Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments 38A and 39A. These amendments oppose the introduction of a 12-month limit on the amount of time in which those in the work-related activity group, or WRAG, are able to claim contributory employment and support allowance, or ESA. All the cancer charities, such as Macmillan, the Disability Benefits Consortium and the wider disability sector also oppose the principle of time-limiting ESA. I believe that people with a disability or illness who have paid into the system should be able to receive support for as long as they meet the eligibility criteria for ESA and are unable to work due to their condition. As I said, Clause 51 amends the Welfare Reform Act 2007 to introduce a 12-month limit on the amount of time that a person in the WRAG is entitled to contributory ESA. The cancer charities, such as Macmillan, along with the rest of the disability sector strongly oppose the principle of time-limiting. There is already more than enough incentive for people with disabilities and long-term illnesses such as cancer to get back into work. What they need is enough time and the right support. What they do not need is to be penalised for not recovering quickly enough. The Government are clearly opposed to removing time limiting altogether. Therefore, I understand the need to find a compromise that meets the Government’s priority of finding savings but, crucially, gives disabled and sick people a more realistic timeframe in which to return to work. Evidence supports extending the one-year time limit. The impact on disabled people of time-limiting ESA will considerable. The Government’s own figures show that 94 per cent of people in the WRAG will need ESA for longer than 12 months. Those affected, including 7,000 people with cancer, will lose up to £94 a week of vital support, despite having paid national insurance contributions throughout their working lives. The proposal in the Bill is based on the Government’s objective of making savings. However, the Government have provided no evidence to demonstrate that a 12-month time limit is reflective of the amount of time needed by people in the WRAG before returning to work. The coalition agreement promised to protect the vulnerable from spending cuts. In his party conference speech the Prime Minister, David Cameron, said: "““People who are sick, who are vulnerable, the elderly—I want you to know we will always look after you. That’s the sign of a civilised society and it’s what I believe””." It cannot be right to take crucial financial support away from people who have paid into the system but are unable to work due to illness. The Government’s own figures estimate that 94 per cent of people in the WRAG will not be ready to return to work after one year—I repeat: 94 per cent—but the Government have stated that the change will help to encourage people to come off benefits. They have also stated that the proposal is aimed at making savings and is not based on an estimate of what is a reasonable length of time within which to expect people with a disability or illness to be able to return to work. It cannot be right for the Government to propose such a significant policy change without providing evidence that the measure is appropriate or reasonable. In Committee, the Government were asked to publish evidence to demonstrate that a 12-month time limit reflected the needs of people in the WRAG. I have seen no such evidence. The Government were also asked which organisation of experts they had consulted before making the decision to introduce a time limit for contributory ESA. They have not consulted any of the organisations which have subsequently raised concerns about the impact of this policy. The time limit will be imposed on people who are in the WRAG. Those in the WRAG are people who are following the work capability assessment who have been found not to be fit to work because of their disability or illness. While those in the WRAG are expected to carry out some work-related activities to help them to return to work, they are still considered to be not fit for work. If, following the WCA they had been found to be fit to work, they would be eligible for ESA and placed on jobseeker’s allowance. People in the WRAG could still be severely disabled or debilitated, as is the case with people recovering from aggressive cancer treatment. Let me give an example. Martin was diagnosed with primary progressive MS in 2007. He continued to work until November 2009, albeit with difficulty. He cannot walk or stand up. He has incontinence problems and suffers badly from fatigue and muscular weakness in his legs and back. Martin recently received a letter from the DWP outlining how the Government are seeking to change the rules on ESA and to impose a time limit on benefit. He said: "““The real sting in the tail is that the ‘clock’ starts ticking from the date you first ever started receiving the benefit. In my case that is since June 2009—so, some 27 months ago, so in their eyes I am 15 months over the limit! Therefore, my payments would stop immediately once the policy comes into force next year””." Currently no one is placed in the WRAG indefinitely. Only those who meet the strict eligibility criteria for ESA and are