Incapacity Benefit Tests Designed To Save Money Not Help Disabled
Commenting on figures released today Tuesday 26th July by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which reveal that only one in fourteen people assessed for the new incapacity benefit will be entitled to claim the payout in the long-term, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
"The new incapacity benefit assessment is a much tougher test than previously and is designed to save the government money by excluding more people.
It is therefore unsurprising that more disabled people have been declared fit for work. These figures certainly don't suggest that thousands of disabled people are suddenly 'trying it on'.
The TUC has heard from disabled people all around the UK who feel the tests have been unfair and ineffective, and it is interesting to see that 39 per cent of appeals against initial judgements are successful."
He concluded:
"The government needs to do much more to help disabled people back into jobs, rather than cracking down on the benefits they get when they are unable to work. Access to Work statistics - also released today - show that, in 2010/11 the number of disabled people helped by this scheme fell by just over 1,400 on the previous year."
Meanwhile, charities supporting the disabled are having their funding slashed and have now started to sack salaried staff and replace them with ‘volunteers’ – in line with Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ ethics! A situation he is creating by slashing support and public services.
Last week, The Guardian reported that a disability charities alliance have told the government that new medical test to assess eligibility for benefit will lead to vulnerable claimants losing out.
The report also says that charities alliance, “has written an open letter to Ian Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, after complaining that private warnings on the issue have gone unheeded.”
It explains further:
“ The charities say the government should instead be promoting the talents of those who no longer need to claim benefits. Alice Maynard, the chair of Scope, who is a wheelchair user, said: "We just feel it is too much now. It is becoming such a frequent occurrence, it is likely to have some very serious negative effects. I think in the end it ends up in violence. She added that a hardening of attitudes meant she now "thought harder" about going out at night in London.”
The article headed “Welfare To Work Policy 'Casts The Disabled As Cheats'” went further:
“The government's flagship Welfare to Work policy is inciting hatred and violence towards the disabled by portraying them as cheats and benefits scroungers, an alliance of charities has warned.
A drip-feed of statistics about claimants who have been denied benefits by the Department for Work and Pensions because they are deemed fit to work threatens the safety and quality of life of its members, says an alliance of 50 charities. The government is feeding a negative attitude towards people with disabilities, which, the charities warn, will ultimately end in violence.”
The letter to the Government published in the Observer says: “Every time your department reveals statistics on assessments for employment and support allowance, it highlights the people whose applications failed – implying high levels of fraud and unnecessary claims.”
It goes on to say: “This partial picture feeds the tabloid media’s negative narrative on ‘benefits scroungers’… Yet, under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the government has a duty to protect the dignity of disabled people.”
Read the full Guardian newspaper article here
Source: TUC / The Guardian
