Removing the Work Capability Assessment is a step towards ending the financial penalties people with disabilities face when moving into work.
The Spring Budget was dubbed the “back to work Budget”, and whilst the big spending announcements may grab headlines, what the Chancellor announced to help the long-term sick and disabled into work is hugely ambitious. Indeed, done properly, his plan complements the welfare reforms I championed before I resigned.
The problem we face is that, since the Covid lockdowns, there’s been an alarming rise in so-called “economic inactivity”. Today there are around 9 million people outside of the labour force, having risen by almost half a million since 2020. This has been driven by a 16 per cent increase in the numbers falling out of work due to long-term sickness. There has also been an explosion in working-age welfare. Our research at the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) suggests there are 1.6 million more claimants since 2020 costing the taxpayer £13 billion more in welfare benefits.
But scratch beneath the surface and what you find is that the fastest-growing category of claimants are those with “No Work Requirements”, which now stands at around 3.5 million people. For the most part, these are individuals out of work due to long-term physical, mental health conditions and caring responsibilities. Some people in this category may never be able to work and should be treated with compassion and support – yet according to research done by the CSJ, at least 700,000 say that they would like to work, with even more saying they could with the right support, but they are exempt from any rules designed to encourage or help them into work.
That number represents more than half of all vacancies currently in the economy – a statistic highlighted by the Chancellor at the despatch box today.
Unlocking the huge potential of this group would help to fire up the economy and transform thousands of lives. And more to the point, we know how to do it. By matching claimants with local jobs, and then providing wrap-around support across housing, health, debt, and beyond, we see individuals not only move into but thrive in work. We know it works at a local level via Greater Manchester’s “Working Well” programme, based on Universal Support, which has seen 42 per cent of participants move into work after just over a year, compared with 25 percent of those on the Work and Health Programme after two years.
In fact, Universal Support was designed to be an integral part of the Universal Credit reforms I introduced, focusing on those who are, in effect, written off. Since I left government, I have been campaigning to complete the unfinished business of welfare reform and roll out the positive effects to this wider group. Today’s announcement – of a new £925 million Universal Support programme, helping 50,000 people with disabilities and long-term sickness into work every year – gets us one big step closer to this original vision of UC as a programme which can improve the opportunities for those so often marginalised.
By removing the Work Capability Assessment entirely, the Government has taken a big step towards removing the financial penalties people with disabilities currently experience upon moving into work. But experience tells me that this could take years to implement, unless the Government moves more quickly.
It is well established that work is also a health treatment, particularly for those with mental health problems. This plan can not only improve the lives of disabled people, but also improve the balance of society for all of us.