• Search
  • You are here:  
  • Home
  • UC
  • WCA changes

Work Capability Assessment (WCA) Latest News

Abolition of the Work Capability Assessment

The WCA is to be scrapped in 2028 and a new single assessment system introduced.  

Under the new system, any extra financial support for health conditions (including PIP, ESA or UC health) will be assessed via a single assessment which will be based on the PIP assessment – considering the impact of disability on daily living, not on capacity to work.

According to the Green Paper, only 63% of people currently receiving the health element of UC or ESA are also in receipt of PIP or DLA.

Reassessments for UC and ESA will be resumed until the WCA is scrapped, with exceptions for those who will never work and those under special rules for end-of-life care. Reassessments have largely been switched off since 2021.

A "Right To Try Guarantee" will be introduced, which will guarantee that attempting work will never lead to a benefits reassessment.

Comments

Write comments...
or post as a guest
People in conversation:
Loading comment... The comment will be refreshed after 00:00.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    SpaceKnight
    · 1 years ago
    Angry. 

    I am very angry. 

    These people are truly disgusting. 

    I am not a fan of any party but whenever the Conservatives try and 'save they day' (with regards to the economy), rather than dealing with the (causal) issues directly, they always go to; 'raid the social care 'pot'. 

    They (or rather, their 'unelected think tanks') have no idea what they are talking about but they are willing to plough ahead, 'damn the consequences' and move on with their lives. 

    Then having non-medically trained job coaches make decisions that you (effectively) can't challenge? 

    Absolutely not. 

    Such an 'abhorrent' system would most probably be (successfully) challenged in court anyway (the same way PIP was when it was introduced and had 'cut out' the 'provisions' for those that had mental health conditions). 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Sharon
      · 2 months ago
      @Ziporina It's both and Reform will be no better.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Ziporina
      · 9 months ago
      @SpaceKnight It’s not Conservatives it’s Labour, they can’t  help themselves spending money on things like union pay etc and forget about the mentally ill !
      My daughter has bipolar 2 fluctuating and decides in her risotto go to university for a year .
      She is reactive to her thoughts and I have to try hard to talk her out of it .. but this has slips through the net and she is there.
      It is hard for her as she is so forgetful and concentrating is very poor indeed .
      Her room reflects the state of her mind , chaotic .
      She even struggles on a day to day to find lecture rooms and she does not yet know if she is staying!
      The DSS have asked her to go to job centre for I D she says but I think she is wrong I think it’s to remove her from LCWRA as they must think she is better !! She does not believe that this is what they are going to do she thinks it’s an ID check .
      I think she will fail as she is high functioning but she is very ill in terms of her condition and needs supervision far more than I am able to give !
      She has little understanding of money but knows how to waste it but that is Bipolar 1. .
      She is on lithium with 3 monthly check ups .
      I believe she missed stuff out of her journal also . Can you record at the interview and can you take a carer in with you and could she have had phone interview?( less stress I think)
      This sort of behaviour from DSS is so likely to cause a  psychotic episode and hospital admission but these people are unqualified to judge her to continue to receive her award of life benefits!
      Unfortunately I feel she is being stitched up and could land up homeless!
      Surely this can’t be allowed as my daughter will come over as fine as she believes she is fine. and the DSS are being kind and helpful?
      How do I as a mother deal with this .
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Debbie P
      · 9 months ago
      @Tina Deem I didn't Vote For Any as from past elections show that they are all the same. I agree that I thought Labour  would be better than the conservatives but they are just as bad. 
      I'm on LCWRA with ADEM which attacks my nerves in the spine and brain. I look ok on the outside but inside I'm in agony. It differs from day to day.
      Getting back to the government, I don't know about anyone else but they have attacked the really poor or elderly that struggle every day. first the Winter Fuel payments then the disabled.  Who will be next. bet they never agree to cutting their wages and pay rises. they need to spend a week with the people they are picking on. They wouldn't last a day.

      Sorry for the rant but I needed to get it off my chest.

    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Tina Deem
      · 10 months ago
      @SpaceKnight ...And now it looks as if the Labour government are going to do even worse things than to Tories - Go Figure? I voted for Labour believing strongly that they would make changes for the better but already the evidence is that they are going to do even worse things than limit the Winter Fuel Allowance and retain the 2-child benefit's cap come the October budget.

