it was prior to any presumed increase in home working opportunities.

Question 2: What are your views on the three Absence or loss of bowel/bladder control (Continence) options?

I believe that no changes should be made to this descriptor. There is no guarantee that people will be able to find a job which allows them to work fully from home, or that they can work from home, which means that a person’s level of continence is just as relevant to their fitness to work as it was prior to any presumed increase in home working opportunities.

Question 3: What are your views on the two Coping with Social Engagement options?

I believe that no changes should be made to this descriptor. There is no guarantee that people will be able to find a job which allows them to work fully from home, or that they can work from home, which means that a person’s ability to cope with social situations is just as relevant to their fitness to work as it was prior to any presumed increase in home working opportunities.

Question 4: What are your views on the two Getting About options?

I believe that no changes should be made to this descriptor. There is no guarantee that people will be able to find a job which allows them to work fully from home, or that they can work from home, which means that a person’s ability to carry out a journey is just as relevant to their fitness to work it was prior to any presumed increase in home working opportunities.

Question 5: In addition to the above options for change, are there any other WCA activities or descriptors that you think we should be considering changes to and why?

No. I feel that the WCA should remain intact until it is abolished. There is little evidence to support the assumption that more home working opportunities are available, or for people who are disabled, or that people who are disabled and in receipt of enhanced payments can work from home, and hybrid working may be even less suitable. Greater resource can be applied to supporting disabled people who feel able to work without making changes to the WCA.

Question 6: What are your views on how the LCWRA Substantial Risk regulations could be amended with the emphasis on what work preparation activity an individual is able to safely undertake?

The white paper does not make clear that the substantial risk criteria is being used incorrectly, and therefore this safety net should not be removed.

Question 7: What do you think would be the impact of these changes?

The proposed changes to the WCA will make it more likely that a person will be found fit for work, or that they will be found to be fit for work-related activity. This might mean that they are forced to use their limited abilities to prepare for and look for work, rather than focus on activities that are more beneficial to their health and wellbeing. While it may be the case that some disabled people are benefiting from opportunities to work from home, it is not clear that these opportunities are open to everyone. What data is available, from the ONS, suggests that home-working opportunities are limited for people on low incomes. The proposed changes will lead to people being financially worse off and there is no guarantee that they will replace lost income by working at home. Tailored employment support is welcome; however, this should be voluntary. The individual who receives the enhanced benefit should decide when and how to return to work as only they know when they are able.

Question 8: What could constitute tailored or a minimum level of work preparation activity?

The important thing is that any employment support should be voluntary. Any work preparation activity must also be flexible enough not to jeopardise the person’s overall health and wellbeing. For example, if a person can attend a support group once a week, and this is their only social contact outside of the home, it should not be replaced with work-related activity as this is likely to have a negative impact on their wellbeing.

Question 9: What are your views on whether we should remove the LCWRA risk group and place the people in this group in LCW risk instead?

The white paper does not make clear that the substantial risk criteria is being used incorrectly, and therefore this safety net should not be removed.

Question 10: How can this group be safely supported within the LCW risk group?

The white paper does not make clear that the substantial risk criteria is being used incorrectly, and therefore this safety net should not be removed.

The DWP consultation seeks stakeholder views on making specific changes to the WCA. It is an online survey with a deadline of 30 October 2023. Responses can also be submitted by email.