Government Misconceptions About Disability Benefits
The three things Cameron should know about sickness and disability benefits
Left Foot Forward, July 2011
Today’s press stories on Employment Support Allowance (ESA) show that politicians and the media are stuck in a mid-1990s timewarp when it comes to sickness and disability benefits.
Far from representing the immobile bloc of long-term worklessness so often assumed in public discussion, the sickness and disability benefit caseload has changed dramatically over the last 15 years, driven by tumbling rates of receipt coupled with increases in severity of impairment.
Failure to recognise the scale of these changes has led both the previous and the current government to indulge in undisciplined and unrealistic expectations about the potential for caseload reductions.
This quotation from David Cameron neatly summarises the received wisdom on IB/ESA:
"For too long in this country we have left people on welfare for year after year when those people, with help and with assistance, could work, and so we’re producing a much better system where we really put people through their paces and say that if you can work, you should work.”
Drawing on ongoing analysis of benefit receipt due to be published this autumn, we can confront this narrative with some real-world evidence.
There are three areas where the shortfall in realism is particularly striking.
(1). "For too long in this country we have left people on welfare”
It is well known that sickness and disability benefits were extensively used in the 1980s and 90s by UK and other governments to encourage some unemployed workers – especially older male industrial workers – to leave the labour market.
Rates of IB receipt rose dramatically, with huge disparities between regions, and between men and women, which could not be realistically explained by differences in health and disability status alone. This ‘hidden unemployment’ is the origin of the lack of public confidence which has continued to dog IB to this day.
But rates of receipt for Incapacity Benefit/Employment Support Allowance have been falling for years, and have fallen most for those groups and areas which were most affected by the policies pursued in earlier decades – older men in industrial areas. The pattern has been one of strong convergence, with regions moving much closer together and falling receipt among older men.
The process is illustrated in Graph 1 below with regional data for one of the groups with the highest rates of receipt, men aged 55-59. There are still gaps between regions, but they are far smaller than in 1999 and a far more consistent with regional differences in health and disability status.
This suggests that if there was a significant ‘hidden unemployment’ component in the IB caseload in 1999, it is now largely a thing of the past – and prompts the question of just how low rates can be expected to go.
Graph1:
(2). "We have left people on welfare for year after year”
When politicians talk about sickness and disability benefits, they invariably focus on long-term claims. As these benefits need to support people with long-term disabilities, it is inevitable that a significant share of the caseload is long-term in nature.
But IB/ESA is not just for the severely disabled, and long-term claims are the exception, not the rule, except for severely disabled recipients. It is true that at any point in time, long-term claims make up a majority of the caseload, but this is simply due to the arithmetic of stocks and flows.
Taking the caseload over time the pattern is reversed, as illustrated in Graph 2 below, where the picture at one point in time – with a clear majority of claims running for five years or more – is the mirror image of the picture over a five year period.
Characterising the IB/ESA caseload in terms of long-term receipt while neglecting the huge numbers of people moving into and out of the system every year is an arithmetical error which fosters unrealistic expectations and blinds policy-makers to the fact these benefits are also there to support people with temporary and less severe conditions.
Graph 2:
(3). "Those people, with help and with assistance, could work”
Over half of all IB/ESA recipients are now also in receipt of Disability Living Allowance, rising to two thirds among the long-term IB recipients with whom the prime minister is concerned. The rise in DLA receipt is one of the major trends in welfare of the last two decades, reflecting demographic change and trends in disability prevalence.
While many of the DLA recipients who dominate the long-term IB caseload would like to work, their support needs are of a different order to those with less severe impairments. It would obviously be absurd to suggest that putting ‘people through their paces’ and telling them that ‘if you can work, you should work’ are going to make a difference to the employment chances of DLA recipients.
Graph 3:
These developments raise serious questions about how much further the sickness and disability caseload can be reduced without impacting on people in highly vulnerable situations.
This is not shroud-waving: if government intends to maintain a functioning system of support for sickness and disability, it needs to recognise that with IB receipt at low levels compared to a decade ago, any further reductions come with increased marginal costs.
As things stand, those costs are increasingly falling on sick and disabled people, and not on the exaggerated social stereotypes variously described as the ‘hidden unemployed’, ‘discouraged workers’ or ‘benefit scroungers’.
In their zeal to cut caseloads, policy makers have for years been ignoring obvious trends and pursuing self-defeating strategies in the teeth of evidence. It’s high time they recalibrated their expectations to the realities of what has been happening to benefit caseloads since the 1990s.
