get ready for .... 'Rehabilitation Support Allowance' and 'Disability and Sickness Allowance' !!!!


see ........

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/cgi-bin/forwardsql/search.cgi?template2=user_details2.htm&output_number=1&news.ID=22125116777

Just read the press release, wonder when the first appeal over whether or not a condition is severe, or potentially more manageable will be?

And as for GP's surgery becoming the 'first step back to work not the route to a life of inactivity'!

I like the idea of a 'proper' medical assessment instead of that old crappy PCA we've got right now.

John

It's that sort of optimistic attitude that gets us WR a bad name - for as long as I can remember the PCA and it's predeccesors have always been a bone of contention - plus a source of continuing employment - I can't see it changing now.

As for Doctor's surgeries - they are a law unto themselves, and already have enough disagreements with the Department of Health - I cannot see them being overly (or even slightly)enthusiastic about becoming involved with another Ministry in the form of the DWP.

I'm not even trying to be negative - just realistic.

I was just mocking the use of the word 'proper' in relation to medical assessments.

As we're having 'proper' medicals instead of the 'not proper' medicals we've got now.

Could we now argue the PCA is not a proper medical as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Alan Johnson said so?

Not trying to be positive-Just having a laugh.

So we now have: JSA, DLA, RSA, DSA and remnants of SDA - ahhh not to mention the clients who will still refer to the DSS or DHSS(!) or even DHSSS(?), the sick, the dole, invalidity allowance/benefit.

Also - looking forward to 'proper' medical assessments.

in the five year plan 'proper' (page 49) they confirm that it will be the PCA

'For new claimants, a future model designed on these lines would involve a number of elements:

An initial 'holding benefit', payable at the same rate as Jobseeker’s Allowance – before people have satisfied the PCA which would normally occur within 12 weeks. The PCA process could then become the gateway to the new main benefits .....

Presumably they'd still have to redesign the PCA so that it differentiated enough to enable either one or the other of the two new benefits to be awarded though?

They have already said the PCA needs drastic changes haven't they?

Seeing as the PCA is a negative test in as much as it takes into account all the tasks you can't do and attaches points and a threshhold. It would seem logical to start awarding points for what you can do and measure that against what you can't and see what you're left with.

The initial response from the BMA to the idea of putting employment advisers in GP surgeries was more negative that positive, I thought. See for example...

http://society.guardian.co.uk/socialexclusion/story/0,11499,1365692,00.html

Which is where we get into the realms of the Data protection Act - are the GP's going to be told to ignore the Act - if I thought my GP was discussing my personal medical history with a gentleman from the DWP, I think I might be somewhat peeved.

Bear in mind as well that most Doctors are already extremely annoyed that their professional judgement is called into question on a regular basis by EMP's.....

of coure the govt had said in its own strategy paper - Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People - published just a couple of weeks ago that the PCA needs reform

see ...

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/cgi-bin/forwardsql/search.cgi?template2=user_details2.htm&output_number=1&news.ID=128104914731

You can imagine the scene now...."I only went in for a flu jab and I came out with a new job".

I think part of the problem, or rather the seed, for these proposals may have been the various independent advice agencies who have successfully done outreach advice work in GP surgeries. There is evidence that such projects are very successful at reaching out and engaging with clients who would otherwise slip through the net.

The fundamental difference is that an independent advisor can offer to help sort out any social welfare problems that a GP's patient may have, without needing to see any information or have any knowledge of what that patient is coming to see the GP about. Whereas for the JC+ staff/employment adviser, I cannot see how this would work at all - will they be grilling all of the people in the waiting room before they go in to see their GP to ask whether they are claiming benefits and if so, do they want a job/employment advice; or will it be a case of the GP giving out a Med3 and then pushing the patient into an adjacent room where they have to discuss their employment options or the Med3 will be confiscated?

The article makes reference to those who completely refuse to engage in the return to work process going back to basic IB. But you can see the problems: if you persist in refusing? and what if you partially refuse?

I'd like to see what plans there are, if any, to revamp permitted work and what support will be provided once a claimant has gone back to full-time work. What about extended payments of IB on starting F/T work? we have extended IS/JSA/HB and CTB. It also makes sense in ensuring those on basic level IB only (ie not on IS) can access health benefits. Its sometimes these little things that can hold a person back.
If the gov't wants people back to work, then real incentives are needed.

more on the role of the pca in the new system ....

in the five year plan it talks about the pca being accompanied by a fuller assessment of potential future work capacity - a new Employment and Support Assessment

... and in the commons yesterday the secretary of state said

'We certainly hope that, by 2008, the major elements will be in place. That will include legislation to make changes so that the PCA can be accompanied by an employment ability test.'

Oh how I long for the old days of IVB. I'm getting all misty eyed. Car park attendant or lift attendant anyone. Go on, then gizza job!

Make that '4 new benefits to be introduced'... just had it confirmed by the DWP press office that there will be contributory and non-contributory forms of both RSA and DSA...

I also asked 'how much higher' DSA (and potentially 'compliant' RSA) would be than IB - they could offer no detail here... just that it would be more than the £74.15 long term higher rate currently payable... Then I asked about Age Additions... lol