Benefit claimants and top-rate taxpayers
Ekklesia, 27 July 2011
A glance at the front pages of this morning's papers gives a brief snapshot of the grotesque reality of ConDem Britain. The Daily Mail and Daily Express lead with vicious and misleading attacks on disabled benefit claimants, while the Daily Telegraph reports on Boris Johnson's call for very wealthy people to pay less tax.
Welcome to the UK under David Cameron, where the poorest are blamed for the nation's problems while the richest are portrayed as victims.
The gleeful headline on the Daily Express is "Sick benefits: 75 per cent are faking". The Mail uses the same figures to make a similar claim. To say that these figures are "out of context" would be polite. They are deliberately deceitful.
They appear to refer to disabled people who are assessed for Employment Support Allowance. It takes a fair bit of concentrated reading through the Express article to realise that they have combined figures for those assessed fit for work with those who don't complete their applications.
Given the bureaucratic hurdles that the assessment process involves, it is no surprise that some give up before they have completed it, particularly if they are applying because of a mental health problem or learning disability.
The Express back up their position with quotes from David Cameron, junior minister Steve Webb (who was regarded as on the left of the Liberal Democrats before he became responsible for slashing benefits) and the Taxpayers' Alliance, a right-wing lobby group whose main purpose seems to be to object to taxes being spent on anyone poorer than their own members. In a feeble attempt at balance, a brief critical quote from the TUC's Brendan Barber is thrown in right at the end.
Conveniently, the article makes no reference to the number of claimants who successfully appeal against their assessment. Around 40 per cent of appeals are upheld. This is amazing. It reveals the unreliability of the assessments in which the Mail and Express place so much faith.
The assessments are carried out by Atos, a private company awarded a multi-million pound contract to assess ability to work - and with a clear mandate to get people off benefits, unhampered by such considerations as reality. Atos have found people with terminal cancer to be fit for work. As mental health charities such as Rethink and Mind have pointed out, they also seem particularly unable to grasp the complexities of mental health problems.
Neither Atos nor their friends in the right-wing press take account of the reality that many disabled people would love to work but are prevented to do so by inaccessible workplaces, prejudiced employers and social structures that marginalise them. Disability is caused by society's attitudes to people with certain impairments, not by the impairments themselves.
But companies will not have their fitness as employers determined by Atos in twenty-minute assessments by unqualified individuals with a biased mandate.
As the government and their friends in the press launch this vicious assault on disabled people, the Daily Telegraph reports that Boris Johnson has repeated his call to scrap the top rate of income tax. It is 50p in the pound and only about pne per cent of the population are rich enough to pay it. This is income tax; when it comes to VAT, everyone pays the same, from a homeless person to a billionaire.
As Church Action on Poverty have pointed out, richer people spend a lower percentage of their income on tax. The poorest fifth of the UK spend about 14 per cent of their income on VAT, while for the richest fifth the figure is only seven per cent.
The Tories and their allies tell us that cuts are necessary to address the deficit, but it's hard to take them seriously when some of them are them are keen to offer yet more concessions to those whose wealth would allow them to contribute the most to tackling the economic situation.
In this warped response to economic problems, those with the least have to pay the most.
Please click on the link to see the original article
Select Committee challenges Employment Minister on release of benefit claimant statistics
DPAC, 3 August 2011
DPAC welcomes the letter sent by Anne Begg, Chair of the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee to the Minister for Employment Chris Grayling expressing serious concerns at the most recent misrepresentation of DWP statistics on benefit claimants in sections of the media on the same day that the Select Committee published a report which criticising aspects of the government’s involvement in reporting about the incapacity benefit reassessment process.
The report found that: "more care is needed in the way the Government engages with the media and in particular the way in which it releases and provides its commentary on official statistics on the IB reassessment”. The letter comments that "By what I assume was a coincidence, the Department chose to release statistics on new Employment and Support Allowance claims [on the same day as the report]. The coverage of the statistics in some newspapers, notably the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, was a particularly egregious example of the way they can be misused.”
The letter goes on to say "I am sure that you are therefore as shocked as I am by this most recent misrepresentation of DWP statistics on benefit claimants” and ends "I trust that you will be contacting newspaper editors again to urge them to ensure that the reports they carry about ESA claims are factually correct and that they avoid pejorative terms such as "shirkers” and "scroungers” which are irresponsible and inaccurate.”
Of course the release of the statistics on the same day as the publication of the report can have been no coincidence and it displays the arrogance of the government and their determination to pursue a policy direction that targets and attacks disabled people. However we commend the way the Select Committee have taken a stand in this.
