Have your Say: Commons Select Committee inquiry into ESA and WCA

confuseddaughter_2

woodbine wrote: »

how many times do this "committe" need to be told that the wca is a failure?

Come the day that I hear a senior MP/Minister actually admit that his party's policies aren't working, I will put £50 in the first charity box I see. "Things don't fail, they are a little out of kilt and need a gentle nudge to keep them on track - a track that we believe is the one and only viable option and which is supported by the general population"

UKParliament

sandy_smith wrote: »

What actual powers to change things do these select committees have? From what I've seen it seems to be an excercise whereby MPs can get themselves on telly and massage their own egos.

A nice bit of theatre but that is about it.

Hi sandy_smith

Apologies for the delay in responding. In answer to your question about the powers of Select Committees - Committees submit their Reports to the relevant Government department which then has 8 weeks to respond to the Committee's recommendations.

Some Committee reports have had a very strong influence, with a former Health Committee report recommending the Smoking Ban that came into force back in 2007. Others can flag aspects of policy and encourage change.

There is however no power for Select Committees to force the government to adhere to their recommendations.

To find out more you can read the Liaison Committee's report into the Effectiveness of Select Committees on the Parliament Website:
Select committee effectiveness, resources and powers Inquiry Page

Select Committees are just one of many roles Parliament plays in holding the Government to account - alongside questions to Ministers and legislative scrutiny.

We hope this helps?

Thanks
DOT

UKParliament

Hello all,
we wanted to revive this thread to say thank you so much to those people who submitted evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee's inquiry into ESA and WCA - the Committee has now published it's report and we thought it might be useful for us to feed back their findings to you. Please find below some brief conclusions of the report.

To read more go to Employment and Support Allowance needs fundamental redesign, say MPs

The flaws in the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) system are so grave that simply "rebranding" the assessment used to determine eligibility for ESA (the Work Capability Assessment (WCA)) by appointing a new contractor will not solve the problems, says the Work and Pensions Committee in a report published today.

The Committee calls on the Government to undertake a fundamental redesign of the ESA end-to-end process to ensure that the main purpose of the benefit – helping claimants with health conditions and disabilities to move into employment where this is possible for them – is achieved. This will take some time, but the redesign should be completed before the new multi-provider contract is tendered, which is expected to be in 2018.

The Committee recommends that DWP implements a number of other changes in the shorter-term to ensure better outcomes and an improved service for claimants. These include:

• DWP taking overall responsibility for the end-to-end ESA claims process, including taking decisions on whether claimants need a face-to-face assessment, rather than this decision being made by the assessment provider.
• DWP proactively seeking “supporting evidence” on the impact of a claimant’s condition or disability on their functional capacity, rather than leaving this primarily to claimants, who often have to pay for it. DWP should seek this evidence from the most appropriate health and other professionals, including social workers and occupational therapists, rather than relying so heavily on GPs.
• The "descriptors" used to assess functional capability in the WCA being applied more sensitively.
• Placing claimants with a prognosis of being unlikely to experience a change in their functional abilities in the longer-term, particularly those with progressive conditions, in the Support Group and not the WRAG.

We hope this is of interest? The government now has 8 weeks to respond to the Committee's findings.

Thanks, DOT

beanielou

Thank you so much House of Commons rep for taking time to share this.
I cant tell you how much better it make feel.
That is an understatment.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Judicial review

A Judicial review is a type of court proceeding in which a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body.

________________________________________________________

There are many on this board who have claimed for long bitter years that the WCA was an unfair test against whole sections of society. Its a particularly un-fair test of work capability on those with MH issues to include learning disabilities, autism etc who are at a 'substantial disadvantage' Its worthy of note that the WCA itself in 2014 was found in law to be 'unfair' but the courts themselves did not have enough information to compel the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to make a specific change to the WCA. Still the facts now are that the law has said the test itself is unfair - and that was a long overdue start.

- the case is here

baxie

Thanks for reporting this, it will be interesting to see if any of it makes it through, especially

• Placing claimants with a prognosis of being unlikely to experience a change in their functional abilities in the longer-term, particularly those with progressive conditions, in the Support Group and not the WRAG.

benniebert

We shall have to see what the new government will do about it. But from what I have read there is no formal compulsion for this or the next government to actually do anything but carry as before.
If they 'soften' the ESA system, all that will happen is to increase the cost of the benefit to the taxpayers. I can't see that going down well given what the general public appear to think about when mention is made of Welfare Benefits and the claimants.