unable to work will be able to continue to receive ESA. People in the WRAG can be called for an assessment at any time and will lose benefit if they are found to be fit for work. The current system works on the basis that people should not receive support for longer than they require it. The Government’s proposals, therefore, will affect only those vulnerable people who are too unwell to work. The vast majority of disabled people want to work if they can and do not need an incentive. Unlike incapacity benefit, the WRAG or ESA is clearly focused on supporting people into work, and receipt of the benefit is conditional on claimants taking agreed steps and activity to move towards work. This can include training, education or condition management. Claimants who are taking the agreed steps to return to work should not be penalised simply because they need longer than one year. Many disabled people will simply not be fit enough to return to work after just one year. For example, people with cancer will often experience side effects of their condition and treatment, such as severe fatigue or depression for many months, and in some cases years, even after the treatment has finished. People with cancer face a range of barriers that impact on their ability to return to work. This House understands that more clearly than anywhere else because many in the House, or their relatives, have experienced what it is like to be on treatment, such as chemotherapy, radiation or post-surgery. People can experience debilitating physical and psychological effects from cancer and its treatment, including severe pain, fatigue, nausea, fever and diarrhoea. The majority get poor advice about the impact of the cancer diagnosis on their working life and on how to manage their condition. They are not routinely offered a range of the back-to-work services that they need, such as counselling, retraining and work-based advocacy. They are less successful in securing workplace adjustments to which they are legally entitled and which help them to return to work. That is probably linked to the fact that just 43 per cent of employers know that people with cancer have legal protection against discrimination. Stephen Townsend started claiming ESA in March 2011. His partner earns roughly £160 a week. Under the Bill, he will lose his ESA in April 2012. He states: "““I can’t believe the Government is planning to take away all my ESA after just 12 months because my wife works more than 24 hours a week. I had renal cancer and have had a kidney removed. I’m still in a lot of pain. I need to stick to walk and get awful pins and needles down my legs. Without my ESA we would find it really difficult to get by. We have used up virtually all our savings already. I have worked all my life and paid into the system but this doesn’t seem to mean anything””." A lot of these patients will not just have paid into the system; they will have paid into their pensions, which they will not live to collect. Under means-testing thresholds, thousands of people will lose their ESA if their partner earns as little as £150 a week. Of the people who will lose out, 51 per cent will be in the lowest-third income centile. The average drop in income will be £52 per week for those who lose out. For those in the lowest-income centile, the figure will be £35 per week. It is a significant amount of money for people who are struggling to make ends meet. This policy will penalise people who worked before their disability or illness, paid into the system, often for many years, and are doing all they can to return to work. They are not part of the something-for-nothing culture of which the Government have been so critical. The people who will be affected have paid their national insurance contributions. Therefore, it was disappointing when, in a response to the press, an official spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions drew a distinction between disabled people and taxpayers. The Government claim that alternative means of support, such as housing benefit and tax credits, will be available for people who lose their ESA. However, these benefits depend on personal circumstances and many cancer patients will be ineligible. For instance, a couple without children who own their own home will not be eligible for housing benefit and will qualify for tax credit only if the working partner works for more than 30 hours a week, which may not be possible because of their caring commitments. In 2008, Julian was diagnosed with cancer of the jejunum, which is part of the small intestine. He stated: "““Many people may not be aware that when you have cancer, you tend to feel the cold a lot more—even in the summer months! Especially if you are recovering from an operation or having chemotherapy. Additionally, your body is more susceptible to the cold whilst it is fighting disease.""Due to my illness I am no longer working and am at home during the day, which means that I have the heating on. This has meant that my heating and electricity bills have practically doubled””." The Government have not made a satisfactory assessment of the likely impact of time-limiting health and social care budgets. For instance, and unbelievably, the impact assessment from the Department for Work