The new Employment and Support Allowance was introduced on 27 October.  This replaces Incapacity Benefit and Income Support and is part of the drive by the Government to help those on inactive benefits to find work.  It will apply initially to new applicants for IB.  Existing Incapacity Benefit or Income Support customers will initially continue to receive their existing benefits, so long as they satisfy the entitlement conditions.  Employment and Support Allowance offers personalised support and financial help if people are not working due to an illness or disability. It gives people access to a specially trained personal adviser and a wide range of further services.  Central to Employment and Support Allowance are the new medical assessments which examine what people can do, rather than what they can’t, and identify what personal support they might need.  Most people claiming Employment and Support Allowance will be expected to take appropriate steps to help prepare for work, including attending a series of work-focused interviews with a personal adviser.

Under Employment and Support Allowance, if people have an illness or disability that is too severe to undertake any form of work-related activity, they will get increased financial support and will not be expected to prepare for a return to work.

The consultation period on the UK Government's Welfare Reform Green Paper ended on 24 October. At a meeting in Newcastle the Secretary of State announced that the initial feedback showed broad agreement with many of the proposals in the green paper. These include:

• Greater opportunities to help disabled people back into work, focusing on what people can do, not what they cannot do;
  
• More personalised employment services;
  
• Doubling funding for the Access to Work scheme, which can pay for things like adjustments in the workplace and specialist equipment for disabled people;
  
• The right for disabled people to have and control individual budgets;
  
• More help and incentives for lone parents to get back to work;
  
• Tailored support for drug mis-users on benefits to help them bring their condition under control and move towards employment.
  

Further Information on welfare reform can be found at www.dwp.gov.uk/welfarereform.