Today, Stephen asked the Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work, Tom Pursglove, about the government’s plans to scrap the Work Capability Assessment.
People suffering from long-term ill health or disability must take the Work Capability Assessment to be deemed eligible for Employment Support Allowance. Claimants often find the assessment stressful, burdensome and invasive. The government announced it would scrap the assessment in a White Paper released yesterday, but promised “a new personalised health conditionality approach.”
Asking about the new approach, Stephen said, “that sounds like a new assessment of some kind. Can [the minister] tell us what it means?” Tom Pursglove, Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work, promised to “delve into those reforms” when he is questioned by the Work and Pensions Select Committee, which Stephen chairs.