      I now wish I had not voted at all. I expect many others agree with me.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Will Gough
    · 1 years ago
    Next time you hear PM, chancellor or DWP minister say ‘difficult decisions’ it’s really means ‘how it affects the Conservative Party, their reputation or how history will write about them. It has nothing to do with understanding, caring Conservatism. It won’t affect their multi million pound lifestyle. Sadly Labour and other parties follow the same pattern of thinking
    I didn’t choose 10 years ago to have a seizure then 1000’s more, or choose depression, or choose to stop breathing…nobody chooses to be disabled. 
    as B&W say…give assurances in law that if trying work doesn’t‘work out’ then you still retain benefits. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    JC
    · 1 years ago
    Is there a source for the WCA legislation being brought forward in 2024? Mel Stride said things would only come into effect in 2025, after the general election.

    The issue being if they introduce legislstion prior to the election it's then on Labour to repeal it, and it doesn't seem like they would be opposed given their current rhetoric being almost identical to that of the Conservatives. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Terry
    · 1 years ago
    I am 56 & have neurological disability. It makes me feel as though, who will attempt to take me on at this age & with the Epilepsy. I can't drive whilst in this condition & for where I live the public transport being so poor, how am I going to my place of work? 
    I was made redundent from my last proper job in 2002 & I have not had a full-time permanent job for over 20 years. 
    Between that time I have been for jobs in relation with my previous job & got told I am 'too experienced or too qualified'. I gave up in the end due to fact they were hiding my epilepsy as the reasoning why they wouldn't give me any job. 
    I did agency work too. I got offered 3/6-month contracts, but after a few days I was getting told I was no longer required. I once went into an agency, who were offering me a 3-month, with 3 sheets of paper for the Agency, Company & Myself to sign, simular to a footballer signing a new contract. The chap at the agency told me 'We don't things that way, so I just tore them up, threw in the air & walked out.   
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Toni
    · 1 years ago
    Have filled out the form, yet again it's aimed at voters, and fuels the idea that people who are ill or disabled are just faking it all so they can live a life of conning the system. 
    Let the people who have decided that the changes are needed live just one month in any of the people who are claiming now and work at  this brilliant job you can do they wouldn't even last a week.
    I'm sick to death of the government any party always looking for ways for the sick, disabled and elderly to get less money. 
    I can see this leading to many, many more people taking there own life.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      scott
      · 1 years ago
      @Toni I do really feel u.I told the job centre to live in my shoes and all I got was a look and smirk as to say(ive got more important things to do).Im still at a loss even now BUT dont let the buggers get you down,if you do they win.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Kirsty P
    · 1 years ago
    I just despair.  I’m a 52 year old who has chronic ill health, both physical and mental.  I haven’t worked for many years and my GP doesn’t think I’ll ever be able to work again.  What’s the point in all this?  I’m really concerned about the removal of the at risk thing.  What will happen about carers?  Will they be forced to look for work?  I literally cannot take anymore.  I don’t want to become one of their suicide statistics, even though they deny them 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Christopher .S
    · 1 years ago
    Is there a cut-off point when you reach a certain age that you no longer need a WCA?
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      KimABT
      · 1 years ago
      @Annie Yes they do it brutally, no prior warning I'm not retirement age yet - due to the changes in state pension age - but my co tenant is, dwp stopped ESA out of the blue.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Fred
      · 1 years ago
      @Annie Your rent and some of the col payments should still be in payment. 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Annie
      · 1 years ago
      @Christopher .S I just had it cut off when l hit 66. Retirement age.
      UC and lwrca, cost of living, rent and community tax rebates all stopped.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Kirsty P
      · 1 years ago
      @Christopher .S When you reach state pension age
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Kerry
    · 1 years ago
    What about ESA SG people. Does this apply to them also as it only states in the reading as UC?
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    The dogmother
    · 1 years ago
    That is all so very informative, and gives a glimmer of hope. Think hope is all we have. 

Free PIP, ESA & UC Updates!

Delivered Fortnightly

Over 110,000 claimants and professionals subscribe to the UK's leading source of benefits news.

 
iContact