Long term Incapacity Allowance guidance notes (FOI)

Request

Long Term Incapacity Allowance (LTIA) is assessed in accordance with the Social Security (Assessment Of Long Term Incapacity) (Jersey) Order 2004 (as amended).

In practice, this Order contains very little specific guidance, and doctors make assessments by following a series of guidance notes and example cases produced by the Social Security Department.

Please may I have copies of all the current guidance notes, with all the examples (suitably anonymised), which are used by doctors to make LTIA assessments?

I am aware that some of this information was requested a number of years ago, but I would like the current guidance notes.

Also, at the time the information was released previously, transparency was hugely reduced by the redaction of some of the examples used for calculation purposes. This is clearly unacceptable, and I assume that it will have been dealt with in the years since the initial supply of the information.

Response

All current guidance documents used by the medical board doctors in relation to Long Term Incapacity Assessments are listed below. No anonymization has been required.

In addition, the Schedule to the Social Security (Assessment of Long Term Incapacity Allowance) (Jersey) Order 2004 specifies the assessments that are required to be given by the medical board for specified conditions. These are included in the guidance under ‘Prescribed degrees of incapacity’.

General guides to assessments

Guide to alcohol abuse assessments

Guide to back pain assessments

Guide to CFS and ME assessments

Guide to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) assessments

Guide to depression assessments

Scheduled and non-scheduled conditions assessments

Ankyloses of optimum positions

Assessments for loss of tissue

Assessments for conditions affecting the eye

Deafness

Disfigurement

Flail joints

Hysterical conditions

Injuries and conditions of the hands

Limb amputation cases

Prescribed degrees of incapacity