Much-criticised fitness to work tests for long-term sickness benefit claimants are to be scrapped for good.

The announcement was made in Tynwald this week by Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan. His statement came in response to a scrutiny committee report into the operation of personal capability assessments.

Mr Cannan told the court that the Council of Ministers was minded to implement ’the complete removal of the existing personal capability assessment process’.

In its place, would be introduced an ’holistic’ approach to the treatment of long-term incapacity claimants where people will ’gain and retain automatic right to benefit simply by positively engaging with the medical professionals who are helping them return to work’.

When the fitness to work checks were first introduced in 2012 as a pilot scheme carried out by Atos Healthcare, a number of claimants immediately stopped claiming - suggesting there had been some abuse of the system.

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Mr Cannan told the Manx Independent that the new system would be no ’soft option’. He explained: ’Claimants will have to follow the required medical assessments and treatment otherwise they will, when applicable, lose their benefit.’

When the scrutiny committee report was debated in Tynwald last November, the then Health Minister Kate Beecroft said the way fitness to work tests were implemented had been ’an absolute disgrace’.

Concerns were raised about ’tick box’ methods employed in the assessments which were deemed to lack compassion.

Following the Atos pilot, a new scheme with Dependability Ltd was launched in 2014 but the contract was terminated in July 2016 when it emerged some tests had not been carried out by a registered healthcare professional. During that period, some 207 people had been deemed fit to work and had been taken off long-term incapacity benefit.

The social affairs policy review committee concluded that CoMin should come up with recommendations for helping people move into the workplace after a long illness, taking into account an independent review carried out by healthcare professional John Lancaster.

Mr Cannan told Tynwald money that would have been spent on benefit assessments will now be spent on additional treatment for long-term incapacity claimants.

’Less checking up, more helping up,’ he said.

He said there would be extra staffing for the new system, which would include a GP supported by an occupational health psychologist and a physiotherapist. Mr Cannan said the existing doctor’s sick note would be changed - with appropriate training for GPs - to encourage patients to ’focus on the pathway back to work’.

’This will support improved return to work times for short-term illness and prevent progression to "long-term sick",’ he told the court.

He added: ’CoMin consider this will address concerns raised over the previous system and provide a patient-centred process that balances the need to ensure properly directed benefits with the need to support vulnerable people.’