and Pensions states that there will be no impact on health and well-being. Unfortunately, it does not provide any detail on how this conclusion was reached. In response to recent Parliamentary Questions, Ministers admitted that no robust assessment had been made of the impact that time-limiting ESA would have on the number of people in poverty, on health and social care budgets, on the demand for benefits advice services such as Citizens Advice and on people with long-term degenerative conditions. Many of today’s newspapers cover a report that states that for many cancer patients, financial worries are second only to worries about their condition and treatment, and are even more important than the possibility of dying. I have serious concerns about the impact that time limiting will have on the psychological well-being of sick and disabled people who might already be experiencing depression and anxiety. This will also put pressure on mental health services funded by local authorities. In Committee and in answer to PQs, it became clear that the Government failed to adequately consider the profound impact that the proposal will have on sick and disabled people. Given the clear inadequacy of the Government’s impact assessment, how can they be confident that the change will not have a significant impact on the health and well-being of those who will lose support, and will not simply displace costs to other areas of already stretched local authority health and social care budgets? Calls for a rethink on the time limit have been widespread. There has been severe criticism of the policy from experts and commentators in the media. Today’s newspapers are full of it. Liberal Democrats voted to change their party’s policy to oppose an arbitrary time limit on ESA. In Committee, the Government’s case was unconvincing and did not stand up to scrutiny, at least by the Committee Members who attended. Despite assurances from Ministers throughout debates on the Welfare Reform Bill that the Government will improve the WCA for cancer patients in the light of Professor Harrington’s recommendation, the Government are now consulting on proposals that will reduce the protection offered to thousands of cancer patients undergoing treatment. Today’s report by Citizens Advice about the accuracy or reliability of the WCA points out that for 96 per cent of people who are assessed it is inadequate, inappropriate or inaccurate. Instead of extending automatic entitlement to ESA to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy to other patients receiving equally debilitating treatment, the Government’s proposals would remove automatic entitlement altogether and force all cancer patients, even those on intravenous chemotherapy, no matter how sick they are, to undergo an assessment to prove their eligibility, an assessment that today’s report has found to be totally unreliable and faulty. This is why leading cancer charities, Macmillan Cancer Support and many others, and oncologists have been unable to support these proposals. Even without this retrograde step for cancer patients, it is widely recognised that the WCA needs significant improvement. Why this change before improving the WCA? Why subject sick and vulnerable patients to a faulty testing mechanism? Instead of taking away support from sick and disabled people who are still unable to work, the Government should be working with disability organisations to design back-to-work programmes that offer personalised support appropriate to customers’ needs. There are additional concerns about the amendments that ensure that time limits for contributory ESA for those in the WRAG are not applied retrospectively. As it stands, because of the retrospective nature of the proposals in the Bill, anyone placed in the WRAG in April 2011 or before will immediately lose their contribution-based ESA when the proposed legislation comes into effect in April 2012. Those who will not qualify for income-based ESA because of savings or a partner in work will lose £94 a week. I do not believe that the time accrued in the WRAG prior to the proposal coming into effect should contribute to any time-limit period. The Government had an amendment to protect those with deteriorating conditions, and I welcomed it, but although it addresses the concern of people with deteriorating conditions, it does not go far enough. It is extremely important that a person in the WRAG who has been subject to the ESA time limit of 365 days is able to requalify for the contributory benefit at any time that they are subsequently assessed as eligible for the support group. The Government’s amendment does not address the central concerns about the inadequacy of the 12-month time limit. I beg the Minister to consider this again. I know the argument will be that in cost terms this is very significant, but I wonder whether there might be other ways of trying to find a compromise, even if it is to see whether a review can be carried out and its results assessed to see whether the 12-month time limit is satisfactory. As I said before, I am sympathetic to cutting the deficit, but I am highly sympathetic to sick and vulnerable people not being subjected to something that will make their lives even more miserable. I beg to move.