Labour’s savage severe conditions criteria (SCC) cuts to universal credit (UC) have now taken effect for new claims from 6 April. New disabled claimants will get just half the UC health component that existing claimants get, meaning that they will be approximately £50 a week worse off.
Under the new rules, new claimants who have limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA), but do not meet the SCC will receive a UC health component payment of just £217.26 per month, whereas existing claimants and those who meet the SCC receive £429.80 per week.
In order to meet the SCC, new claimants have to show not only that one of the functional LCWRA descriptors apply to them, but also that the descriptor will apply constantly for the rest of their life.
There’s more details about how claimants qualify for the SCC here.
And readers can take our updated WCA self-test here, which now includes the SCC.
The DWP are doing their best to keep the guidance they have provided to health professionals about how to assess the SCC secret. However, Benefits and Work obtained a copy of the guidance issued after the SCC was first introduced, although at that time it was only used to decide whether claimants should be subject to reassessments, rather than to decide how much money they should receive.
We’ve used this information to create, for subscribing members, our updated guide to the WCA which you can download from this page. It includes:
- a detailed explanation of how the SCC works
- alerts to warn you which descriptors qualify as you complete the WCA50 form
- details of how and where on the WCA50 form to show whether you qualify
- sample SCC answers
- sample SCC case studies.
We’ll be updating the guide regularly as more information becomes available about how the DWP are assessing people and making decisions in practice.
