Hello. I passed your comments to our policy & campaigns team, and here is the response from Olivia Marks-Woldman, Breast Cancer Care’s Head of Policy & Campaigns:
“Thank you for highlighting this and letting us know your views on this important issue. We are as concerned as you about any changes to the welfare and benefits system that may adversely affect women with breast cancer and let me assure you that we do express our concern on issues like this when we meet politicians and in our written responses to consultations – and we do try to do so passionately and vigorously.
You may be aware of our EMPLOY campaign last year which highlighted good practice in employing people with breast cancer – and emphasized the need not to make assumptions about when individuals are, or are not, ready for work.
In this particular instance, it may be helpful to first clarify the details of the government announcement.
The changes announced mean that people who are on Incapacity Benefit will be reassessed to either:
* move onto Jobseeker’s Allowance if they are deemed capable of work,
* switch to the Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) if they need support while preparing for work,
* or those people who are most disabled or terminally ill will not be expected to look for work and will get the extra support they need on the ESA.
These changes are being implemented to phase out Incapacity Benefit but claimants still eligible will receive support under a benefit by another name. This process will occur over the next few years but will not affect anyone already receiving the ESA. The switchover will mean that people on the old Incapacity Benefit will have to undertake a work capability assessment to make sure they are diverted to either the ESA or Jobseeker’s Allowance.
While this may be stressful and frustrating for women with breast cancer claiming Incapacity Benefit, the announced change will mean just one assessment to determine their status.
Certain groups of people automatically qualify for the ESA (are found to have limited capacity for work) without having to satisfy the work capability assessment. These include:
• terminally ill people
• anyone receiving non-oral (intravenous, intraperitoneal or inthrathecal) chemotherapy or recovering from that treatment,
• an inpatient in hospital or recovering from treatment as an inpatient,
• anyone receiving radiotherapy or recovering from that treatment
• and those who put at risk their or anyone else’s mental or physical health by working.
The point we were making in our newsblog was that within this change from Incapacity Benefit to the ESA, which will undoubtedly affect some women with breast cancer but hopefully not to the extent that they will stop receiving their benefit, people waiting for or between courses of chemotherapy will now not be expected to go for a work capability assessment. People receiving chemotherapy were already exempt from attending the work capability assessment so for the group of patients who are waiting for, or are between courses, this is good news.
We didn’t mean to suggest that we support all of the government’s recent proposals and we accept that it might have appeared that way, given that it is the only item we have featured about the proposals so far.
We are keeping a close eye on the proposed developments, and we continue to incorporate views of people with breast cancer in our work. Our policy team weighs up how to make the greatest impact with government and we choose our lobbying methods carefully and always have to assess where our resources are best placed for maximum benefit to women with breast cancer. If you want to be involved in helping to set our policy agenda please consider joining Breast Cancer Voices, which is the channel through which we actively seek people’s views on issues like these.
If you are worried about these changes or any other financial issue related to cancer, Macmillan provide a lot of useful information both online (macmillan.org.uk/HowWeCanHelp/FinancialSupport/FinancialSupport.aspx) and on the phone (0808 808 00 00)."
Olivia Marks-Woldman
Head of Policy and Campaigns
Breast Cancer Care