Cancer sufferers awaiting chemotherapy and those between courses will now be treated the same as patients already receiving treatment when claiming Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).
People with severe mental health problems will also be given more leeway in the benefit application process. The government says this will mean fewer very sick people will be asked to attend a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) to decide their eligibility for ESA. Poor accommodation of cancer patients applying for ESA has previously been a serious complaint of the process and it appears the government has now been forced to act. Changes to the WCA are part of an ongoing overhaul after a highly critical review of the system by Professor Malcolm Harrington at the end of last year and a...
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