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Benefits test shows 'only one in six' to sick to work
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Just one in six applicants for a new sickness-related benefit
were deemed too ill to work, according to government figures.
They showed that 5% of people tested for the Employment and Support
Allowance (Esa) were found to be incapable of working, with another
11% found to be eligible for the benefit along with work-related
"activity".
The data suggests many of the 2.6 million people currently claiming
incapacity benefit could face changes to their payments as part of
new assessment procedures being rolled out across the
country.
Researchers found that 36% of claimants tested were actually
capable of working - more than double the proportion arising under
the old Incapacity Benefit (IB) test.
A further 38% stopped claiming benefit before the Esa assessment
was completed, according to the data released by the Department for
Work and Pensions, while a tenth of applicants were still being
assessed as the statistics were being compiled.
Some 193,800 people under went the new benefit test - called the
Work Capability Assessment - between October 2008 and February
2009.
It was introduced by the Government two years ago and is being
rolled out across the country next year.
Claimants undergo more stringent medical tests from a nurse or
doctor. Under the previous system, only a note from their GP was
required.
Last week the Conservatives pledged to test everyone receiving IB
within the first three years of coming to power to see if they can
return to work.
Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper pledged more support to
get people back to work.
She said: "In the 80s and early 90s, including the recession, the
number of people claiming incapacity benefit rose by a million. And
too many people ended up on long-term sickness benefit without help
to get back to work. That must never happen again."
Health Secretary Andy Burnham added: "We have a moral and economic
obligation to help people who have suffered ill health to get back
to work as soon as possible.
"Unemployment and lost working days caused by ill health costs the
economy £100 billion a year and we know that being in work
can be good for your wellbeing."
A single person claiming Esa gets between £95.15 and
£108.55 a week. Someone deemed suitable for Esa with
work-related activity gets up to £89.80 per week.
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Commented 16 weeks ago
Many people could be forgiven for thinking that the above headline means only 1 out of 6 people on ANY benefits deserve them.
The fact is the new tests for Employment Support Allowance, set to replace Incapacity Benefit (which is what most existing claimants are on) is much more loaded in favour of the government. Obviously with the cynical agenda of cutting costs whilst sick and disabled people struggle to survive.
The facts are there to see. When the Tory government began this path of contracting out medicals for these and other benefits it was to cut costs, and the Labour government under Blair continued this trend.
Only now, with a huge multi national French/Dutch company, Atos Origin, in charge of doing these medicals, we find that they are:-
* Hiring nurses to do what doctors used to do (to save money)
* Using computer software to "second guess" diagnoses of patients (some of whom could not tell you the day of the week) based on answers to multiple choice questions that have nothing to do with the problems of the claimant. In many cases the examining practitioner does not have time to fill in details so just accepts what the computer tells them. Guess what? It tells them to throw the person off of benefits doesn't it?
For many years claimants of Disability Living Allowance have battled through the courts with this kind of problem diagnoses supplied by Atos (formerly Sema). For many years we have campaigned for a more common sense approach using the claimants own GP and Consultants.
We believe that many billions could be saved by axing the contract with Atos and using the claimants own medical reports.
With 70% of claims that go to tribunal being overturned there can be no doubt that the process is flawed and just designed to save the government money.
Its about time Government started actually caring about the sick disabled and elderly in this country instead of pampering the big city bankers and the MPs who get £100k expenses for nothing!