That would mean asking how the system can meet the twin objectives of supporting people for the duration of their inability to work and maximising the employment chances of people with long term conditions.
Please click on the link to see the original article
Betraying disabled people and welfare
Ekklesia, By Karen McAndrew
Abstract
This short research paper maps out the contours of a revolution in Britain’s benefits and welfare system. But the evidence Karen McAndrew examines and evaluates indicates that, far from enabling and supporting sick and disabled people, the changes and cuts the UK government is making – disguised by a superficial rhetoric of compassion and empowerment, and eased by ungrounded prejudices stoked in sections of the media – are causing real harm and destroying the fabric of national care and genuine opportunity. Putting human impact centre stage, this paper sets out disturbing evidence that disabled people are being betrayed, the public misled, and the welfare system endangered. Here is yet more indication that the 'Big Society' is punishing the most vulnerable and eschewing social justice, by making cuts and implementing an inadequate patchwork of policies whereby under-resourced voluntarism cannot substitute for official, statutory neglect.
"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” Benjamin Franklin [1]
Introduction: a harmful revolution
There is a 'revolution' going on in Britain, but not in the way Employment Minister Chris Grayling has recently claimed, not always in a visible way – and most definitely not of the kind where those at the bottom of the heap come out on top. Quite the reverse. Consider these developments:
* The removal of people from Incapacity Benefit to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). [2]
* The time Limiting of ESA which is to be applied retrospectively.
* The replacement of the Personal Capability Assessment (PCA) with the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) – which has been described by many at the sharp end as ‘unfit for purpose’.
* The cutting the mobility component of the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for those in care homes. [3]
* The abolition of DLA, which is to be replaced by the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in 2013/14. [4]
* The abolition of the Independent Living Fund. [5]
* The scrapping of Legal Aid [6] for all welfare benefits matters, and the massive cuts for funding / closures hitting Community Law Centres. [7]
On top of this, we are seeing changes to work programmes, eligibility, housing entitlement, care packages, work guidelines, education provision and hospital care, and cuts to local council budgets for social care and so on – meaning that they will be unable to step in to cover the shortfall left by all these other changes. [8]
The reality is that the current welfare state system is crumbling, and it is only going to get worse as the cuts begin to hit real people and real communities, and as more and more services are privatised. This amounts to a crisis.
1. Media misrepresentations, fraud allegations
How can this be allowed to happen? An extremely important factor in this scenario is the powerful negative influence of defamatory press articles claiming or implying that sick and disabled are mostly "benefit scroungers”, "workshy” and otherwise unworthy recipients of assistance. There has been a continuous drip-feed of such articles over many months and it has biased many people against those on welfare benefits. A good number of these media allegations have been based on inaccurate or skewed statistics, often based on material from the Department of Work and Pensions.
Worryingly, disability hate crime has simultaneously increased. Anne Novis MBE, a leading activist, has submitted evidence on 68 violent deaths of disabled people – and more than 500 other potential disability hate crimes – to a major national inquiry into disability-related harassment. In addition, accusations of huge numbers of fraudulent claims abound. [9]
In fact, the latest available figures from the DWP state that the fraud rate for Incapacity benefit is just 0.5 per cent. The fraud rate for Disability Living Allowance is also just 0.5 per cent, meaning that 99.5 per cent of claimants are not fraudulent. They have the lowest level of fraud of all in relation to welfare benefits. It should be noted that the figures for official error for both benefits are actually higher than the level of fraud, at 1.7 per cent for Incapacity Benefit and 0.8 per cent for DLA. [10]
Despite these manifest facts, the misleading and malicious press articles continue. In December 2010 The Secretary of State himself, in an interview with the Sun, actually seemed to blame the deficit on ‘scroungers’, claiming that "…we have managed to create a block of people in Britain who do not add anything to the greatness of this country. They have become conditioned to be users of services, not providers of money. This is a huge part of the reason we have this massive deficit.”[11]
There appears to be a dubious agenda at play here. Planting seeds in people's minds that those on welfare benefits are faking or defrauding the system certainly makes it easier to justify the disproportionate cuts when they take effect. [12]
Overall, the tabloid-generated negativity towards disabled people has seriously set back attitudes and eroded work towards equality.
