After almost 14 months the Welfare Reform Bill has finally reached the end of its journey through Parliament. The Bill passed its final hurdle in the House of Lords last Wednesday and will shortly become law.
So what does it all mean for people with cancer?
Well, we’ve had some good news in the last month about Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The government is sticking to its plan to limit the availability of ESA for some people to just 12 months. But it has now agreed that many people with cancer will continue to receive ESA “while recovering from treatment”. This will ensure that they receive their benefits for longer before the time limit eventually kicks in.
Given how few changes the government has been willing to make to the Bill, this commitment is a significant victory for our campaign. The challenge now is to try and translate this broad commitment into clear, workable guidance that gives people with cancer the protection they need. We’ll be working with the government over the next few months to try to ensure this happens.
Unfortunately, there are still some people with cancer currently claiming ESA who stand to lose their benefits when the Bill is implemented at the end of April. We’ve asked the government to safeguard these people’s benefits until this new guidance is in place. Having made a commitment to protect cancer patients, it’s crucial that the government makes sure that no-one is allowed to slip through the net.
So while we’ve made some real progress in recent months, we’ve still got a lot of work to do. The Welfare Reform Bill may be over, but the Welfare Reform Campaign goes on.
