Today the government proposed changes to work capability
assessments, with the aim of reducing the number of working-age
individuals assessed as having a ‘limited capability for
work-related activity’ (LCWRA), which entitles them to incapacity
benefits (or the equivalent premia in universal credit) without
any requirements to prepare or look for employment.
- This comes against the backdrop of large increases in
caseloads and spending over recent years. Between 2019-20 and
2022-23, the number of individuals in the LCWRA group rose by 30%
to more than 2.3 million (in addition, 800,000 are either waiting
for assessment or have been assessed as having a less severe
incapacity). The government is forecast to spend £26 billion on
incapacity benefits this year, £6 billion more (in real terms)
than prior to the pandemic.
- The government has suggested changes to the work capability
assessment, including to the mobilising, continence, and social
engagement and getting about activities used to judge people’s
capability. These will reduce the threshold required in order for
someone to be judged as able to prepare for work (and therefore
not LCWRA).
- The impact of this reform on those individuals who will no
longer qualify for the LCWRA group is significant. Not only will
they lose out on the additional income (typically almost £400 per
month) that LCWRA claimants are entitled to, they will also be
required either to prepare for work or search for a job in order
to keep receiving benefits.
- Despite this, the short run effects of these changes are
likely to be limited as they will only apply to new benefit
claims and scheduled reassessments (meaning existing recipients
will be unaffected until their claim is reviewed). Around 740,000
work capability assessments took place last year, with
approximately two-thirds of decisions assigning or keeping
individuals in the LCWRA group.
Responding to the announcement, Sam Ray-Chaudhuri, a
research economist at IFS, said:
“Reforms implemented in the last three decades that were aimed at
reducing the numbers moving onto disability and incapacity
benefits have often failed to deliver the savings that had been
claimed. It should also be remembered that just in March the
government committed to scrapping the work capability assessment
by 2029 that it is now proposing to tighten. This reform – which
at its earliest will be implemented in 2025 and then will only
apply to new claims and reassessments – will therefore at most
deliver a short run saving before becoming irrelevant.”
