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61-425: Incapacity Benefit was a British social security benefit that was paid to people facing extra barriers to work because of their long-term illness or their disability. It replaced Invalidity Benefit in 1995. The government began to phase out Incapacity Benefit in 2008 by making it unavailable to new claimants, and later moved almost all the remaining long-term recipients onto Employment and Support Allowance . In 1995,

122-519: A welfare trap , where it was not worth coming off the benefit and going to work. In 2011, out-of-work sickness benefits had an annual cost of £13   billion: the Chancellor, George Osborne , called this "a very large budget". The total annual budget of the Department for Work and Pensions in the 2011/2012 financial year was £166.98 billion, with the largest slice by far - almost half - being spent on

183-481: A "sick-note culture" that allowed people to drift onto Incapacity Benefit. In some cases, the claimant's recorded main disabling conditions were conditions that were not necessarily disabling, such as acne or a chronic cough . A medical certificate from a GP is the first step onto sickness benefits; although a government-run eligibility test was brought in alongside Incapacity Benefit in 1995, said that officials still accepted too many claims using information supplied by

244-412: A Personal Capability Assessment to establish whether their condition had improved: if it had, benefit payments could be withdrawn; otherwise, a Capability Report was drawn up by the examining doctor and used by Job Centre staff to plan ways to boost recipients' employability, in the hope of returning them to work. This new test was also used to assess some fresh claims for Incapacity Benefit. In late 2008,

305-434: A claimant can score 15, 9, 6 or 0 points: the more severe their disability, the more points they will score. Points are scored by having physical impairments, mental ones or a mixture of the two (if they are likely to significantly affect the claimant's ability to work). In order to be entitled to ESA, a person will need to score at least 15 points in total. Other factors, such as some aspects of pregnancy, are also considered by

366-537: A claimant's ability to work, that eligibility did not consider a claimant's personal circumstances when deciding if a claimant is fit for work, the number of decisions that were being overturned on appeal, that assessors were pressured to find claimants fit for work when they did not feel they were, that ESA is being used to conceal unemployment levels, that some people were too sick or disabled to work but could not claim because they had not paid enough National Insurance contributions but their household income

427-764: A major donor to the university). The building, which includes teaching spaces and an art gallery has been described as "the impressive new entry point to the campus". For the 2025–26 academic year, the University expects to open its London campus at the Brent Cross Town development in the London Borough of Barnet . The campus will accommodate up to 5,000 students by 2030. In 2020, the university relaunched its structure moving away from four faculties and re-organising academic departments into colleges. College of Business, Technology and Engineering (BTE) Formerly known as

488-425: A person has submitted a claim for ESA, they will normally be paid assessment rate for 13 weeks. The ESA50 form, together with any other information sent with it by the claimant, will be read by a qualified healthcare professional, who will then decide on whether a face-to-face medical assessment is actually necessary: some people with severe disabilities can be granted ESA based solely on the documents supplied, if that

549-503: A questionnaire called an ESA50, where the claimant explains how their disability affects them. In rare circumstances, a full assessment is not required, such as when a doctor has officially certified the claimant as being likely to die within six months. The completed form must then be sent in the envelope provided to the Health Assessment Advisory Service - the trading name of the assessment provider, Maximus . Once

610-576: A single working age benefit payment to replace Housing Benefit, Jobseekers Allowance and all other working-age benefits. In July 2008 a Green Paper was published. It declared that "between 2009 and 2013, all Incapacity Benefit claimants will be reassessed using a medical assessment called the Work Capability Assessment" that would divide them into three groups: fit for work; unfit for work but fit for "work-related activity"; or fit for neither. In October 2008, ESA and its eligibility test,

671-431: A successful claimant might receive an enhanced level of payment (depending on the level of disability and whether they enter the work-related activity group or the support group after their assessment). * Only one of these components is payable per claim In April 2017, the work-related activity component was abolished for new claimants. The same applies to successful reclaims, if more than a certain time has elapsed since

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732-532: A week may be paid. ESA can be either contributory or income-related. If claimants have paid enough National Insurance they can claim contributory ESA. Income-related ESA is for people who have not paid enough National Insurance contributions and is subject to a means test and certain other conditions (although the amount paid as contributions-based ESA can also be affected by financial circumstances). A person must have capital of less than £16,000 to be eligible for income-based ESA. This includes any savings that