For the full letter, please see this link
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Letter to Employment Minister on release of benefit claimant statistics
www.parliment.co.uk. 27 July 2011
The Chair of the Commons Work and Pensions has today written to the Minister for Employment Chris Grayling expressing serious concerns at the most recent misrepresentation of DWP statistics on benefit claimants in some sections of the media yesterday and today, after the committee also published a report yesterday which covered, among other things, concerns over the way releases of official statistics about the incapacity benefit reassessment process have been covered in the media in the past.
Letter to Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP
Dear Minister,
As you know, the committee published its report on "The role of incapacity benefit reassessment in helping claimants into work" yesterday.
You will have seen that in our report, we highlighted the concern amongst incapacity benefit claimants about the negative public perception of them. We deprecated the coverage of the reassessment in some sections of the media and in particular the use of terms such as "scrounger" and "work shy". We drew particular attention to the way in which releases of official statistics about the reassessment process were covered in the media and said that:
"We believe that more care is needed in the way the Government engages with the media and in particular the way in which it releases and provides its commentary on official statistics on the IB reassessment. In the end, the media will choose its own angle, but the Government should take great care with the language it itself uses and take all possible steps to ensure that context is provided when information about IB claimants found fit for work is released, so that unhelpful and inaccurate stories can be shown to have no basis."
By what I assume was a coincidence, the Department chose to release statistics on new Employment and Support Allowance claims yesterday. The coverage of the statistics in some newspapers, notably the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, was a particularly egregious example of the way they can be misused. The headline in today's Daily Mail was "The shirking classes: just 1 in 14 incapacity benefit claimants is unfit to work".
When we took evidence from you in this inquiry, you stressed that the Government had played no part in feeding negative media stories about benefit claimants. You made clear that the Government could not control the editorial approach of the tabloids but said that you had had "a number of conversations with people in the media about the need for care in this area".
I am sure that you are therefore as shocked as I am by this most recent misrepresentation of DWP statistics on benefit claimants. It is clear that your efforts to persuade the press to act responsibly when discussing incapacity benefit have not yet been successful.
It is also important that the Department's press releases always take care to emphasise the distinction between new ESA claims and the reassessment of existing incapacity benefit claimants, which may not have been the case on this occasion.
I trust that you will be contacting newspaper editors again to urge them to ensure that the reports they carry about ESA claims are factually correct and that they avoid pejorative terms such as "shirkers" and "scroungers" which are irresponsible and inaccurate. As we said, "portraying the reassessment of incapacity benefit claimants as some sort of scheme to 'weed out benefit cheats' shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the Government's objectives." It is clearly important that the Government takes every possible step to counter this ongoing negative portrayal.
Yours sincerely
Dame Anne Begg MP
50 charities say govt using ‘dangerously misleading statistics’ on benefits
www.liberalconspiracy.org, 30 July 2011
There’s been one good thing about the DWP incapacity benefit statistics - the response it’s provoked from disabled people and disability organisations.
Take a look at these excellent posts from Batsgirl and Latent Existence.
And now there’s a particularly important intervention from the Disability Benefits Consortium – a coalition of fifty charities and campaigning organisations.
The DBC statement argues that the government is using ‘dangerously misleading’ statistics – for a consortium that includes some of the most respectable and well-established charities in the country this is strong language.
Here’s the statement in full:
Government statistics [1] have fuelled claims this week that high numbers of benefits claimants are ‘faking’ [2]. But a coalition of over 50 charities [3] suggest this is dangerously misleading and contributing to hatred and violence towards disabled people by portraying them as cheats and scroungers. Hayley Jordan, from the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) and MS Society, says:
"Hours after an important committee of cross-party MPs condemned irresponsible and inaccurate portrayal of benefits claimants, DWP statistics led to more reports wrongly labelling people as ‘faking’. Disabled people are very disappointed that the Government is refusing to ensure accurate reporting and may be contributing to stigmatisation, victimisation and exclusion.”
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) released figures on Tuesday which suggest that only 7% of claimants for Employment Support Allowance (ESA), the new benefit that replaced Incapacity Benefits, were unable to do any sort of work. This led to claims that 75% of sickness benefits claimants are "faking”.
But the figures were released just as a report from a committee of MPs [4] decried misleading media coverage, and the false assumption that the tests are designed to ‘weed out’ benefits cheats:
"Media coverage of the reassessment is often irresponsible and inaccurate and we deprecate the pejorative language which some sections of the press use when referring to benefit claimants. Portraying the reassessment of incapacity benefit claimants as some sort of scheme to "weed out benefit cheats” shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the Government’s objectives.”
The committee report also highlights that the number of appeals is rapidly increasing, with people going to the Tribunals Service set to double over three years. 436,000 people will appeal in 2011/12 and this costs the taxpayer a staggering £50 million per year.
