Welfare Reform Bill

The noble Baroness is right; the work capability assessment is looking at how their condition impacts on their function, and what they can do. I do not know whether that helps the noble Baroness, but from that the judgment is whether somebody should be in the support group with no conditionality attached or in the work-related activity group—or, whether their circumstances are such that JSA is the more appropriate route for them. That is what the work capability drives. The noble Baroness will be aware of how that assessment process replaced the PCA when we debated what is now the Welfare Reform Act 2007, and of all the research that went into that. In a sense, that is what is being tested, because the employment and support allowance has just come to the end of its first year. Personal advisers will have to have regard to their customers’ medical condition; it is not about not taking the condition into account appropriately so much as spotting it in the first instance. There is the risk that it has been overlooked, and that inappropriate actions have therefore been requested of somebody—that is the issue. The role of the personal adviser will include taking into account whether the condition is likely to fluctuate, and the impact that that may have on the customer’s ability to carry out the direction. They must, of course, have received adequate training to enable them to do that—we are back on training. It may help to reassure the noble Baroness if I outline the safeguards built into the system that will protect customers with fluctuating health conditions. We recognise that we are expecting more of our advisers with the new conditionality reforms, and we will work with our stakeholders to identify the additional learning and development that advisers will need to apply work-related activity. Jobcentre Plus pathways advisers receive training on a range of mild-to-moderate health conditions. In provider-led pathways areas, advisers are also trained on a range of health conditions and work with a range of specialist organisations from which advisers can receive advice and support. Jobcentre Plus personal advisers are able to seek advice from specialist disability employment advisers and work psychologists with regard to customers with complex needs. If they feel it is appropriate, advisers may refer customers with complex conditions to DEAs and work psychologists for additional advice and support. The work capability assessment has been designed to take better account of these fluctuating conditions. In the face-to-face assessment, the healthcare professional carrying out the WCA and the work-focused health-related assessment will also analyse an individual’s functional capability over time. It is not a snapshot of a person’s condition on the day of the assessment. During the early stages of their claim, an ESA customer will undergo a work-focused health-related assessment completed by a healthcare professional, and a report of that assessment will be produced and sent to the customer’s personal adviser. It will flag up whether the customer’s healthcare condition may fluctuate, and the impact that is likely to have on them. I can assure noble Lords that the power to direct customers to a specific activity will only be used in a small minority of cases. Advisers will always encourage, persuade and support people into activity they feel is necessary, before considering issuing someone with a direction to undertake a specific activity. As stated in Clause 8, any direction to undertake an activity "must be reasonable" and have, ""regard to the person’s circumstances"." Hence, any direction to undertake an activity by the personal adviser must be appropriate to the customer’s abilities and circumstances. That would include taking into account any fluctuating health condition that the customer may have. If for any reason the customer was directed into an activity which they felt was inappropriate, they could ask for the direction to be reconsidered and it would then be varied or revoked. If the customer does not comply with the requirement to undertake an activity because they were not able to do so due to the fluctuating nature of the condition, they would be able to raise this as good cause for their failure to comply. We have tabled a government amendment to ensure that the customer’s disability or health condition must be taken into account as a good-cause consideration. We earlier debated the process for dealing with sanctions and the follow-up contact that must be made before people will be sanctioned. That is another route where people can be supported. Questions were raised about the outcomes of the work capability assessment and how that is currently proceeding. Noble Lords may be aware that there were 195,000 new claims for ESA between October 2008 and February 2009, so it is early days as the system is just bedding in. Five per cent of claimants were assessed as suitable for the ESA support group and 11 per cent were assessed as suitable for the ESA work-related activity group. Thirty-six per cent were assessed as fit for work. As regards the remainder, either the assessment was not complete or the people have left the ESA and discontinued their claim. In answer to the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, we do not currently know the outcome of the WCA by impairment. The assessment is based on function not condition, so it is not straightforward to get an accurate diagnosis. We are examining the situation to see whether we can break down the WCA assessment results by condition and we are looking to make further announcements in the new year. The noble Baroness, Lady Thomas, asked how many representations we had received—