The current government is using a new, tougher test for benefits eligibility. It has moved the goalposts and created a less generous definition of ‘fit to work’
Every quarter, the DWP releases a series of statistics showing the latest numbers of people going through the new Work Capability Assessment for Employment Support Allowance. And every quarter, the press run the same stories about benefit scroungers, fiddlers, and so on. As many people with knowledge of the sector know, these headlines are based on what can only be described as an inventive use of the statistics – usually by combining the 39 per cent deemed fit for work (which has remained the same for the past two quarters), with the further 17 per cent who have been identified as being able to work at some point in the future, assuming their condition improves, plus the 36 per cent whose claim was stopped before completion.
The reasons some claims stop like this are varied, but include, ironically, that some people miss assessment appointments due to poor health – and the claim is stopped and they have to start again. Admittedly, some realise half way through the application they aren’t eligible for ESA. But these people have not been fiddling the state. The DWP figures that cause quarterly tabloid ‘outrage’ are in fact for new applicants to ESA – not current claimants. Not a single one of these people have fraudulently claimed more than they were entitled to. What they were actually doing – both the 39 per cent who failed the test and the 36 per cent who stopped half way – was applying for a benefit they thought they might be entitled to due to being unemployed and in poor health.
The unscrupulous use of statistics – to artificially inflate the size of the actual incapacity benefit fraud problem (which is in fact 0.5%, or 9,500 people, much lower than many other benefits) and thereby create public support for a radical tightening of benefits eligibility – is well documented. Even the Work and Pensions Select Committee expressed their disapproval of a cynical media strategy by Chris Grayling.
But a more interesting aspect of this debate is how many of us – including the more informed sections of the media and public – seem to think being found ‘fit to work’ is an objective and verifiable status. Being fit to work is in fact so subjective as to be almost meaningless, based as it is on what the government (and society) of the day thinks is acceptable. Different countries have vastly different interpretations.
Hundreds of years ago, it was necessary and expected that people worked with significant physical impairments and in the last throes of terminal illness. These people were all deemed ‘fit to work’. But then society moved on, and we thought it was unacceptable that very ill people should work, and gave them support so they didn’t have to. We have been arguing over how ill someone needs to be before they are given that support every since.
The current government is using a new, tougher test for benefits eligibility. They have, in short, moved the goalposts and created a less generous definition of ‘fit to work’. Many people who have been on sickness benefits for years will now be judged as fit to work according to this new definition. They have not been claiming fraudulently for the entire time – they have simply fallen foul of an ideological shift in government.
So when we hear that hundreds of thousands of people are claiming benefits but are actually fit to work, this isn’t telling us anything about the level of fraud – of people wilfully misclaiming – in the system. It just tells us about government opinion. What we should be reporting is that 40 per cent of failed claims for ESA go to appeal, and around 70 per cent of those are subsequently judged eligible for support.
If such a high proportion of decisions are deemed incorrect on further independent scrutiny, surely the shambolic assessment process, and the additional administrative costs of that, should be the real cause of ‘outrage’?
Claudia Wood is head of public services and welfare at Demos
Moved the Goal posts ?
They have dug up the pitch and sold it for housing Development
Having been to one of these so called medicals,
I can honestly say it resembled if anything a episode of Monty Python
I was sat in a room with a nurse who read from a Formulaic list which was worded in such a way so as whatever answer you gave it was the wrong one ..All the time she was obsevering my actions and how I sat and how I moved my arms .. on one part of the examination file It states that I scratched my head .. I defy any any human being no matter what they pain they are in if their arms are not in a plaster case not to scratch their head ….
I was then subjected to some simple physical tests that a frankly baffled me and was told I was Ok . to leave .. I later recived a letter stating that I had Scored 0 points ..
And was therefore fit to work .
I am in the Porcess of appealing against this .. W Duneclift Mr ..
I have provided an idea of how the UK population is to put this into context. The UK estimates 10 million people are Disabled, the ILF supports about 20,500 people of which about 730,000 people receive High Care DLA. Analysis can be found at the DWP webpage http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=statistics
August 2010 No of People No of People
Population 61,838,154
Population 61,838,154
Breavement Benefit -64,700 DLA paid too 3,204,280
Carers Allowance -1,002,600 AA paid too 1,791,920
Carers Allowance
Children -12,553,000
Children – Disabled -770,000
ESA -563,980
Incapicity Benefits -1,851,010
Job Seeker Allowance -1,349,710
State Pension -12,561,260
Widows Benefit -49,110
Working Population
Working Population F/Time -21,124,000
Working Population P/time -7,910,000
2,038,784
This article is anything but surprising. tally that in with the suggestion made some weeks ago recommending that people with disabilities might think about working for a lower salary because it might ” improve their chances of securing a job” and i think it is pretty easy to see where this is going… a gradual slide toward legalising exploitation of vulnerable category people in a vain attempt to bolster up the economy.I hope I am proven wrong, but i fear we are fast becoming the victim of a fascist regime!!
My wife and I are safeguarding the interests of my wife’s brother. 40 years ago he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and put on “care in the community” He receives permanent medication and we got his council to provide him with a room in a sheltered complex, as a result of which his condition stabilised and he is no longer a danger to himself or the public. He has been paid DLA which is just about enough to live on. The medication has side effects which prevent him from working, but ceasing it is not an option.
He, and other people with similar mental health issues, now face a Work Capability Assessment which, under the current rules, unless we can sucessfully appeal, is certain to mean cancellation of his DLA, together with other benefits, rent and Council Tax. At nearly 60 the trauma, should this happen, will be disasterous, and will certainly bring on a return to his earlier symptons..
The WCA looks into whether you can walk or lift things up, or do not defecate on the floor; nothing about mental health issues.
We will have to appeal for him and we can only hope we get support for his medical condition from his doctor. Otherwise he will be turned out to find a job – a little difficult after 40 years of illness – or presumably starve. Have we gone back to the Victorian workhouse mentality, or even under the Tudors when the unemployed were publically flogged and pushed to the next village.
Figures updated using DWP November 2010: adjusted to balance to Zero, would mean a popultion of 2.6 million not claiming benefits if a population of 62 million is used. http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/
Novemebr 2010 No of People No of People
Population 61,838,154
Population 61,838,154
-2,604,744
59,233,410
Breavement Benefit -62,310 DLA paid too 3,209,590
Carers Allowance (Paid) -452,510 AA paid too 1,786,280
Carers Allowance
Children -12,553,000
Children – Disabled -770,000
ESA -593,930
Incapicity Benefits -1,802,930
Job Seeker Allowance -1,328,910
State Pension -12,588,750
Widows Benefit -47,070
Working Population
Working Population F/Time -21,124,000
Working Population P/time -7,910,000
0