Independent reviews, charities, and the Work and Pensions Committee have all now told the Government that the figures for new ESA benefit claims mask the true level of capacity to work and that the assessment system used is ineffective, over-expensive and is denying many disabled people the support they need to get and keep work. But the facts are lost in ‘fakers’ claims which reappeared the same day the committee report was launched due to DWP publishing further statistics on the same day. This led committee chair, Dame Anne Begg MP, to write to the Minister [5] stating:
"By what I assume was a coincidence…The coverage of the statistics in some newspapers, notably the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, was a particularly egregious example of the way they can be misused.”
Charities are also concerned that welfare reform is supposed to deliver help to disabled people to get/keep work but support appears to be rescinding. Government misleading statistics on claimants was also published the same day as it was revealed the number of disabled people using ‘Access to Work’ had sadly fallen [6]. Neil Coyle, of the DBC and Disability Alliance, says:
"The Government must ensure appropriate support is available to disabled people to get and keep work. It is very worrying that some support has dropped in the last year. Sadly, the language to describe disabled people needing support has become more offensive and this also contributes to barriers to work as employers suspect genuinely disabled people of faking or being ‘work-shy’.”
Notes:
[1] See this link
[2] For examples please see these links:
- Only 7% deemed ‘too ill to work’ – Express
- 76% of those who say they’re sick ‘can work’: Tests weed out most seeking incapacity benefit – Mail
- 4 out of 5 ‘sick’ are fit to work – Sun
[3] The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) is a national coalition of over 50 different charities and other organisations committed to working towards a fair benefits system For more information go to: http://www.disabilityalliance.org/dbc.htm
[4] Department of Work and Pensions Commons Select Committee letter to Employment Minister on release of benefit claimant statistics, please see this link
[5] For a copy of the full letter please see this link
[6] Access to Work helps employers and disabled people with the costs of adapting work premises or providing accessible software for example and is a net contributor to the Treasury. For more information please see this link:
(Full disclosure: the TUC is a DBC member).
There have been some excellent posts on the lefty sites – such as this particularly brilliant one from Declan Gaffney.
Please click on the link to see the original article
New Figures Show Only 7% Of Disability Benefit Claimants Unfit For Work
samedifference1, July 26, 2011
Only 7% of people claiming sickness benefits were unable to do any sort of work, new figures have shown.
New claimants of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) must undergo tests to see if they are capable of some sort of employment.
Of 1.3 million tests between October 2008 and November 2010, some 88,700 were considered unfit for any work.
The Department for Work and Pensions figures come on the day a report warned tests caused anxiety among claimants.
Fitness
ESA is the successor to Incapacity Benefit and claimants are required to go through a series of tests to judge their fitness for work.
The department has released the results from 1.3 million tests over a period of more than two years which showed:
- 7% were incapable of any work
- 17% were able to do some sort of work given the correct support
- 39% were deemed to be fit for work and were moved onto jobseeker’s allowance
- 36% dropped out of the application process
- 1% of applications were still in progress
"These figures show that many people are able to work with the right help. We have strengthened the support now available tailoring it to individual needs so they can overcome whatever barriers they face,” said Work and Pensions Minister Steve Webb.
"Those who cannot work will always receive our unconditional support but for those who can work it is right that they get the help they need to get into employment.
"We are continuously improving the medical test to ensure that it is as fair and effective as possible.”
Criticism
The figures came as a report by the Work and Pensions Committee concluded that some vulnerable benefit claimants had payments stopped because of administrative errors in work assessments.
This affected some of the 1.5 million existing incapacity benefit claimants who are being reassessed with work capability assessments to encourage them back into jobs.
Overbooking of slots led to some people being marked as failing to attend, leading to suspended payments.
"The government’s aim of helping benefit claimants back into work is laudable, but the scale of the challenge should not be underestimated and nor should the level of anxiety which surrounds the process,” said Dame Anne Begg, who chairs the committee.
"People are suspicious that the government’s only objective is to save money.”
Tests
The reassessment process, which began nationwide in April, determines whether applicants are entitled to ESA, or are considered "fit for work”, in which case they are put on jobseeker’s allowance instead.
The assessments are carried out by Atos Healthcare. It was criticised in the committee’s report, although the committee accepted that some improvements had been made.
"[The service] has often fallen below the standard claimants rightly expect. This has contributed significantly to the widely felt mistrust of the whole process,” the report said.
It added that it was unacceptable that some people had found their benefits were stopped as a sanction for failing to attend the assessment when it was no fault of their own.
Cases had been the result of overbooking, administrative errors, or benefits claimants being too ill to attend the test.
Atos declined to comment on the report when contacted by the BBC.
