Editorial - updated 20 March 2007

Give work a go without losing your benefit – Murphy announces

New rules announced by the Government today will mean that more people will be able to try out work as part of the new Employment Support Allowance (ESA) without losing their benefit entitlement.

Under the permitted work rules, ESA customers on the income-related element, as well as those on the contributory element, of the benefit will be able to earn up to £86 per week for a year which it is hoped will help their transfer off benefits and into work.

The Employment and Support Allowance – a new integrated contributory and income-related allowance - will replace incapacity benefit (IB) and income support paid on grounds of incapacity or disability for new claimants from 2008. Jim Murphy, Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform, said:
“All the evidence we have gathered shows that allowing people to try out part-time job options provides a gateway into the world of work, helping them to build up their skills and confidence and vastly improves the chances they have of getting off benefit altogether.

“At the moment we know that if people are on IB for more than two years they are more likely to die or retire than leave it, so giving them the opportunity to try out work helps build up their confidence in their own ability to work and hold down employment.
“We have also listened to the views of stakeholders and IB customers who were very forceful in their view that allowing ESA customers to try work first would help them in the long-term make the step from benefits to work.
“This is part of the Government’s drive to end the legacy of benefit dependency, deprivation and low expectations, such as refocusing the Personal Capability Assessment to an individual’s ability to work, not their eligibility for a benefit. The announcement will take this agenda forward, providing a framework of clear rights and responsibilities.”

The Government will bring forward the ‘Permitted Work’ rules in Incapacity Benefit into both elements of the new Employment Support Allowance benefit, which replaces IB and IS for people with a disability or incapacity for work from 2008.

New rules announced by the Government today will mean that more people will be able to try out work as part of the new Employment Support Allowance (ESA) without losing their benefit entitlement. Under the permitted work rules, ESA customers on the income-related element, as well as those on the contributory element, of the benefit will be able to earn up to £86 per week for a year which it is hoped will help their transfer off benefits and into work.

The Employment and Support Allowance – a new integrated contributory and income-related allowance - will replace incapacity benefit (IB) and income support paid on grounds of incapacity or disability for new claimants from 2008.

Jim Murphy, Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform, said:
“All the evidence we have gathered shows that allowing people to try out part-time job options provides a gateway into the world of work, helping them to build up their skills and confidence and vastly improves the chances they have of getting off benefit altogether.

“At the moment we know that if people are on IB for more than two years they are more likely to die or retire than leave it, so giving them the opportunity to try out work helps build up their confidence in their own ability to work and hold down employment.

“We have also listened to the views of stakeholders and IB customers who were very forceful in their view that allowing ESA customers to try work first would help them in the long-term make the step from benefits to work.
“This is part of the Government’s drive to end the legacy of benefit dependency, deprivation and low expectations, such as refocusing the Personal Capability Assessment to an individual’s ability to work, not their eligibility for a benefit.
The announcement will take this agenda forward, providing a framework of clear rights and responsibilities.” The Government will bring forward the ‘Permitted Work’ rules in Incapacity Benefit into both elements of the new Employment Support Allowance benefit, which replaces IB and IS for people with a disability or incapacity for work from 2008. All ESA claimants will be able to work for fewer than 16 hours and earn up to £86 per week for up to 52 weeks without losing their entitlement.

Evidence from DWP Research Report 214, ‘A Stepping-Stone to Employment? An Evaluation of the Permitted Work Rules – Wave 2’, shows that allowing people to work up to 16 hours a week for up to 52 weeks with earnings of up to £81 (now £86) helps people increase hours over time and move off Incapacity Benefit completely and into work. The Welfare Reform Bill contains provisions to replace incapacity benefits with a new Employment and Support Allowance, that alongside a revised medical assessment, the Personal Capability Assessment, will help focus on a person’s capability rather than incapacity for work. ESA is supported by the roll-out of Pathways to Work which will be available throughout the UK by April 2008.

All ESA claimants will be able to work for fewer than 16 hours and earn up to £86 per week for up to 52 weeks without losing their entitlement. Evidence from DWP Research Report 214, ‘A Stepping-Stone to Employment? An Evaluation of the Permitted Work Rules – Wave 2’, shows that allowing people to work up to 16 hours a week for up to 52 weeks with earnings of up to £81 (now £86) helps people increase hours over time and move off Incapacity Benefit completely and into work. The Welfare Reform Bill contains provisions to replace incapacity benefits with a new Employment and Support Allowance, that alongside a revised medical assessment, the Personal Capability Assessment, will help focus on a person’s capability rather than incapacity for work. ESA is supported by the roll-out of Pathways to Work which will be available throughout the UK by April 2008.