2. A series of attacks on disabled people
The massive so-called "migration" (an entirely forced one) of vast numbers of people who are currently entitled to Incapacity Benefit onto Employment Support Allowance or Job Seekers Allowance has already started this month. [13]
There are huge numbers of genuinely ill people being found 'fit for work' because of the flawed computerised Work Capability Assessment that is being used. The vast majority are being pushed involuntarily into the ESA 'Work Related Activity Group' where they are subjected to conditions and sanctions that are harming their health even more. Or they are put directly onto Jobseekers’ Allowance.
Not only that, but the ESA is time-limited to one year, retrospectively. What happens then? They too are forced onto Job Seekers Allowance. [14] Then more sanctions begin; and if they do not get a job, they lose that benefit as well. We are talking here about sick and disabled people with no money to live on.
Professor Malcolm Harrington conducted an independent review in November 2010, which condemned numerous aspects of the Work Capability Assessment. [15] In March 2011, Professor Paul Gregg, one of those who actually designed the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), warned that the WCA is ‘a complete mess' and ‘badly malfunctioning'. [16]
He said: "In the first trial, the system did not work. We need to trial the new, proposed, reformed system to check and prove that it works and avoids the serious stress and misclassification of people that we have already seen, before we start implementing it on a large and vulnerable population. The test so far has caused a huge amount of anguish to the people who have gone through it. We need to have something that is working accurately before we apply it nationally. We shouldn't roll this out until we have something that is working.”
But Professor Gregg’s clear calls for the new, harsher test not to be inflicted on claimants, including incapacity benefit claimants, have clearly not been listened to by government and policy-makers. [17]
3. The government is not listening
A report from the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion (CESI) says that "[t]he changes recommended by Professor Harrington in his review of the work capability assessment (WCA) should take effect immediately or, if this is not possible, the reassessment of incapacity benefits claimants should be postponed.” [18]
However, Chris Grayling, Minister of State in the Department for Work and Pensions, has announced that 10,000 sick and disabled people a week will undergo a WCA starting in April 2011. They will be subjected to the same test, despite evidence that it does not appropriately assess needs. But critics now argue that it will be even harsher, as DWP have introduced amendments to many of the ‘descriptors’ in the test that make it virtually impossible for anyone to be classed as unfit for work.
A motion to annul these amendments was tabled by Lord Kirkwood on 16 March 2011 (see: http://www.meassociation.org.uk/?p=4993). He spoke to the 23rd Report of the House of Lords Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee, which complained that the Government had rushed the new regulations through without thinking through the implications.
The WCA and the company who are running it, Atos, are the subject of fear and anger in many quarters. [19] The medical profession are now also making a stand, as GP Margaret McCartney’s own policy forum on health care illustrates. [20] She writes about attending an Atos Recruitment evening, arising from her concerns about them, referencing an article she published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) [21] and the General Medical Council’s (GMC) response. It appears that the Care Quality Commission cannot supervise the doctors employed by Atos Healthcare because it is a private company and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) have had problems over accrediting the nurse training. Commentators are understandably alarmed. [22]
It must be remembered that these are not just numbers on a page or computer screen, but real people who will be put through untold suffering because of this seriously flawed system. There have already been suicides and deaths. [23] Close observers fear that there will be many more.
4. A threat to life and welfare
The Disability Alliance has this year been surveying disabled people’s views on Government reforms to Disability Living Allowance in particular [24]. With 900 responses analysed, the most shocking finding, DA says, is that nine per cent of disabled people and their families fear the Government cuts will cause death, suicide and make lives ‘not worth living’.
Neil Coyle, Disability Alliance Director of Policy, commented in February 2011: "Disabled people are telling us in great numbers that they fear the overall cuts – but that losing Disability Living Allowance in particular has resulted in people questioning the value of their lives”.
The DA survey also reveals that:
* over 800,000 disabled people could lose support if the £1 billion target for DLA cuts is realised;
* 13 per cent said cuts would increase their NHS use with further demand also on cash-strapped councils;
* 25 per cent of the respondents are in work, but half fear having to quit if they lose access to support;
* half the respondents believe DLA does not meet extra disability-related costs of living – and a third report it is ‘difficult’ or ‘very difficult’ to get by before cuts are implemented; and
* two-thirds of the respondents use DLA to link to other support (e.g. bus passes, council tax benefit and Carer’s Allowance) and fear that the Government plans will have a ‘domino effect’ that will significantly increase poverty and social exclusion for disabled people and their families.
