Centre for Mental Health

Welfare Reform

It is clear that work is good for health, and that employment is an integral part of recovery from mental ill health. However, there are very large (and growing) numbers of people with a mental illness who, despite wanting to work, find themselves unable to do so.

Work experience for ESA claimants, clause 54 of the Welfare Reform Bill

A number of charities, including Centre for Mental Health, have commented on proposals from the Department for Work and Pensions regarding work experience and work placements for ESA claimants. The response calls for work placements to be voluntary, sensitive to claimants' other needs and assigned by appropriately qualified advisers.

Download our response to "Work experience for ESA claimants" (177 KB)

House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee report on work capability assessment

Centre welcomed a call by the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee for the Government in July 2011 to track the employment outcomes of people with different health problems and disabilities as part of its welfare reform programme. Read more here.

The Sayce Review of Disability Employment Programmes

Centre welcomed an independent review of disability employment support by Liz Sayce, Getting in, staying in, getting on, that was published in June 2011. It proposed that Access to Work scheme should be strengthened and expanded to help more disabled people to get paid employment.

Welfare Reform Bill 2010

The Coalition Government published its White Paper on welfare reform, Universal Credit: welfare that works in November 2010. This followed a period of consultation (21st Century Welfare), to which the Centre contributed. The resulting response paper was also published by the Government in November 2010. On 16 February 2011 the Welfare Reform Bill was introduced to Parliament, aiming to legislate for "for the biggest change to the welfare system for over 60 years". The second reading of the Bill in the House of Lords is due in September.

Download our response to "21st Century Welfare here" (108 KB)

Disability Living Allowance

This Government's proposals to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) with a new benefit, Personal Independence Payment, were put to consultation. The Government published its response to this consultation on 4 April 2011. You can read the joint response from Centre for Mental Health, Hafal, Mind, Rethink, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Scottish Association for Mental Health below.

Download the joint response to Disability Living Allowance reform (Word, 1.05 MB)

Work Capability Assessment Independent Review

The first review of the Work Capability Assessment was undertaken by Professor Malcolm Harrington in November 2010 to assess its fairness and effectiveness. The review and the Government's response to it are here. Concerns about work capability assessments remain.

Building Bridges to Work

Published in March 2010, Building Bridges to Work outlined what the then Government's planned with welfare reform. One of the stated aims was to "support disabled people and those with health conditions who are at risk of long-term unemployment and worklessness to make sure no one gets left behind in the recovery". Central to the proposed reform was an assessment of all those claiming incapacity benefit prior to its abolition.

2009 Welfare Reform Act

In December 2008 the Government published a white paper on welfare reform, Raising expectations and increasing support: reforming welfare for the future, which stressed that more support be matched by higher expectations for all.

We responded to the white paper and Bill plans with the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Mind and Rethink. We had also responded to the preceding green paper (from July 2008) No One Written Off. The bill became law in 2009, introducing, among many other measures, the abolition of income support, the 'work for your benefit' scheme, penalties for non-attendance of signing-on appointments, the power to direct claimants of Employment Support Assistance to undertake work-related activity and the introduction of Work Capability Assessments.

Download our response here (94 KB)

Pathways to Work

In 2002, the Government announced plans to provide "a new framework of help for those who through illness or disability have applied for incapacity benefit" to help them get back into work. Following a period of consultation, the Government published an action plan and the scheme was piloted across a number of sites.

Pathways to work was subsequently made available to all seeking benefits from April 2008. It ended in spring 2011.

In Work, Better Off

We responded to the consultation in In Work, Better Off, which closed in October 2007.

Download our response to In Work, Better Off (84 KB)