The report called on the government to be more active in explaining the support available to people, irrespective of the outcome of the assessment.
It was also critical of the "irresponsible and inaccurate” media coverage of the issue which labelled some benefit claimants as "workshy”.
Please see the original article by clicking on this link
Incapacity benefit tests designed to save money not help disabled, says TUC
TUC, 26 July 2011
Commenting on figures released today (Tuesday) 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.
'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.'
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Today's figures on incapacity benefit are available by clicking the link
The Access to Work figures are available by clicking the link
All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk
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Government’s spin war on disabled continues
Left Foot Forward, 27 July 2011
The Coalition’s efforts to hang out the disabled to dryare going splendidly. "The shirking classes: Just 1 in 14 incapacity claimants is unfit to work,”thunders the Daily Mail. ”Sick benefits: 75% are faking,” slams the Express. The Telegraph similarly spins: "Only 7pc of sickness welfare claimants are signed off work.”
These headlines have been dutifully generated from ministerial announcements. The DWP gives the hacks an inch, couching thier announcement in termsof how many people have been ‘found out’.
The press release begins:
"Work Programme provides tailored support as latest figures show people are being found fit for work.”
And then the newspapers take a mile, with articles slamming scroungers, topped off with a nice quotation from the TaxPayers’ Alliance:
"Sadly there are those who see being ‘on the sick’ as an easy option.”
The first thing to point out is that the articles confuse applicants (to which these statistics refer) and pre-existing claimants ( that the newspapers seek to slam).Furthermore, Richard Exell over at the TUC has got down among the data, to show that the75 per cent figure is pure spin.
He writes:
Let’s have a look at what today’s statistics actually show.
When people applying for EMA[Employment Support Allowance] were tested these were the results:
• 7% were placed in the Support Group (people who are expected to be on the benefit for a long time);
• 17% in the Work Related Activity Group (people who are expected to be able to work one day, but not now);
• 39% fit for work;
• 36% closed their claim before their assessment was complete.
In other words, the number found fit for work at the test is39%. The same set of statistics show that 37% appeal and 39% of these appeals are successful – which brings the percentage found fit for work down to33%.
Richard touches upon the Work Capability Assessment that educates which of the four categories you fit in with. This is carried out with a more profitable arm of David Cameron’s Big Society, IT company Atos. While four in ten appeals are successful, this figure is as high as 70 per cent in Scotland.
Atos is accused of carrying out the tests in a rushed, cursory and inappropriate manner, for example testing those for flexibility whose conditions mean their joints dislocate easily, or can only sustain jobs for a few weeks at a time before breaking down.
Many Atos centres do not even haveappropriate facilitiesto carry out the tests, and surveys indicate that the actions of the Atos regime have the effect of pushing the disabled towards suicide. Given that up to 95 per cent of disabled people think that ‘they will not be believed’ by Atos, it is no suprise that so many pull out of the tests.
Furthermore, this drive occurs as the Access to Work (AtW) programme that supports disabled people in employment is shrinking, with 1,400 fewer individualsbeing assisted on the schemein the last year, after the government restricted larger employers such as the Royal Mail from accessing the AtW.
The government is still depending on an Atos to carry out these tests, and to generate statistics that tabloids use to conjure headlines that browbeat the disabled. This is at a time when the disabled are facing mounting abuse and violence. As reported previously on Left Foot Forward, a recent survey for charity Scope in the capital found that:
"Half of London respondents to the poll said they experienced discrimination on a daily or weekly basis. It also found that 63% of people with disabilities in London thought others did not believe they were disabled.”
It is time the government show some leadership, stand up to Atos, and stop pandering to the mob mentality of the press.
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Careless words fuel prejudice
Guardian, 24 July 2011
Every time Iain Duncan Smith's Department for Work and Pensions reveals statistics on assessments for employment and support allowance, it highlights the people whose application failed – implying high levels of fraud and unnecessary claims. This fails to tell the whole story. Criteria for this benefit are incredibly high, while flaws in assessment mean many people with a significant level of impairment are declared fit for work. These statistics also overlook the fact that nearly four out of 10 appeals are successful and this rises significantly where the person has representation.
This partial picture feeds the tabloid media's negative narrative on "benefits scroungers" and this in turn has an impact on employers' perception of disability and disabled people. A recent survey found that 58% of disabled people thought others did not believe they were disabled and half of disabled people feel others presume they are not working. It found that attitudes towards disabled people had deteriorated over the last year.
We urge the department to present its next set of work capability assessment figures with balance and context, because their words have very real consequences.
Jaspal Dhani
CEO, UK Disabled People's Council;
Steve Winyard
Chair, Disability Benefits Consortium campaigns group