The Department for Work and Pensions Minister for Disabled People, Maria Miller MP, confirmed in December 2010 that the government plans include a 20 per cent cut in DLA expenditure [25]. But the DWP has responded inadequately on estimates regarding the number of disabled people and their families who could lose access to support as a result of DLA reform, and on real costs to the NHS, Treasury and councils, say critics.
5. Business as usual?
Despite all of this, only around a quarter of the recommendations in Professor Harrington's review has been implemented. The WCA will continue to inaccurately assess disabled people at a rate of 10,000 per week. The WCA has been made tougher and results in further disabled people routinely having their needs unmet. New guidance on the Access to Work scheme will mean employers and disabled people receive less help to provide an accessible workplace. And more disabled people will be cut from the benefits system through time-limiting contribution based ESA.
Inevitably this will lead to ever more complaints and appeals and cost even more money. Currently around 40 per cent of appeals are upheld. This figure rises to 70 per cent when the appellant has legal advice. However, this will now be denied as Legal Aid is stripped away. Each time an appeal takes place it costs the taxpayer money. [26]
In October 2010, the DWP had a backlog of 29,700 complaints about ESA decisions that had not yet been referred to a tribunal. The next highest backlog was for Disability Living Allowance, which the Coalition Government is also abolishing, there were 9,600 cases outstanding. Outstanding complaints about all other benefits administered by the Department number just 19,750.
These figures were revealed by Ms Miller in October 2010. [27] As many more people have been put through assessments since then, it is likely that the number has risen greatly in the intervening months, though accurate figures are not yet available. This was before the proposed changes had even begun, and the new harsher WCA test brought in. Critics predict chaos and breakdown.
6. Disability and employment
When sick and disabled people are forced onto Job Seekers Allowance, the question remains as to who will employ them? UK unemployment rose by 49,000 to almost 2.5 million in the three months to the end of November 2010. April 2011 figures showed a slight improvement overall, but with seasonal averages likely to rise in the coming months, and with worse impacts in particular sectors: among women, young people in Scotland, and long-term cases in Wales, for example. [28]
With massive cuts to public sector jobs across the board already, and many more to come, we must ask whether the government honestly thinks that in this climate employers will be willing to take on sick and disabled people who have been out of the workforce for a long time and who will, in all likelihood, only have a very limited capacity for work. Few at the sharp end believe that they will. Only half of disabled people of working age are in work (50 per cent), compared with 80 per cent of non-disabled people. [29]
A study has found that disabled people could be stranded in unemployment because job support services are being devastated by local authority spending cuts.
More than half of supported employment providers are facing local authority funding cuts of at least 15 per cent, according to the poll by industry body the British Association for Supported Employment (BASE). [30]
A quarter of providers said they were facing council cuts of between 50 per cent and 100 per cent, prompting some to predict that their service would close. Others were making redundancies and stripping back provision even though caseloads were rising.
7. The human impact
The government talks of reforms, but these cuts and changes (along with many others in social provision and public services) amount to an assault on the core principles and practices of the welfare state as a whole. The danger is that Britain will be left in a situation where the rich can afford the healthcare and support they need and the rest suffer or risk marginalisation and poverty. The government is already considering proposals which would see traditional sick pay for employees replaced by income protection insurance. [31]
The human impact is terrible, [32] and often overlooked or rendered a statistical inconvenience in the way public policy is formulated and implemented, without real involvement and determination by those in the greatest need. [33] People do not ask to become ill or disabled. At any time this can happen to you or to someone you love. A diagnosis of serious illness can change someone’s life overnight. A car crash can, in a moment, leave a person unable to walk, or with brain injury. A series of awful life events can leave someone with depression or anxiety.
