Are Work Capability Assessments being abolished?

It is expected that later today Amber Rudd, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, will announce that some Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants will no longer have to go through routine repeat assessments to prove they deserve the benefit.

However it is believed this will be limited to PIP claimants over the state pension age, of which there are currently 270,000.

Instead, it is thought that the claimants will face “light touch” reviews of their condition once a decade.

Ms Rudd is also apparently looking at possibly merging the PIP and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) tests into one system.

Matthew Geer, Campaign Manager at Turn2us, said:

“These benefit assessments have long been criticised for being relentless, cruel and inaccurate, so we are glad to hear that positive steps are being made by the DWP to make this process kinder on pensioners moving forward.

“However, we know that there are millions more still stuck in the process of unnecessary re-assessments and suffering the negative consequences; financially and with their mental and physical health.

“We would like to see a more radical overhaul of benefit tests with a focus on compassion and medical understanding off the back of this announcement.”