793-667: A year. The resulting Welfare Reform Bill was introduced to Parliament for consideration in July 2006. On 3 May 2007, the bill received royal assent. Blair appointed David Freud , as an advisor on out-of-work benefit reform in December 2006. Freud wrote the report: Reducing dependency, increasing opportunity: options for the future of welfare to work in 2007. It called for the greater use of private sector companies who would be paid by results, for substantial resources to be made available to help people on Incapacity Benefit back into work, and for

854-476: Is clear from the paperwork. For this reason, Maximus encourages new claimants to send as much relevant information as possible and give a detailed description of their disability when filling in the claim form. The Claimant is then asked to attend a Work Capability Assessment . The assessment is often described as consisting of two separate assessments. In practice, if they have a face-to-face assessment, an individual claimant will experience only one assessment on

915-608: Is concerned, this is about whether the claimant has one or more severe disabilities, affecting the 17 areas which the ESA descriptors focus on. If a person is found to have a severe disability, they will be placed in the Support Group. ESA superseded three older benefits: Incapacity Benefit ; Income Support paid because of an illness or disability; and Severe Disablement Allowance . A Green Paper published in 1998 proposed partially means-testing Incapacity Benefit and making deductions from

976-732: Is highly critical of Employment Support Allowance. Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield Hallam University ( SHU ) is a public research university in Sheffield , South Yorkshire , England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield railway station , while the Collegiate Crescent Campus is about two miles away in the Broomhall Estate off Ecclesall Road in south-west Sheffield. A third campus at Brent Cross Town in

1037-474: Is paid out by a current employer) and it is not possible to receive ESA at the same time as the other main out-of-work benefits, i.e. Jobseekers Allowance or Income Support . Universal Credit , which is received by one million people nationally, can contain a component analogous to ESA. No money is paid for the first week. After that, the basic allowance is paid to the claimant until their Work Capability Assessment (WCA) at - in theory - week 13, after which

1098-773: The First World War , the Collegiate Hall was requisitioned by the War Office to create the 3rd Northern General Hospital, a facility for the Royal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties. A new city centre campus was constructed during the 1960s. During construction, in February ;1962, a tower crane on site collapsed during the Great Sheffield Gale . It crashed into the side of what would become

1159-450: The London Borough of Barnet is expected to open for the 2025–26 academic year. The university is the 14th largest university in the UK (out of 169) with 35,340 students (of whom 4,400 are international students), 4,494 staff and 708 courses. In 1843, as the industrial revolution gathered pace and Sheffield was on the verge of becoming the steel, tool and cutlery making capital of the world,

1220-516: The Northern Consortium . In 1992, Sheffield City Polytechnic became Sheffield Hallam University (SHU), with the right to award its own degrees. In 2005, SHU was reorganised into four faculties. The new Faculty of Development and Society, with an emphasis on 'people, places and spaces', brought together education, geography, humanities, law, and social sciences. At the same time, with the intention of further developing research and teaching in

1281-541: The Work Capability Assessment , were introduced for new claims. The Welfare Secretary wrote that these and other planned changes would ensure that "only those who are genuinely incapable of work" would get full ESA - other sickness benefit recipients would have to comply with plans drawn up with the DWP's private partners to get them back to work. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) contracted Atos to perform

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1342-462: The 1980s) experienced the biggest rises in people claiming Incapacity Benefit, but that there was no comparable rise in Jobseeker's Allowance claimants. In 2004, the caseload peaked at just under 2,500,000 then began to fall slowly, but caseloads never fell lower than they were in 1995. A report written by academics from Sheffield Hallam University argued that Incapacity Benefit had been used to give

1403-537: The Conservative Party manifesto of 2015, in that parliamentary term. In October 2016, Damian Green announced a consultation exercise on reforming the WCA. Roughly 70,000 claimants were paid between £5,000 and £20,000 too little from 2011 to 2016 because the DWP miscalculated their entitlement when they were moved from incapacity benefit on to employment and support allowance. A Public Accounts Committee report accused

1464-579: The Conservative Secretary of State for Social Security, Peter Lilley , abolished Invalidity Benefit for fresh claims and replaced it with Incapacity Benefit after the Prime Minister of the day, John Major , had complained about the burgeoning caseload, saying: "Frankly, it beggars belief that so many more people have suddenly become invalids, especially at a time when the health of the population has improved". A new feature of Incapacity Benefit