Over half of public bodies meet new disability duties

A new report out today reveals that more than half of public authorities have published a Disability Equality Scheme with the involvement of disabled people, as required by law since 4 December 2006.

The Government's Office for Disability Issues (ODI) today published
"Public Bodies' Response to the Disability Equality Duty" by Ipsos MORI.

The report provides a picture of compliance with the new Disability Equality Duty as of January 2007.

Welcoming the report, Minister for Disabled People, Anne McGuire praised those bodies who had involved disabled people directly in the development of their schemes. Ms McGuire said:

"Implementation of the Disability Equality Duty is key to improving the lives of disabled people. It's a huge step forward that just over half of all public bodies audited by the Office for Disability Issues were found to have given disabled people a real opportunity to influence and shape the policies and services which have an impact on their lives.

"But it's disappointing that a significant number of public bodies missed the December deadline to publish a scheme - and the ODI, working with the Disability Rights Commission, will be taking appropriate action to ensure all public bodies are playing their part in promoting equality for disabled people."

Since 4 December 2006, all public sector bodies have been required by law to set out how they plan to promote equality for disabled people in a Disability Equality Scheme. Of those organisations who have complied, three quarters have involved disabled people in the production of their scheme.

The report provides information, broken down by sector, as to how many public authorities have published a Disability Equality Scheme and the percentage of authorities who have involved disabled people in drawing up their schemes. The findings will help to identify the sectors that require additional support from Government and the Disability Rights Commission.

The ODI will be conducting further research with public bodies this year, as well as running a number of conferences to provide examples of best practice.

Selected survey findings:
* 72 per cent of public authorities covered by the audit were found to have published a Disability Equality Scheme (DES)
* At least 54% of all authorities covered in the audit are estimated to have published a DES that contained evidence of involving disabled people
* Public sectors with the highest level of compliance were Ministerial Government Departments and Higher Education institutions. The lowest were the 'Cultural and Countryside sector' and 'Other Central Government Bodies' (for example, executive agencies and regulators)

* Authorities who had involved disabled people were most likely to have involved disabled customers/service users (87%) or disabled members of staff (84%)
* The most common method of involving disabled was via surveys/ focus groups of disabled customers (70%) or through regular working workshops (57%).

REVIEW OF INDEPENDENT LIVING FUNDS PUBLISHED TODAY

The Review of the Independent Living Funds, by consultants Melanie Henwood and Bob Hudson, is published today as part of the Government’s regular review of non-departmental public bodies. The Independent Living Funds enable severely disabled people to live independently in their own homes.

The Review recommends that the Funds should remain in their present form until 2009/10, but in the longer term that there should be a smooth transition towards full integration within a system of personalised budgets. The Government will carefully consider the report’s recommendations and will publish its response to the report by the summer recess.

Anne McGuire, Minister for Disabled People, said:
“While I welcome this thorough and professional report which will inform discussions of the future of social care, my priority is to ensure that the people who use the funds will continue to be supported to live independently. I recognise the ground-breaking role which Independent Living Funds have played over the past 19 years, and how important their services are to the disabled people who use them to live independently. The Independent Living Funds have made a tremendous difference to thousands of disabled people, giving them independence and control over their own lives. And I am grateful to the Trustees for their continuing hard work and commitment."

Radical review of welfare could help thousands more into work

A radical review of the welfare system carried out by David Freud is welcomed today by Prime Minister Tony Blair, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions John Hutton.

