Mehdi Hasan

Mehdi Hasan’s polemical take on politics, economics and foreign affairs

The war on welfare scroungers, part 77

Can ministers or newspapers get their facts straight on benefit fraud, unemployment and the "work-sh

By Mehdi Hasan Published 27 October 2010 15:10

In my column in the magazine last week, I wrote:

Is this a cabinet guided by the national interest or vested interests? Not since the days of Harold Macmillan in the late 1950s has Britain been governed by politicians representing such a narrow social base. And Supermac and his millionaire colleagues at least believed in the universal welfare state. Cameron and his rich chums, in contrast, are engaged in a war on welfare.

In June, the Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith (net worth: £1m), used an interview with the Sunday Telegraph to urge jobless people to move in order to find work ("Coalition to tell unemployed to 'get on your bike' ", was the headline). In September, Osborne (£4.6m) castigated benefit claimants for making a "lifestyle choice". Earlier this month, the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt (£4.5m), told poor families to have fewer children.

Since then, we've had Iain Duncan Smith with his "get on the bus to get a job" jibe. Yes, in the current economic climate, IDS seems to think that jobs can be found for most if not all the unemployed. But how do you squeeze 2.4 million people into 459,000 vacancies? Maths doesn't seem to be the coalition's strong point.

Meanwhile, right-wing newspapers, taking their lead from dubious Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) briefings, have continued to demonise the "scoungers" and "spongers" on benefits. Here is the headline in today's Daily Mail:

Seventy-five per cent of incapacity claimants are fit to work: tough new benefits test weeds out the work-shy

The "work-shy"? Nice. According to the Mail's Gerri Peev:

Three-quarters of people who applied for new benefits for the long-term sick failed tests to prove they were too ill to work.

Out of about 840,000 who tried to obtain the £95-a-week Employment and Support Allowance, 640,000 were told they were fit for work or withdrew their applications before they took the tests -- suggesting they were "trying it on".

Conveniently, the article itself makes no mention of the number of claimants who have won on appeal or the criticisms levelled at the "tough new benefits test" from a range of charities and doctors. As even the Metro managed to note, in its coverage of this story:

Lizzie Iron, Citizens Advice head of welfare policy, said 40 per cent of people who failed the assessment and then appealed won.

"Seriously ill and disabled people are being severely let down by the crude approach of the work capability assessment," she said.

The Mail does make a passing reference to the private company, Atos, which has been contracted by the DWP to conduct the work capability assessments for all new claimants of the new ESA benefit.

Those who go in front of Atos-hired doctors are tested on how far they can walk, how long they can sit and whether they can bend and touch their knees.

But, again, the Mail conveniently makes no mention at all of the various concerns that have emerged about Atos and the tests that its doctors carry out on behalf of the DWP. For example, a BBC investigation in January quoted two former Atos doctors who had "expressed concerns that the checks are being done too quickly and that the system is biased towards declaring people fit for work". And a BBC freedom of information request revealed:

. . . there are 8,000 ESA appeals heard every month. This is double the number of the next most appealed benefit, disability living allowance, which has seven times more claimants than ESA.

The TUC has identified a number of case studies who have been awarded "0 points" by Atos and declared fit to work, despite previously having been declared too ill to do so:

When they met with Atos Origin Ltd, Sue Hutchings had breast cancer and was awaiting surgery, while John Watkins had his arm in plaster from his shoulder to his fingertips following an operation.

They were moved from ESA at £96.85 a week on to JSA at £65.45 a week, losing them each £1,632.80 a year in benefit support, and forcing them to start looking for work.

These criticisms of Atos are nothing new. And I should add, of course, that Atos was first contracted by the DWP to carry out their assessments of benefit claimants under the last (New) Labour government. Her Majesty's opposition can't take the moral high ground here.

UPDATE: More Lib Dem U-turns. From the charity Mind's website:

Before the election, Lib Dem Danny Alexander, the new Secretary of State for Scotland, expressed reservations about the expansion of the new system, suggesting that "there must be a very serious concern about whether the roll-out is appropriate". He claimed at the time that the transfer of IB claimants could lead to "tens of thousands of appeals", and that this would result in "a system that then is close to meltdown".

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Tags: Coalition Spending Cuts media

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30 comments

Thu, 2012-10-11 14:53 — Human Being (not verified)

Of the 640,000 who withdrew their applications before assessment, I was one – because Employment & Support Allowance is what substitutes for Statutory Sick Pay for self-employed people like me.