1525-437: The DWP back into work. No benefits with these names ever materialised. In March 2005, Atos was awarded the contract to work with the DWP to build the software programme that would be used in the assessment of claims for the allowance that would take the place of Incapacity Benefit. The firm, which was already carrying out the DWP's existing disability assessments, would employ hundreds more healthcare professionals to carry out

1586-446: The DWP of haste over the transfer while failing to take legal advice or make basic checks. Evidence that people were underpaid was disregarded and warnings from its own policy advisors that it should delay and sort out the issues before proceeding were ignored. The report said the DWP's lack of urgency - it took six years to start to deal with the error - showed "a culture of indifference" to people being paid too little. Meg Hillier said

1647-494: The DWP that show that the number of Incapacity Benefit in relation to the number of JSA claimants rose considerably between the 1990s and the 2000s. As well as this, an article in the Telegraph argued that the number of former Incapacity Benefit claimants found fit for work when assessed for ESA showed that Incapacity Benefit had been used to hide unemployment levels In 2008, the then health secretary , Alan Johnson complained about

1708-760: The Incapacity Benefit caseload had shrunk by more than 500000, and the ESA caseload had grown by the same amount. The Coalition government decided to implement the plan to reassess most remaining Incapacity Benefit recipients. This reassessment programme, which began in early 2011 and was effectively completed in 2016, used an updated version of the Work Capability Assessment . Recipients confirmed as having limited capability for work were transferred onto ESA; any found fully capable of work had their Incapacity Benefit payments stopped and were invited to apply for Jobseekers Allowance (JSA). To be eligible for Incapacity Benefit claimants had to meet one of two criteria: For

1769-513: The Labour government replaced Incapacity Benefit with Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for new claims and brought in another gateway health test largely carried out by nurses: the Work Capability Assessment . Following the introduction of ESA, the number of remaining Incapacity Benefit recipients dwindled, largely as they came off the benefit upon reaching the State Pension age. By early 2011,

1830-539: The Owen Building, causing serious damage and setting back construction. In 1967, the Owen Building was completed. Built in a functional 1960s design, it has since been modernised and comprehensively renovated with an atrium linking it to four adjacent buildings. In 1969 the Sheffield School of Design merged with the city's College of Technology to form Sheffield Polytechnic. In 1976, Sheffield Polytechnic merged with

1891-545: The Sheffield Business School and prior to that the Faculty of Organisation and Management (OM). The new college incorporated parts of the old Faculty Science, Technology and Arts (STA) previously known as the Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Sciences (ACES) College of Social Sciences and Arts (SSA) Formerly known as the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). The new college incorporated parts of

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1952-739: The Sheffield School of Design was founded following lobbying by artist Benjamin Haydon . The day-to-day running was controlled by the local council, whilst the Board of Trade in London appointed the head. Tuition began in a 60x40ft rented room off Glossop Road. In 1850, the School of Design was renamed Sheffield School of Art. In 1905, the City of Sheffield Training College (later renamed Sheffield City College of Education) on Collegiate Crescent admitted its first 90 students. During

2013-541: The State Pension, followed by Housing Benefit at slightly under £30 billion. Tax Credits, administered by the Treasury, cost roughly the same as Housing Benefit. After many Incapacity Benefit claimants were reassessed, some news reports that only a very small number of Incapacity Benefit claimants were genuinely unable to work. The Guardian claimed that 75% of Incapacity Benefit claimants who were reassessed for ESA were fit to work. This figure that had been arrived at by combining

2074-482: The WCA when it introduced ESA. In December 2008, Paul Gregg published a report that recommended that most people on ESA should have to undertake work-related activity. In early 2011, the Incapacity Benefit reassessment programme got underway using a more stringent version of the WCA and the caseload's falling trend resumed - until the middle of 2013, when the caseload began to grow again after fresh guidance had to be issued on how to judge fitness for work. By 2015, in

2135-483: The WRAG are only allowed to claim for one year. WRAG claimants must attend a work-focused interview with a personal advisor, where they discuss how the claimant could find suitable work, and take part in activities to improve their chances of finding work. Some types of activity claimants may participate in include: The support group is for claimants who are not considered fit for work and are unlikely to become fit for work in