The recommendations in David Freud’s report, Reducing Dependency, Increasing Opportunity: options for the future of welfare to work include:

• Greater use of private and voluntary sector resources and expertise so harder–to-help benefit claimants receive more employment support – particularly existing customers who have been trapped on benefit for long periods of time;
• A new focus on long term mentoring to tackle the problem of repeat benefit claimants – helping keep customers in work and encouraging them to progress to higher paid jobs rather than returning to benefit dependency;
• Greater rewards for organisations that are successful in helping claimants find and stay in work, with higher payments based on sustaining customers in employment for as long as three years. This could be financed by savings to the taxpayer from having the customer in work rather than claiming benefit;
• Greater personalisation of employment support, with higher financial incentives for organisations to target resources at the hardest-to-help who need more support before they are ready to return to work;
• Retaining Jobcentre Plus’s role in helping customers during the early stages of their period on benefit and creating a new role for the organisation to assess how much support individual claimants are likely to need before they are ready to return to work;
• Rebalancing rights and responsibilities in the welfare system – matching increased support with greater obligations on claimants to look for work. In particular placing greater responsibilities on lone parents with older children to look for work once their youngest child reaches 12, rather than the current age of 16;and
• Simplification of the benefits system.

Welcoming the review John Hutton said:
“I welcome this report and want to thank David Freud for giving up his time to produce it. He has set out a compelling framework for the next stage of welfare reform which the government must now carefully consider.
We have made real progress so far, with 2.5m more people in work since 1997 and 900,000 fewer on benefits. But we must go further and find new ways to support the hardest to help into work.
“We must make use of all the experience and expertise which exists in the private and voluntary sector to complement the role of the public sector in delivering welfare. These groups can make a real difference in supporting the most disadvantaged into work and helping them stay in a job over the long term rather than coming straight back onto benefit.”

Commenting on the proposals to change support for lone parents, Minister for Welfare Reform Jim Murphy said:
“We have helped over 300,000 lone parents off benefits and we now have over a million lone parents in work. But for those without work we must do more. It is clear that the majority of lone parents want to work, they want to provide for themselves and their children, but they need more support to make that happen.

“The Freud review sets out the case for rebalancing rights and responsibilities in the welfare system. If we can offer lone parents greater levels of support – whether it is retraining, childcare support or help with finding the right job – it is right that we debate whether they should have a greater responsibility to look for work when their child reaches an appropriate age. We will therefore be considering the recommendations in the review very seriously.” David Freud, who was asked by John Hutton to carry out the review, said:
"This is a radical reform designed to reduce social dependency of the most disadvantaged. I am proposing a structure in which the private and voluntary sector would be prepared to invest substantial sums, with minimal risk to the state. In return, I am looking to people with more barriers to work to engage fully with the new support system."

A taste of the Paralympics in Bury St Edmunds

Suffolk Disability Charity Optua is holding a major disability sports event in Bury St Edmunds in April.

The Disability Sport Showcase Day will give disabled people the chance to try out a range of Paralympic sports such as archery, athletics, football, basketball, swimming, fencing and judo.

The event is being held at Bury Leisure Centre and King Edward VI School on Saturday 28th April from 9am to 5pm.

Optua is looking to attract as many disabled people from across the county and beyond to take part in the day. The Showcase Day follows a similar event in Ipswich last September which was incredibly successful and attracted 130 people with a physical, sensory or learning disability.

The event is being organised as part of Optua's Suffolk Disability Sport Academy project which aims to encourage more disabled people to get into sport any maybe even help them on the road to the 2012 Paralympics in London. David Finn, manager of Optua Leisure, said: “Our last Showcase Day was a great success. It created a lot of excitement and it inspired a lot of people to get more involved. It’s great to be able to provide a range of sports so people can try some less well known ones like goalball and boccia. “

Colin Poole, Chief Executive of Optua, added: “We want to get the message out to as many people as possible about this event. It really is a great opportunity for disabled people to come along and sample different sports for free. Everyone’s talking about the Olympics and Paralympics at the moment and we want to make sure disabled people realise they can be part of that.”

The event is being supported by several organisations including Skipton Building Society, The PJK Charitable Trust, Suffolk County Council’s Suffolk Single Gateway, Fund, St Edmundsbury Borough Council and the West Suffolk Local Strategic Partnership.

The ‘Getting Western Suffolk Active’ initiative is also being launched at the event. ‘Getting Western Suffolk Active’ is a partnership between Optua, St Edmundsbury Borough Council, and Babergh and Forest Heath District Councils, which aims to get encourage people to become more active and take up leisure activities.

Anyone who wants to take part in the day can call Optua Leisure on 01473 836770, email leisure@optua.org.uk or go to www.optua.org.uk to download registration forms.

Optua is also looking for any volunteers who’d like to help on the day.
Contact: James Powell, PR Manager, Optua,
tel: 01473 836746/836777,
james.powell@optua.org.uk

20.03.07