So when I was off sick for 3 weeks with a crippling but short lived health problem, my ESA claim was a statistic, and then became another when I withdrew it before they had time (or any need) to assess me. I’ve never seen this mentioned anywhere else but it must account for a fair number of “withdrawn prior to assessment” ESA claims.

Thu, 2010-10-28 13:27 — writeoff (not verified)

How is a law giving enfranchisement rights to workers to take control of their employers not a practical step? That would raise wages for employees and undermine the narrow class of multimillionaires who run the country for their own benefit. I'd start by presenting this as the only option to firms looking to sell out to indebted foreign buyers. The Tories and most of the political classes have not the faintest idea of what it is like to be poor, or how social mobility works in practice. Nor to they much care. We'd all be happier without millionaires anyway, so another solution might coincide with the duck season.

Wed, 2010-10-27 15:30 — PC (not verified)

There have been plenty of questionable reports and statistics about the benefits system in the press for a number of months now.

this blog post rounds up some of the more notable ones...

http://bit.ly/cyaQmD

Wed, 2010-10-27 15:33 — Sam (not verified)

Valid criticisms about Atos and ESA, but pointless to cry about IDS saying people should look out of town for work, or Jeremy Hunt saying people shouldn't have children if they can't afford them. They are perfectly reasonable things for ministers to say.

Thu, 2010-10-28 13:57 — demonax3

Of course there is no class warfare-just a field of the dead-as Warren Buffet said -his class have won.

Wed, 2010-10-27 15:46 — MythExploder (not verified)

The claim in today’s newspapers that 75% of incapacity claimants are fit for work is misleading and I am disappointed by the sloppy journalism. The DWP statistics need to be analysed more carefully. Of those who applied for incapacity benefit, 39% per cent were assessed as fit for work. So far, a third of these have appealed against the decision, and 40% of them were subsequently found to be unfit for work.

Also, to apply for incapacity benefit (now called Employment and Support Allowance), one’s GP has to approve and provide evidence. So, do today’s newspaper headlines imply that many thousands of British GP’s are complicit in fraud or incompetence? The correct answer is no; the vast majority of claimants are genuine, don’t want to be ill and are desperate to get back to work if only they could. The DWP’s research for 2009/10 estimated that only 2.1 per cent of total benefit expenditure was overpaid due to fraud and error. (1 per cent due to fraud; 1.1 per cent due to error).

The new medical test for those claiming to be too sick to work has been heavily criticised as too simplistic and “draconian”, resulting in many people genuinely incapacitated for work being wrongly labelled as fit. These people will simply languish on the unemployment register, still unable to work, and without the support they need.

Something is terribly wrong with a system that haphazardly miscategorises huge numbers of ill people as being fit for work, causing terrible distress and hardship. This is not an efficient, kind or clever use of government resources.

Sources: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/newsroom/press-releases/2010/oct-2010/dwp141-10-26...
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/workingage/esa_wca/esa_wca_26102010.pdf
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd2/index.php?page=fraud_error
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/29/incapacity-benefit-f...

Wed, 2010-10-27 15:49 — PeeJay (not verified)

Usual tedious class warfare, get that chip of your shoulder and try to find happiness, this is my suggestion.

Thu, 2010-10-28 14:19 — Loan Ranger (not verified)

I blame Grayling and the DWP.

The manner in which these DWP press-releases are constructed is designed to feed the constant vilification of the ill and disabled by the red-tops, the Daily Murdoch and the Daily Heil. It’s time that the DWP was challenged over this odious practise.
They begin with the headline,

Quote:
“Grayling: latest figures show the vast majority of people being found fit for work”

however the lines below this add

Quote:
“or stop their claim before they complete their medical assessment”

This (“lumping in” the “claims closed before assessment” with the WCA failures) is a deliberate attempt to mislead when only 39% are actually failing the WCA.

Some of the 39% of claims closed before assessment complete will have been JSA claimants forced by regulations to claim ESA after 2 weeks “sick”, who have subsequently become well enough to return to JSA of their own accord (i.e. before their WCA was due – up to 13 weeks later), others will have also been on ESA temporarily because either, they are self-employed but ill/injured, or persons in jobs where their employer doesn’t cater for Statutory Sick Pay. The DWP doesn’t bother to collate statistics regarding those who recover and return to work or JSA before their WCA is due, these may account for the vast majority of those people who stop their claim before they complete their medical assessment. By “lumping in” the “claims closed before assessment” with the WCA failures, Chris (Goebbels) Grayling’s disingenuousness stinks.