2196-620: The Work-Related Activity Group (WRAG) and the Support Group. In February 2017, 66% of claimants were in the Support Group, 17% were in the WRAG, 13% were in the assessment phase and the phase for 3% of claimants were unknown. The WRAG is for claimants who are currently unfit for work but expected to find work in the future. Claimants in the WRAG are required to participate in work-related activity or else they well be sanctioned; where their benefit payments are temporarily stopped. People who are claiming contribution-based ESA and placed in

2257-562: The absence of the huge fall in recipients prophesied by the architects of ESA, and in spite of the broadly downward natural long-term trend, the total caseload was little different from when ESA was introduced. Maximus took over the contract - worth £170million a year to the US firm - from Atos in March 2015. In 2016, Stephen Crabb , who was the secretary of state for the DWP, declared that there would be no new welfare policies, other than those set out in

2318-423: The affair demonstrated "weakness at the highest levels" of the DWP. "Thousands of people have not received money essential for living costs because of government's blinkered and wholly inept handling of ESA" she said. ESA has been criticised for numerous reasons, including claims that the WCA was poorly designed, that WCA and the criteria used to determine fitness for work did not offer a realistic perspective on

2379-493: The age of 45 also were paid the Incapacity Age Addition. The number of Incapacity Benefits rose dramatically in the 1990s. A study on this phenomenon argued that it was extremely unlikely that the number of people with serious disabilities had risen as rapidly as the number of Incapacity Benefit claimants. The study found that areas where a high number of jobs had been lost (for example, from the closure of coal mines in

2440-422: The appearance that unemployment levels were lower than they genuinely were. The report's author's claimed that because Incapacity Benefit claimants were not counted as unemployed in official data on employment levels, unemployed people with disabilities that did not necessarily prevent them from working were allowed to claim Incapacity Benefit so that unemployment figures would appear lower. The report cites data from

2501-451: The application process, the use of sanctions for people in the WRAG who may be too unwell to participate in their work-related activities, that the government had unrealistic expectations for disabled people to find work, that some claimants did not receive enough money to cover their living costs, and that ESA WCAs and claims ending were associated with claimant deaths. A United Nations report has been written, which

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2562-423: The assessor, who will be a nurse, doctor, occupational therapist or physiotherapist; these factors do not operate on a points system but might nevertheless qualify the claimant for ESA. This is about whether a successful claimant of ESA is capable of taking part in interviews and pre-employment training, or whether their ability to do so is limited to a significant degree. As far as the way the WCA actually operates

2623-475: The benefit payments for people receiving an occupational pension. In February 2005, the Welfare Secretary Alan Johnson announced plans to replace Incapacity Benefit with two new benefits: "Disability and Sickness Allowance", for people deemed too ill to work; and "Rehabilitation Support Allowance", paid at the same rate as Jobseekers Allowance to less disabled people, who would be supported by

2684-404: The city's two teacher training colleges (Sheffield City College and Totley Hall College) and was renamed Sheffield City Polytechnic. From 1979 to 1988 students from Sheffield City Polytechnic were based at Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham. Two departments, Physical Education and Geography and Environmental Studies, were based on site. In 1987 Sheffield City Polytechnic became a founding member of

2745-412: The claimant or their spouse or partner may own. Income-related ESA is not time-limited and is not usually subject to Income Tax, but contribution-based ESA is. Universal Credit is incorporating income-related ESA in stages. In the parts of the UK where it already has, contribution-based ESA has been rebadged as "new-style ESA". After the Work Capability Assessment, claimants are split into two groups:

2806-466: The claimants themselves and their GPs without asking for an All Work Test to be performed, partly because the pool of medical assessors was relatively small and partly because doctors' time was costly - which was why large numbers of nurses were brought in to perform the new test introduced in 2008. In 2014, Iain Duncan Smith said that once claimants had been granted Incapacity Benefit they were caught in

2867-428: The day (the decision-making is done afterwards). The two stages are: A DWP official makes the final decision on entitlement, based on all the available evidence. At their WCA, an ESA claimant must be found to have limited capability for work in order to qualify at all. The testing process gauges the claimant's ability to perform up to 17 activities; these activities are set out on the ESA claim form. For each activity,

2928-411: The first 28 weeks of the claim, eligibility was based on whether the claimant could do their normal occupation. From the 29th week onwards, eligibility was based on whether the claimant was able to do any type of work. People over state pension age who were claiming Incapacity Benefit before they reached this age were eligible to receive Incapacity Benefit for up to one year after they became eligible for

