{"id":25527,"date":"2023-03-16T16:46:43","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T16:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=25527"},"modified":"2026-03-13T16:28:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T16:28:48","slug":"does-the-health-and-disability-white-paper-deliver-for-disabled-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/does-the-health-and-disability-white-paper-deliver-for-disabled-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the Health and Disability White Paper deliver for disabled people?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Two<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You might have missed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not yesterday\u2019s main event\u2013 it would have been hard not to hear about the Government\u2019s budget. (But if you do want to know what we think Chancellor\u2019s measures, you can check out our take here.<\/a> Spoilers: We don\u2019t think he did enough.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, the Red Book wasn\u2019t the only thing published as soon as the Chancellor sat down. Finally, we got to read the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)\u2019 Health and Disability White Paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a long time coming. The Government published the Health and Disability Green Paper in July 2021. Back then, we helped the DWP to organise focus groups with disabled people we support. We used what disabled jobseekers told us to write our response to the Green Paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Has it been worth the wait?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Not really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given that yesterday\u2019s budget was all about getting people \u2018back to work\u2019, you might expect the White Paper to set out how the Government would help disabled people who want to work to overcome the barriers to employment they face.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the measures were positive. Overall, though, the White Paper doesn\u2019t do enough to give disabled jobseekers the specialist support they need. And there are too many unanswered questions about the Government\u2019s plans to reform benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a run through of the announcements and what they could mean for disabled people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The good news<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Additional support for disabled people   <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Disabled people need to be able to access specialist support to help them overcome the barriers to employment they face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could be a good thing that disabled people on Universal Credit and the Employment Support Allowance will now be entitled to additional support from Work Coaches for an initial three-year period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But our research shows that half of jobseekers with complex disabilities don\u2019t feel supported by their Work Coach.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this proposal to be effective, Work Coaches will need to be given specific training in the barriers faced by disabled people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hope that the DWP takes this opportunity to work with disabled people to co-produce training for Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisors.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specialist benefits assessors<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

People with complex disabilities often tell us that they are assessed by people who don\u2019t understand their condition or impairment. Unsurprisingly, this makes the process more distressing for applicants, and leads to inaccurate and unfair decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like other charities, we called in our response in the Green Paper for assessors to have access to expertise on an applicant\u2019s condition or impairment before an assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re pleased that the Government have listened to us, committing to test the introduction of specialist assessors for particular conditions. Done well, it could make the assessment fairer for disabled people. But we need to know how this will work in cases where people have multiple conditions or impairments, or rare conditions that it would not feasible for assessors to specialise in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DWP have said they will work with disabled people and disability charities while putting this proposal into practice. That\u2019s good news \u2013 we look forward to making this proposal work for people with complex disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The news that could be good or bad<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Introducing a new health element to Universal Credit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Starting in 2026\/27, the Government will introduce a new \u2018health element\u2019 of Universal Credit to replace the Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA).  This will be paid at the same rate, and will be available to anyone receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crucially, unlike under the current system, disabled people in employment will now be able to claim this new benefit. That means more disabled people will be eligible for this form of financial support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also means disabled people don\u2019t have to worry about losing benefits if they start work \u2013 something which currently stops some disabled people from accepting a new job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this is positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the bad news? Some people are in the LCWRA group, but don\u2019t claim PIP. This means that they will not be eligible for the new health element. The Institute for Fiscal Studies say that as many as 1 million people could lose out as a result.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government say that, because of financial \u2018transitional protections\u2019, no one currently in the Limited Capability for Work and Work Related Activity group will be worse off. But that doesn\u2019t mean they won\u2019t lose out in the long run. In fact, the White Paper says that this is exactly what will happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replacing the Work Capability Assessment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With the introduction of the new health element, the Work Capability Assessment will be replaced with a new personalised health conditionality approach. This means that people in the limited capability for work and work-related activity group won\u2019t be automatically exempt from looking for work. In contrast, it would also mean those with limited capability for work won\u2019t be automatically be required to look for work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s not much detail on this new \u2018health conditionality\u2019 approach. But the suggestions that more people might be required to look for work is worrying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s vital that a new personalised health conditionality approach doesn\u2019t lead to more people being subject to conditionality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re also concerned by the fact that the new \u2018health element\u2019 of Universal Credit will be dependent on someone\u2019s entitlement to PIP.  But the PIP assessment is just as flawed as the Work Capability Assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government needs to make sure that this new system doesn\u2019t leave disabled people worried that they will lose all their financial support if their PIP assessment doesn\u2019t go their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Unanswered questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We wish that this blog could shed more light on what the proposals will mean for disabled people when the Work Capability Assessment is replaced in 2026\/27. But there are simply too many unanswered questions about the proposal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All we really do know is that the White Paper isn\u2019t doing enough to help disabled people right now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We await more details on the proposals announced and will continue to call for the right support at the right time for disabled people looking for work. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might have missed it. Not yesterday\u2019s main event\u2013 it would have been hard not to hear about the Government\u2019s budget. (But if you do want to know what we think Chancellor\u2019s measures, you can check out our take here. Spoilers: We don\u2019t think he did enough.) No, the Red Book wasn\u2019t the only thing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1393,7],"tags":[],"display_author":[],"class_list":["post-25527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25527"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=25527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}