Council condemns the unfair application of the Work Capability Assessment and the £29.05 weekly reduction in the work related activity group. Council calls for the immediate devolution of all aspects of employment and support allowance to the Scottish Parliament and the reversal of the cut to work related activity weekly rate.
Council calls on the Scottish Government to fundamentally overhaul ESA learning the lessons from Scandinavia. The new Scottish system should place a return to work in any capacity as a statutory duty of the state working with the claimant, their employer and the Social Security Agency.
Council further calls for the abolition of the Work Capability assessment and its replacement with a “real world incapacity” assessment based in principle on the Danish resource profile model.
Council reiterates our support for an employability first approach to ESA.