Apart from those who are rich enough not to have to even consider the impact of the extra costs they would incur if this should happen to them or someone in their family, the government’s cuts, changes and abolitions affect everyone. The future of our welfare state is at stake. It is time to resist. [34]
REFERENCES AND ENDNOTES
[1] From the ‘Broken of Britain’ website: http://thebrokenofbritain.blogspot.com/
[2] See Helene Mulholland, ‘Chris Grayling pledges incapacity benefit 'revolution',’ 21 April 2011, Guardian: Details of the shift from IB to ESA from the Disability Alliance UK: http://www.disabilityalliance.org/
[3] DirectGov: Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is a tax-free benefit for disabled children and adults to help with extra costs people may have because they are disabled. It is not based on disability but upon the needs arising from it and can be claimed by people in work as well as those who are unable to work. Please see link
[4] ‘DLA reform consultation: Great Expectations, Worst Apprehensions’, Arbitrary Constant, 6 December 2010: Please see the link
[5] The Independent Living Fund (ILF) makes payments to disabled people to help them lead a more independent life. The ILF is permanently closed to new applications. See DirectGov: Please see the link. BBC News: ‘Independent Living Fund to be shut down by 2015’: Please see the link
[6] ‘Government's proposed reform of legal aid - Justice Committee’, Parliamentary Business: Please see the link ‘Legal aid cuts: Scales of justice’, Guardian, 4 February 2011: Please see the link. Legal aid briefings: Please see the link
[7] Justice For All: Please see the link; ‘Legal aid cuts will exclude most vulnerable from access to justice, Citizens Advice Chief Executive warns’, 12 November 2010: Please see the link; ‘Future uncertain for Community Legal Advice Centres’, Law Gazette, 14 April 2011: Please see the link LAG Social Welfare Law Conference: Facing the future (a major conference will bring together practitioners from both the private and not for profit sectors to discuss the future of legal aid and social welfare law services), Legal Action Group: Please click on the link
[8] eGov Monitor: ‘Spending Cuts Force Councils To Cut Social Care Services Targeted Towards Vulnerable People’, 14 April 2011: http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/41732; YouTube video: ‘Bringing the Cuts Home’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LgDjHOX_UE; Trades Union Congress: ‘All Together for Public Services’: Please click on the link
[9] On disability hate crime, see:
Please click on the link and: Please click on the link
[10] DWP fraud figures:
Please click on the link, Page 9, Table 2.1: Estimated overpayments in 2009/10
[11] Tony Newton Dunn, ‘Ian Duncan Smith on benefits Britain’, The Sun, 1 December 2010: Please click on the link
[12] See James Chapman, ‘The great disability benefit free-for-all: Half of claimants are not asked to prove eligibility’, Daily Mail, 15 April 2011: Please click on the link A complaint has been made about this article to the Press Complaints Commission. Other ‘fact checks’ on tabloid claims: Please click on the link
Please click on the link and Please click on the link
[13] See ‘Incapacity Benefits Migration’, a regularly update monitor / analysis from the Disability Alliance: http://www.disabilityalliance.org/ibmigrate.htm
[14] DirectGov: Jobseeker’s Allowance is the main benefit for people of working age who are out of work or work less than 16 hours a week on average. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOth... On time-limiting the ESA, see DWP spending review: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/adviser/updates/spending-review-2010/#mc
[15] ‘An Independent Review of the Work Capability Assessment’, Department of Work and Pensions (*.PDF Adobe Acrobat format): http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/wca-review-2010.pdf
[16] ‘New disability test "is a complete mess”, says expert’ – Welfare reform expert Professor Paul Gregg says a rushed roll out of the work capability assessment will cause more anguish, Guardian, 22 February 2011: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/22/new-disability-test-is-a-... See also Amelia Gentleman, 'The medical was an absolute joke', Guardian, 23 February 2011: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/23/government-reform-disabil...
[17] RethinkTalk: ‘DLA Minister undeterred by campaigners' anger’ and related: http://www.rethink.org/talk/topic/1780-dla-minister-undeterred-by-campai...
[18] Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion (CESI) key policy reports: http://www.cesi.org.uk/NewPolicy/govt_policy; ‘WCA changes should take effect immediately or reassessment of incapacity benefits claimants should be postponed’ and ‘New report from Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion also calls for "employability assessment”,” Rightsnet.org, 14 January 2011; ‘Making the Work Programme work for people with health conditions’, CESI report (*.PDF Adobe Acrobat format): http://www.cesi.org.uk/Resources/CESI/Documents/Research/Think%20Tank%20...
