Social Security Benefits: Medical Examinations

(asked on 6th February 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment, whether her Department plans to make exempt people with long-term health problems from assessments to include people assessed before 2017.


Answered by
Justin Tomlinson Portrait
Justin Tomlinson
This question was answered on 11th February 2020

Since 29 September 2017, those placed in ESA’s Support Group and the UC equivalent who have the most severe and lifelong health conditions or disabilities, whose level of function would always mean that they would have Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity, and be unlikely ever to be able to move into work, will no longer be routinely reassessed.

These criteria are applied at either the initial Work Capability Assessment or for existing claimants at their next assessment. We need to ensure that we have the right and most up to date information to apply the criteria fairly and make sure we identify everyone who should benefit from it. The people who best understand how their health problem or disability affects them are the individuals themselves, and so it is only right that we ask them for their information. However, we will do this in the least intrusive way possible – the vast majority of people who will fall into this category, will be assessed on paper and will not need to attend a face-to-face assessment.

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