GovWire

The Prime Minister has outlined a package of sweeping reforms to put work at the heart of welfare and deliver on his moral mission to give everyone who is able to work, the best possible chance of staying in, or returning to work.

In a speech today (Friday 19 April), the Prime Minister announced that the disability benefits system is set to be reformed to ensure its more accurately targeted at those who need it most and delivers the right kind of support for people with disabilitiesand health conditions.

A consultation on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will be published in the coming days which will explore changes to the eligibility criteria, assessment process and types of support that can be offered so the system is better targeted towards individualneeds and more closely linked to a persons condition rather than the current one size fits all approach.

It comes as many more working age people are being awarded PIP for mental health conditions than when it was first introduced over a decade ago, as well as concerns that the assessment process is significantly easier to game by individuals who seek toexploit the system.

In 2019, there were an average of around 2,200 new PIP awards a month in England and Wales where the main condition was anxiety and depression - this has more than doubled to 5,300 a month last year. This is driving up the cost of the disability benefitsbill at an unsustainable rate and PIP spending alone is expected to grow by 52% from 2023/24 to 32.8bn by 2027/28.

Total spending on benefits for people of working age with a disability or health condition increased by almost two-thirds to 69 billion since the pandemic, andwe now spend more on these benefits than our core schools budgetor on policing. Given the significant change in caseload and unsustainable increase in costs, its clear our current disability benefit system for adults of working age is not fit for purpose.

The Prime Minister has set out his ambition to redesign the disability benefits system to ensure it is fair and compassionate, but also sustainable and fit for the future. The consultation will consider whether alternative interventions to cash payments such as treatment or access to services could drive better long-term outcomes particularly for individuals who have less severe or well managed health conditions.

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said:

I believe our welfare system is about far more than benefit payments; it is about changing lives for the better.

That is why were bringing forward the next generation of welfare reforms. Weve already overhauled the outdated benefit system by introducing Universal Credit, and now we are building a new welfare settlement for Britain one where no one gets left behind.

The welfare reforms announced by the Prime Minister today will modernise the support available for those who need it the most, improve the value of the welfare system for taxpayers, and ensure that people are signed up tosupport back to work, not signed off.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Victoria Atkins MP, said:

These ambitious reforms will give people the help they need in their return to and stay in work.

We know that people in work often lead happier, healthier lives which is why its fundamental to shift attitudes away from sicknotes towards fit notes.

We are seeking the advice of those who understand the system best so we can break down these unnecessary barriers to work. Through tailored care and reasonable adjustments, we can build a healthier workforce for a healthiereconomy.

The review to the disability benefits system to ensure benefits are targeted to those who need it most comes as part of the Prime Ministers five core welfare reforms to deliver a fairer and more sustainable welfare system for the future. This includes:

Removing benefits entirely from the long-term unemployed who dont accept a job

There is no excuse for fit and able claimants on unemployment benefits who can work, not to engage with the support available to them or adhere to conditions set by their Work Coach. If someone is assessed as able to work and continues to receive taxpayerfunded benefits, it is right and fair that we expect them to engage fully with this process.

There are more than 450,000 people who have been unemployed for 6 months and well over a quarter of a million who have been unemployed for 12 months. These are people who will have had to access intensive employment support and training programmes.There is no reason those people should not be in work, especially when we have over 900,000 vacancies.

We will legislate in the next parliament to change the rules so that anyone who has been on benefits for 12 months and doesnt comply with conditions set by their Work Coach including accepting available work - will have their unemployment claim closedand their benefits removed entirely.

Being more ambitious in assessing peoples potential for work

The Prime Minister has confirmed thatthe Work Capability Assessmentwill be tightened so that people with less severe conditions will be expected to engage with the world of work and supported to do so. Under the current Work Capability Assessment, too many people are effectively beingwritten off as unable to work without the chance to access vital support which could help them enter employment.

We know that work plays an important role in supporting good mental and physical wellbeing and helps people to lead independent and fulfilling lives. That is why, as a result of these changes, more people with less severe conditions will be expected tolook for work and will be provided with tailored support to help them do so.

In the long term, we are also committed to removing the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) entirely and introducing a new personalised, tailored approach to employment support, with the aim of helping disabled people and people with health conditions reachtheir full potential.

These reforms to the Work Capability Assessment will reduce the number of people assessed as not needing to prepare for work by 424,000 by 2028/29 thats hundreds of thousands more people getting the support they need to start to prepare for or get into employment.

The Prime Minister has also announced a review of the fit note system to stop people being written off as not fit for work by default and instead design a new system where each fit note conversation focuses on what people can do with the right supportin place, rather than what they cant do.

As part of this, the government will consider shifting the responsibility for issuing the fit note away from primary care to free up valuable time for GPs, while creating a system better tailored to an individuals health and work needs.

A call for evidence will be published today to seek responses from a diverse range of perspectives, including those with lived experiences, healthcare professionals and employers, both on how the current process works and how it can better support peoplewith health conditions to start, stay, and succeed in work.

Putting work at the heart of welfare

The Prime Minister has announced that the rollout of Universal Credit will be accelerated to move all those left on outdated legacy systems onto a simpler, more dynamic benefit system which eliminates a binary choice between work and welfare.

We will bring forward the transition of those on the legacy ill-health unemployment benefit known as Employment and Support Allowance onto Universal Credit, thereby completing the full rollout of Universal Credit. More than six million people are alreadybenefiting from the modern digital Universal Credit system which allows claimants to access their benefits more easily and amend their claim should their circumstances change.

Many of these individuals will also be better off on Universal Credit and we are committed to providing transitional protection for eligible claimants that are migrated to Universal Credit. This ensures that those claimants will not have a lower entitlementto UC than they did on legacy benefits at the point they transition.

The Prime Minister has also announced that we will change the rules so that someon

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