[19] Atos Work Capability Assessment: Help and Resource Centre for the Sick and Disabled of the UK: http://Atoswca.org.uk/; Collating experiences of Atos/WCA, Benefits and Work Forum: http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?func=view&catid=13&id=17858
[20] Margaret McCartney, GP: http://www.margaretmccartney.com/blog/?p=904
[21] Medical Work Assessments - Well enough to work?, Margaret McCartney, British Medical Journal (BMJ), BMJ 2 February 2011; 342:d599: http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d599.full
[22] Response to McCartney, ibid: http://www.margaretmccartney.com/blog/?p=884&cpage=1#comment-670
[23] ‘Demand for fairer benefits tests as two die: case study’, Herald, 20 April 2011: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/demand-for-fairer-benefits-...Marc Horne and Mark Smith, ‘Author's suicide "due to slash in benefits”,’ Scotsman, http://news.scotsman.com/arts/Author39s-suicide-39due-to-slash.6438473.jp; Nick Somerlad, ‘Sick? Who gives Atos?’, 16 February 2011: http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2011/02/sick-who-gives-Atos.html
[24] Disability Alliance, ‘Disabled people fear cuts will make life "not worth living”, 3 February 2011. http://www.disabilityalliance.org/dlareformpress.htm#2
[25] Maria Miller MP on the DLA Consultation, N/D, Able Magazine: http://ablemagazine.co.uk/exclusive-interview-maria-miller-mp-on-the-dla...
[26] Regarding appeal rates, see Haringay Alliance for Public Services (HAPS): http://www.hapsnews.net/north-london-anti-cuts-demonstrators-picket-atos...
[27] For the number of outstanding appeals for ESA - 29,700 – see Question to Maria Miller, Hansard, 13 October 2010, Column 343W:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm101013/text...
[28] The total number of unemployed people fell by 17,000 over the quarter to reach 2.48 million, the first drop since last autumn, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). See the revised unemployment graph on the BBC economy tracker website, last updated 13 April 2011: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117
[29] Disability and employment statistics. The Shaw Trust: http://www.shaw-trust.org.uk/disability_and_employment_statistics
[30] On job support services cuts, see Community Care, 14 April 2011:
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2011/04/14/116674/cuts-strand-di...
[31] On the Income Protection Insurance issue, see:
http://www.kcj.co.uk/legal-industry-news/Employer-News/Income-insurance-...
[32] Ekklesia’s ongoing reporting and analysis of government cuts and their impact can be found here: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/governmentcuts
[33] Making those directly facing poverty, marginalisation and disability axial to government policy making on issues that effect the most vulnerable is a primary concern raised by Scotland’s Poverty Truth Commission (http://www.povertytruthcommission.org/), which reported on 16 April 2011. See ‘Huge culture shift needed, says Poverty Truth Commission’, 18 April 2011: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/14584 Also, Ekklesia’s statement, ‘Only the poor know the real truth about poverty, says think-tank’: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/14580 More on the PTC from Ekklesia: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/povertytruthcommission
[34] The Broken of Britain is a grassroots online group formed in response to all the cuts to disabled people, and a good resource for up-to-date information of what is happening. http://thebrokenofbritain.blogspot.com/2011/03/left-out-in-cold-letter-o.... The Disability Alliance is a campaigning network of organisations with around 200 plus members ranging from small, self-help groups to major national disability charities: http://www.disabilityalliance.org/whatsnew.htm See also the Coalition of Resistance, of which Ekklesia is an affiliate: http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/
THE AUTHOR
© Karen McAndrew. The writer lives personally with issues of illness and disability, and is researching and campaigning against policies and cuts that inflict damage on human communities.
Additional research by Simon Barrow
Please click on the link to see the original article
WHO BENEFITS FROM DISABILITY PAYMENTS CHANGE?
News & Star, 1 September 2011
Disabled people are living in fear of being left without enough money for food or transport if their payments are reduced or cut, according to a report released yesterday.
A study carried out by the Papworth Trust found that 86 per cent of disabled people would have to cut down on their essentials if Disability Living Allowance (DLA) payments were cut.
The DLA was introduced in 1992 to combat the higher expenses of day-to-day living for the disabled.
Most of the 3.1 million current recipients of payment will be reassessed under plans to axe the DLA and replace it with a Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
Meanwhile government officials insist that DLA payments are for additional living costs like increased transport costs or care fees.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson also said that a lot of disabled people are currently being underpaid because of the inefficient DLA system.
However for many this explanation is not good enough.
Ollie Flitcroft, development officer at Cumbria Disability Network, believes that the real reason the Government is changing the system is to save money.
He says: "There’s no need for the Government to change the payment.
"Very few of the 12 million disabled people in the country claim disability allowance – the Government is doing it because it wants to cut 20 per cent off its budget.
"They’re saying there are problems with the application form.
"In that case they need to change the form and make it simpler.”
Claimants of DLA can currently receive up to £125 a week if they are eligible for the higher-rate mobility and care element.