2989-455: The last period of receipt of ESA (long-term successful claimants who had a WCA before April 2017 continue to receive it). People receiving the support component are unaffected. An enhanced disability premium of £16.80 a week may be paid to single people receiving the support component of income-related ESA; for a couple, the rate is £24.10 where one or both partners qualify. In some circumstances, an additional severe disability premium of £65.85

3050-482: The near-future. Claimants in this group are paid the support component and are not required to participate in any work-related activity. Someone wanting to claim ESA will need a medical certificate, i.e. a sick-note, signed by their GP to say that they are not fully fit for work. The new claimant must then contact the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), usually by phone, who will log their claim and usually post them

3111-589: The new Faculty of Health and Wellbeing, a new Clinical Academic Group was launched. The building that had been designed and constructed to house the National Centre for Popular Music became the university's students' union building (the HUBS). The Nelson Mandela Building, the former students' union building (when opened in 1978 was known as the Phoenix building ), was sold and has since been demolished. In 2007, SHU took over

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3172-436: The new test once it went live - in late 2008. In January 2006, John Hutton published a White Paper outlining the government's latest plans for welfare reform: the benefit that would replace Incapacity Benefit would be called Employment and Support Allowance and its gateway assessment would be transformed. Over 10 years, Hutton expected the number of people on Incapacity Benefit to fall by one million, thereby saving £7 billion

3233-475: The number of claimants who withdrew their claim during the assessment phase, those who were found fit for work after the WCA and those who were placed in the work-related activity group. 25% of Incapacity Benefit claimants who attended a WCA were found fit for work. Employment and Support Allowance An individual can put in a claim for ESA if they satisfy all of these conditions: They will not be paid ESA if they are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (which

3294-474: The old Faculty Science, Technology and Arts (STA) previously known as the Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Sciences (ACES) College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences (HWLS) Formerly the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing (HWB) Through the research centres a number of spin-off companies have been formed, including: British barrister, broadcaster, and life peer of the House of Lords, Helena Kennedy ,

3355-405: The state pension. The short term rate was paid to people who had claimed Incapacity Benefit for less than 52 weeks. After 52 weeks, claimants would be paid the long term rate, however, claimants who had a terminal illness or got the highest rate care component of Disability Living Allowance were able to be paid the long term rate after 28 weeks of claiming Incapacity Benefit. The short term rate

3416-696: The teaching of nursing and midwifery from the University of Sheffield . These activities are now based at the Collegiate Crescent Campus. The following year the Psalter Lane campus (formerly the Sheffield College of Art) was closed, and the activities transferred to the City Campus. The £26 million energy-efficient Furnival Building opened in September (renamed Cantor Building in 2011 in recognition of

3477-474: The university league tables, Sheffield Hallam University was placed 47th out of 121 UK universities by The Guardian University Guide 2021 ; 65th out of 131 by The Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020 ; and 67th out of 130 by the Complete University Guide 2021 . In 2019, it ranked 485th among the universities around the world by SCImago Institutions Rankings . Hallam received

3538-631: Was installed as chancellor in a ceremony at Cutlers' Hall on Thursday 26 July 2018. SHU is the lead partner for Higher Futures , the Lifelong Learning Network (LLN) for South Yorkshire, North Derbyshire and North Nottinghamshire. In the National Student Survey, several subject areas at SHU have performed very well in terms of overall student satisfaction with their courses: for example, architecture and geography have both been placed first, and planning has been placed second. In

3599-421: Was split into two other categories: lower rate and higher rate. The lower rate was paid to people who had been sick or disabled for more than four days but less than 28 weeks and who were not able to claim Statutory Sick Pay . The higher rate was paid to people who had been sick or disabled for more than 28 weeks but less than 52 weeks. Claimants who became unable to work as a result of sickness or disability before

3660-492: Was that officials could ask for claimants' disabilities to be confirmed using a bespoke testing procedure – the All Work Test – carried out by doctors working for the government. Another feature was that claimants would be assessed on their ability to do any job, not just their old trade. And unlike its predecessor, Incapacity Benefit was taxable. Nevertheless, the caseload continued to rise. After 2000, some recipients underwent

3721-434: Was too high, the decision to limit contribution-based ESA claimants who were placed in the WRAG to claiming for one year, that ESA failed to make predicted savings, the cost of outsourcing the contract for conducting the WCA, the cuts made to the amount people on ESA received, difficulties with appealing a decision on eligibility, that claimants were not incentivised to work, that claimants struggled with

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