Title [insert name]

Venue [insert location]

Date [insert date of presentation]

Employment and Support Allowance

London East LLDD Meeting

16th January 2009

This session will cover

• Background

• Pathways to Work

• Employment and Support Allowance

• The Work Capability Assessment

• How we can work with together

Where are we now?

Over 2.6 million people in Great Britain depend on incapacity benefits

This is 309,000 people in London (at May 2008)

Source - DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study May 2008 (figures are rounded to the nearest thousand)

9 out of 10 people making new Incapacity Benefit claims tell us they want to return to work

Despite the Economic Downturn…..

• Jobcentre Plus takes over 10,000 new vacancies every day and many more are held by recruitment agencies and others.

• There are still 600,000 vacancies in the UK at any time.

• Jobcentre Plus helps over 5,400 people into work every day.

• Latest figures show there were 145,000 vacancies in Finance and Business, 86,000 in Manufacturing, Transport and Communications and 164,000 in distribution, hotels and restaurants, to take just a few sectors.

• Most people who lose their jobs only spend a short amount of time looking for work before they find a new one. Almost two thirds of people who make a new claim for jobseekers allowance are off it within 3 months, 80% within 6 months and around 90% within a year.

Work and health

Strong evidence long periods out of work can contribute to:• 2 to 3 times decrease in general health• 2 to 3 times increase in mental health problems• 20% greater risk of mortality

Source - Waddell, Burton, ‘Is Work Good for Your Health and Wellbeing?’: 2006

Growing evidence, including Dame Carol Black’s Review that work can:• Promote recovery from both mental and physical health problems• Minimise the risk of the physical, mental and social effects of long-term unemployment such as social exclusion and poverty

Source - Black: Carol, ‘Working for a Healthier Tomorrow, Review of the Health of Britain’s Working Population’: 2008

Evidence on the links between health and work can be found at DWP’s online resource for healthcare professionals - www.dwp.gov.uk/healthandwork

Pathways to work

New package of support:• Provides extra support and opportunities for Incapacity Benefit customers with

an illness or disability to help them return to work or move closer to it.• Support from personal advisers, and access to employment, training and

condition management programmes. • Also offers in-work support, including financial incentives

National roll-out completed April 2008• Delivered by Reed In Partnership in North and North East London (Barking and

Dagenham, Barnet, Enfield, Haringey, Havering, Redbridge, Waltham Forest)• ..and Working Links in City and East London (Hackney, Newham and Tower

Hamlets) • Forms the bedrock of Employment and Support Allowance

What is Employment and Support Allowance?

What does it replace, and when?

• Employment and Support Allowance was introduced on 27 October 2008 and for new customers replaces Incapacity Benefit and Income Support paid on incapacity grounds

• Aims to help patients with an illness or disability move into suitable work if they are able and when they are ready to do so

• Existing Incapacity Benefit and Income Support customers will initially continue to receive their existing benefits (plans to transfer existing IB customers to ESA in White Paper)

Different support for different needs:

• Most people expected to prepare for a move into work (members of the Work-Related Activity Group of Employment and Support Allowance)

• A small number of customers with the most severe limitations arising from their illness or disability will be members of the Support Group of Employment and Support Allowance.

What is Employment and Support Allowance?

Personalised support and financial help:

• A new Work Capability Assessment, including a work-focused health-related assessment, focusing on what a customer can do rather than what they cannot do

• A series of work-focused interviews with a personal adviser, tailored to offer a bespoke support package

The Support Group:

• Will receive additional financial support • Not required to attend work-focused interviews but can volunteer for

appropriate support if they do want to consider working

The Employment and Support Allowance process

• Employment and Support Allowance application

• Basic Employment and Support Allowance rate paid

• Work Capability Assessment• Includes work-focused

health-related assessment

Assessment Phase

WEEK 1 - 13

Five further monthly work-focused interviews for Work-Related Activity Group

• Personal adviser discusses customer’s views about returning to work

• Steps back to work established• Support package discussed

Qualification for Support or Work-Related Activity Group established

Employment and Support Allowance rate determined by group

First Work-Focussed Interview

WEEK 9-13

Main Phase

WEEK 14

The Work Capability Assessment

When is it introduced?• The Work Capability Assessment is an important part of Employment and Support

Allowance and customers will have a Work Capability Assessment at around week 8 of their claim

What is it for?• Employment and Support Allowance entitlement will, for most customers, be

determined using the new Work Capability Assessment • Entitlement to Incapacity Benefit will continue to be assessed using the Personal

Capability Assessment• We will begin to apply the Work Capability Assessment, in place of the Personal

Capability Assessment, to existing Incapacity Benefit customers on review, from October 2010 (from 2009 for the under 25s)

Where will the assessment be carried out?• By an Atos Healthcare doctor or nurse at a Medical Examination Centre. In

exceptional circumstances the assessment can be carried out in the customer’s home.

The Work Capability Assessment

What will it include?

• The Work Capability Assessment is one process comprised of three elements:• An assessment of limited capability for work• An assessment of limited capability for work-related activity• A work-focused health-related assessment

How is the test different to the Personal Capability Assessment ?• Focuses on what a customer can do, not just what they cannot do• The Work Capability Assessment includes revised physical and mental activities• For most customers the Work Capability Assessment includes the work-focussed

health-related assessment, so the overall length of the assessment now lasts up to 75 minutes.

The work-focused health-related assessment

What is it for?

• Provides the customer with access to a healthcare professional, specifically to discuss their views about moving into work and identify any health-related support that would help this transition.

How is the report from this assessment used?

• A copy of the report will be sent to the customer and their personal adviser. Customers will be encouraged to share the report with healthcare professionals involved in their treatment (such as their GP) but this will be the customer’s decision.

How will GPs be involved?

• The report may enable GPs to identify any medical issues which have been highlighted during the assessment and which may need following up by the GP.

Terminally ill patients

• DWP may ask GPs to provide a DS1500 report for patients who tell us they are terminally ill (a life expectancy of no more than 6 months).

• This is a factual report, in which GPs provide details of the patient’s condition and their current and planned future treatment.

• We do not ask GPs to give an opinion on prognosis or life expectancy.• We need GPs’ help with this information so we can ensure that patients

receive everything they are entitled to as quickly as possible.

• Special rules apply to people who are terminally ill. We will fast-track customers with a terminal illness into the Support Group of Employment and Support Allowance so that we can ensure they receive everything that they are entitled to as quickly as possible.

Working with you

• This is a new approach and we value your input.

• We want to work with you and support you in your interactions with your clients.

• How we can support you further in communicating with your clients and colleagues?

Any questions?