The Secretary of State for Work and Pension’s Liz Kendall announced in Parliament a package of reforms to overhaul the welfare system including:

• Ending reassessments for disabled people who will never be able to work and people with lifelong conditions to ensure they can live with dignity and security.
• Scrapping the Work Capability Assessment to end the process that drives people into dependency, delivering on the Government’s manifesto commitment to reform or replace it.
• Providing improved employment support backed by £1 billion including new tailored support conversations for people on health and disability benefits to break down barriers and unlock work; and
• Legislating to protect those on health and disability benefits from reassessment or losing their payments if they take a chance on work.

To ensure the welfare system is available for those with the greatest needs now and in the future, the government has made decisions to improve its sustainability and protect those who need it most, including:

• Reintroducing reassessments for people on incapacity benefits who have the capability to work to ensure they have the right support and aren’t written off.
• Targeting Personal Independence Payments (PIP) for those with higher needs by changing the eligibility requirement to a minimum score of four on at least one of the daily living activities to receive the daily living element of the benefit, in addition to the existing eligibility criteria.
• Rebalancing payment levels in Universal Credit (UC) to improve the Standard Allowance.
• Consulting on delaying access to the health element of Universal Credit until someone is aged 22 and reinvesting savings into work support and training opportunities through the Youth Guarantee.
  

This consultation closes 30 June 2025 and BASE is holding an information meeting for members on 8th April : register for this event 

Pathways to Work Consultation Page

Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper [HTML version]

Download a pdf version of Pathways to Work Green Paper

Easy Read Version of Pathways to Work Green Paper 

"Disabled people and those with health conditions, who are currently being held back from improving their lives through work, will be better supported to realise their potential under Government plans unveiled today.

• As part of Government’s mission to support more people into work, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has today launched a consultation on changes to the Work Capability Assessment, following the landmark Health and Disability White Paper published earlier this year
• Changes represent the next step in welfare reform, reflecting the rise of flexible and home working and better employer support for disabled people and people with health conditions
• Changes also reflect that one in five of those with no work preparation requirements would like to work at some point in the future, with the right support

A consultation, launched today (Tuesday 5 September), will consider changes to the Work Capability Assessment, with proposals to ensure it is delivering the right outcomes for supporting those most in need.

The consultation will look at updating the Work Capability Assessment’s categories so they better reflect the modern world of work and the opportunities more readily available to disabled people.

Read the full press release.

BASE will be responding to this consultation and is keen to hear our member's views on the consultation proposals.

Work Capability Assessment: activities and descriptors - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The consultation closes 11.59 30th October 2023