Thu, 2010-10-28 14:21 — Chris (not verified)

Some good comments above, although I'd like to see Yeti's evidence that "most" people on these benefits are "scroungers". Yeti should consider himself (herself?) lucky that he's not so sick or disabled that he has to go through the stress of these tests and ends up being told he's fit for work when he isn't, although that experience might teach him some empathy in this nasty Tory world.

Why would any ethical doctor even consider working for Atos and conducting tests they know are unfair?

Wed, 2010-10-27 16:49 — thinkov

happiness in class warfare is mine

Thu, 2010-10-28 15:37 — Gordon Comstock

I was dismayed that even the BBC have been broadcasting on the same day as benefit cuts were being announced a lengthy feature on one individual who had been able to play football while claiming benefit to the strangely round figure of '£100,000'. Even the investigating officer conceded that this was not a typical case. Should policy ever be based on such exceptions which, once in the media, have been discovered anyway ? There is a appeal to the worst instincts underlying the so-called justification for these changes which are idelogically driven and which must be seen against a benefit system that is one of the meanest in Europe.
If interested I have written from my own experience at the sharp end at :
http://www.disparatestraights.blogspot.com

Wed, 2010-10-27 17:15 — Yeti (not verified)

Everybody knows and accepts that most people that receive the benefit are in fact scroungers.

It would be great if the left and right of British politics could work together for once and get the 50 - 60 - 70 percent of those claiming off benefits forever.

That way we could reduce taxes and grow the economy faster.

The few look after the many far too much in this country.

Wed, 2010-10-27 17:34 — stuart (not verified)

yeti,i noticed the biggest benefit scroungers in this country the royal family have not done to bad in these spending cuts,is it not time we mean tested dole scroungers like prince charles and princess ann who both have been abusing the benefit system for years.ok keep the queen and buckingham palace as a tourist attraction but the time has come for the department of works and pensions to pull in all these others royal idle layabouts to find out if they are available for work and if not cut or reduce there benefits

Thu, 2010-10-28 16:30 — struggling (not verified)

" ...40 per cent of people who failed the assessment and then appealed won...Seriously ill and disabled people are being severely let down by the crude approach of the work capability assessment..."

AND what they don't seem to take into account is that behind these statistics are human beings. 8,000 appeals every month - that means 8,000 human beings who are ill or disabled living with stress, anxiety and fear for their future, without money. The reality of this means not being able to afford food, medication, heating etc. All these things actually contribute to making a person more ill, and therefore even more unlikely to be able to do any form of work now or in the future!!!

Wed, 2010-10-27 18:38 — Nick (not verified)

Headlines such as this blatant lie in the Daily Mail make me absolutely livid. Where on earth do they get the 75%? This is just plain irresponsible journalism. Our success rate in overturning ESA decisions runs at around 65% and of those some cases are awaiting appeal to a higher level. The Atos medicals are an absolute joke. I've had cases where an inexperienced Atos SRN assessed a claimant's physical and mental health in all of 8 minutes with no prior access to the claimant's medical notes or knowledge of them as a patient. I'm encouraging people to complain to the GMC rather than wasting their time with ATOS.

These distorted figures pay no regard to how many 60 year old claimants (a particularly targeted) group)give up claiming ESA and claim the more costly Pension Credit instead!

Not only is all of this undermining the credibility of claimants, it undermines that of a GP who writes the sick (or rather 'Fit') note in the first place.

Laughably the Jobcentre tells many claimants who have not been able to get ESA that they are not able to claim JSA because they are too ill to work!

I deal with these people day in and day out, I'd dearly love to show this crazy bunch of fools just how incapacitated some of these people are.

Wed, 2010-10-27 18:38 — Benedict (not verified)

Yeti wrote, "Everybody knows and accepts that most people that receive the benefit are in fact scroungers."

According to the Government's own figures, Osborne's cuts will put 1.1 to 1.3 million out of a job and onto benefit, for a while at least.

Does Yeti think think that 1.3 million people will have suddenly just decided to become scroungers?

Wed, 2010-10-27 19:11 — swatantra

Its like the War on Terror or War on Drugs or War on Fatty Foods, its unlikely to be won. The best we can hope for is that it can be contained. There will always be a very small section of society that want to opt out of their responsibilities; its the rest of society that has to pick up the tabs. