DWP set to remove or amend 'five' rules for WCA disability assessments

DWP set to remove or amend 'five' rules for WCA disability assessments

by · Birmingham Live

The Department for Work and Pensions is set to make sweeping changes to Work Capability Assessments (WCA). The DWP and new Labour Party government is reportedly pushing ahead with changes to disability benefit assessments amid the Cost of Living crisis.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves could reform Universal Credit's Work Capability Assessment (WCA), it has been warned. Labour wants to reform the WCA, because it is warning that the current system was “not working" up and down the country.

Labour has its own plans to "radically" shake up benefits for people whose health limits their ability to work. It remains to be seen what the WCA reform looks like - but the Tories, which Labour beat at the General Election in July, had mulled over proposals.

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According to reports, the DWP could shake-up WCA and remove or alter the following features: people’s mobility and how it is assessed, bladder or bowel incontinence, how claimants deal with social situations, their ability to leave home as well as whether work could be a "risk" to them.

Tory reforms included removing the “Mobilising” activity used to assess limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA), realigning the LCWRA Substantial Risk rules with the original policy intent of only applying in exceptional circumstances and reducing points for some of the descriptors under the Getting About activity used to assess limited capability for work (LCW).

A DWP spokesperson said in a statement this week: “Spiralling inactivity and millions of people denied the right support is holding the country back and stifling the economy. We believe the Work Capability Assessment is not working and needs to be reformed or replaced, alongside a proper plan to support disabled people.

"We will deliver the change the country needs; supporting those who can work, into work, and delivering growth in every part of the country.”