From April 2011 there will be a reassessment of customers receiving Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance or Income Support (on the grounds of illness or disability) for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The transfer or reassessment of incapacity benefits customers will be phased in over three years.

This will mean that all incapacity benefit claimants must undergo a medical assessment (work capability assessment). This assessment will determine whether claimants can go to work, or if they are too sick, they will be provided with the necessary support to prepare for work in the future. Duncan Lewis

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n Hackney will be able to assist you with this assessment.

As well as the medical assessments, claimants will be required to attend work-focused interviews and develop, with their advisers, a plan of action to help them prepare to get into or re-enter the workplace.

The ESA Allowance is a "top-up" payment that ensures claimants will not see a reduction in the level of their benefit entitlement as a result of the change to ESA. If claimants are found to be fit for work at that time, they will be invited to claim another benefit, most likely Jobseeker’s Allowance.

This decision will in turn have an impact on tribunal appeals. Between April 2009 and March 2010 the number of ESA appeals has quadrupled and will continue to grow.

Between April and June 2009 there were 10,100 appeals. Between July and September 2009 this number had risen to 29,000 and by March 2010 there were 46,500 appeals. The success rate for ESA appeals is only 40% for appeals that actually go to the appeal hearing. This may mean that more people are succeeding in their ESA appeal because the DWP has reconsidered their decision prior to an appeal being heard.

With these changes, it is likely that the majority of people in need are not going to get the help that they require. It is only a matter of time until the true effects of the transition will show. Duncan Lewis offers legal aid all over London. The legal aid law firm has a large branch in East London where our Welfare Benefits department can offer helpful legal aid advice in Hackney.