Department of Work and Pensions briefings show that the new PIP assessment will be based on ‘the impact of a health condition or impairment on an individual’s ability to carry out a range of activities which are fundamental to everyday life’.
Papworth Trust’s survey showed that for five per cent of disabled people the cuts will have little or no effect, but the 20 per cent reduction the Government is seeking will mean real-terms cuts that disadvantage many disabled people.
It is an issue that Mr Flitcroft, a wheelchair user, feels very strongly about.
He served as a Conservative member of Barrow Borough Council for five years, but decided this year that the party’s national policy of cuts meant he could no longer represent them.
His passion has not dimmed since then.
He explains: "The Government is making cuts on some of the most vulnerable people in society.
"The biggest issue is that they want to cut benefits for those in care homes.
"This means they won’t be able to socialise and get out and about – it’s not acceptable.
"They want to cut the deficit and they have my sympathy for that but they shouldn’t hurt the most vulnerable.
"The Prime Minister needs to get a grip on the situation.
"He has experienced a disability and needs to ensure that all reforms going through are fair and just.
"It’s not up to disabled people to be punished.”
There are even suspicions that the proposed system of reforms may not be legal. Mr Flitcroft says: "I would suggest that the system needs to be looked at and scrutinised.”
The cost of living and the transport system are two issues that particularly affect those with disabilities.
It is estimated that living with a disability can cost up to 25 per cent more.
This is due to a number of factors including increased electricity bills, running medical equipment, doing laundry more often and easy-cook food that is more expensive.
Having to buy specialist clothing and increased transport costs can also prove problematic, particularly in Cumbria.
Mr Flitcroft says: "The County is very rural so transport costs are a lot higher than anywhere else for everyone, not just the disabled.
"Travel costs are diminishing people’s chances to get out.
"I want people to be out and buses need to be more accessible – we still don’t have a fully-integrated transport system.”
The solution, says Mr Flitcroft, is to think more carefully about what reforms are appropriate.
He explains: "We shouldn’t be rushing into a benefit reform that will punish people trying their best to get into work.
"They need to do things in a logical and methodical way, taking into account appropriate care needs.
"The Government needs to look at the positive and negative impacts of its decisions.”
This is something that Andy Auld, manager at Carlisle and District Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB), agrees with.
He says: "We are very concerned that the DLA reform process is being led by a decision to cut the costs of working age disability benefits by 20 per cent.
"We believe this will lead to greater social exclusion for some disabled people, who will be less able to take part in society if their financial support is reduced.
"We do not believe that there is any evidence that the people currently receiving DLA do not need the money.
"On the contrary, we believe that DLA does not currently meet the full extra costs of disability for some people, and that people who are disabled are much more likely to live in poverty than those who are not disabled.”
CAB argues that there are a number of problems with the proposed PIP system, which will replace the DLA from 2013.
The Bureau says that rather than being set at six months, the qualifying time for PIP should be the same as that for the DLA, which is three months.
They also believe that alternative routes must be offered to those who would previously have been entitled to DLA but under the decreased spending of PIP will no longer be eligible.
Mr Auld adds: "People have come in with serious long term debilitating conditions such as multiple sclerosis and others where stress is a symptom.
"We feel that the assessments for PIP will actually exacerbate the illnesses in these cases and make people’s health worse.”
Another issue flagged up by the CAB is that of the trade-off between independence and accuracy when it comes to assessments.
Mr Auld believes there is a danger that the incorrect assumption is made and claims face-to-face independent assessments represent the most accurate method.
"The aim should be always be accuracy rather than independence.”
Commenting on the findings of the study Richard Hawkes, chief executive of disability charity Scope, said: "These findings should come as no surprise.
"DLA is a lifeline that covers the extra costs disabled people face on a daily basis.
"The DLA needs reforming but the Government’s plans are in danger of backfiring.
"It is proposing to decide who gets the payment using a guestimate that won’t tell you anything about how much more it costs a disabled people to live their life.
"The reforms will create a poorly-targeted payment which will see many disabled people lose out on vital financial support.”
Scope is calling on PIP to take into consideration factors leading to disability-related costs such as suitability of housing, access to transport, informal network of support, employment status and caring arrangements.
Mr Hawkes added: "We urge the Government to reconsider the draft test and seriously look into alternatives that would provide more targeted support and which would reduce costs without risking disabled people’s independence.”