Major changes to the way in which people who are too unwell to work claim benefits look set to create a two-tier system for sickness route claimants by 2008.

At the time of writing, the Green Paper giving exact details of the reforms has yet to be published, so all we can go on are the announcements made by the then Work and Pensions Minister Alan Johnson back in February 2005…

If the proposed reforms go ahead, when people first claim benefit because of sickness, they will get a ‘holding benefit’ paid to them at the same miserable rate as Jobseekers’ Allowance (currently roughly £55 a week).

Within the first twelve weeks of their claim, their condition will be assessed by a doctor on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions.

The test used will be the same fundamentally flawed and discriminatory ‘Personal Capability Assessment’ currently faced by recipients of sickness route benefits, along with an ‘Employment and Support Assessment’. We don’t yet know how the latter Assessment will work (or fail to work…)

As a result of this examination, people may be awarded one of two new benefits or – of course - be found fit for work…

The new benefits’ working titles are ‘Disability and Sickness Allowance’, which will be paid to those with the ‘most severe conditions’ and ‘Rehabilitation Support Allowance’, which will be paid to those whose condition is deemed to be ‘manageable’ (i.e. the vast majority of claimants, including the bulk of people with ‘mild to moderate’ mental health problems…)

Unlike Incapacity Benefit, which is paid at a higher rate after six months and then goes up again after a year, basic RSA will always be paid at the same level as Jobseekers Allowance. However claimants will be able to increase the benefit they are paid by attending ‘Work Focused Interviews’ and by ‘taking steps to get them back towards the labour market’. Those unwilling – or unable - to do so will find themselves around £20 a week worse off than they currently would be.

On the other hand the Government promises that DSA will be paid at ‘a higher rate’ than the amount people currently get on long term Incapacity Benefit (a basic rate of around £75 a week). No one seems able to say exactly HOW much higher, although a figure of £80 has been used as an example. Nor is it clear whether an extra amount will still be payable to recipients who fall ill before a certain age, as currently happens within Incapacity Benefit. Yet this would need to happen within both DSA and RSA to ensure that new claimants were potentially no worse off than those covered by the ’old’ system.

And although people on DSA may be financially better off, they will still be expected to take part in ‘Work Focused Interviews’ and ‘encouraged’ – although not required - to engage in ‘return to work activity’.

The new proposals will also apply to people who don’t have sufficient National Insurance Contributions - who would currently receive Income Support through the sickness route, so that RSA and DSA will both have ‘contributory’ and ‘non-contributory’ forms. How nice and straightforward…

People accepted as having severe illnesses or disabling conditions and people who are willing and able to engage with activities aimed at getting them back to work will be ‘better off’ – how much so is not known.

People deemed to have ‘only’ mild to moderate mental health problems who cannot attend work focused interviews and engage in activities aimed at getting back to work will be around £20 a week worse off than under the current system.

But taking a wider view I think we’ll all be worse off… with a divisive two-tier system that looks first at a person’s diagnosis and then at the person themselves.

And certainly the health repercussions of having to live on substantially reduced money day after day, month after month, year after year are significant.