Jobcentre Plus staff have revealed ‘serious reservations' about a nationwide roll-out the reassessment of incapacity benefit claimants for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).
The views were echoed by those of Atos Healthcare staff who are also involved in the assessment process.
They were aired in a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) report into the two trials of transferring Incapacity Benefit, Income Support and Severe Disablement Allowance to ESA being undertaken in Aberdeen and Burnley as part of the welfare reforms.
The report explained: "Overall Jobcentre Plus staff thought that the decision-making process was working well, but had ‘serious reservations' about whether the process could be scaled up to a national roll out.
"In the trial areas both Jobcentre Plus and Atos Healthcare staff said they were ‘going the extra mile' in many cases to review cases thoroughly and to acquire additional evidence to inform their decision, but staff felt the time spent chasing further evidence and clarifying the WCA report may have to be scaled back for national roll-out."
The authors also highlighted several other areas that should be improved before a national roll-out.
These included:
• ensuring consistency of the approach to decision-making through clear guidance to benefit delivery centre staff about their role in the process. The two sites involved in the trial took very different approaches to the decision-making process,
• giving customers an indication of the type of evidence that they could provide. Several of those appealing were planning to submit a statement from their GP, so encouraging provision of this earlier could reduce the likelihood of customers to feel that they had a case for appeal,
• considering clearer delineation of the physical and mental health sections of the ESA50 assessment form,
• including a leaflet about Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and reassessment with the initial notification letter to meet the needs of some customers for more information about the later stages of the process,
• for Work Related Activity Group customers, separating out communication of the outcome from communication about the implications of being in the group.
However, the new ESA50 form that claimants were required to fill in was complimented.
It was also acknowledged that by and large the reassessment process was working well and on the whole customers were successfully guided through the different stages of the process.
It added that Jobcentre Plus staff generally felt it compared favourably to new processes or assessments in the past and the inclusion of a greater degree of personal contact (through phone calls at several stages) was well received.
Customers reported the process as being ‘human'.
