Report

The good, the bad and the messy

This report from UK think tank the Resolution Foundation examines the Pathways to Work Green Paper consultation.

This week marks an important moment for this Government’s welfare reform plans: as Parliament prepares to vote on major legislation to make cuts to PIP and UC-Health, the consultation on longer-term changes to the benefits system, set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, also closes.

There are some good proposals included in the Green Paper: most notably, the Government plans to introduce a new unemployment insurance scheme. If properly implemented, this would improve income protection for workers who experience unemployment, while also boosting dynamism and growth. But the Government should think carefully about its plans to create a single benefit for both jobseekers and those out of work due to poor health: this would significantly reduce support for people who have to leave work due to ill health.

On the other hand, the proposal to remove UC-Health from under-22s is poorly thought through. While the prevalence of ill health, and claims for disability benefits like PIP, are rising among young people aged 16-21, claims for incapacity benefits like UC-Health are not. Rather than cutting UC-Health support for this age group, the Government should prioritise boosting access to employment and educational support.

Finally, putting the wide-ranging suite of benefit changes included in the Green Paper into practice is likely to become messy. Scrapping the Work Capability Assessment would be a generational change to the health-related benefits system, not just a change to the way that assessments are carried out. The problems it throws up are not ones that can be patched over by making exceptions for a small group of claimants and it deserves greater attention.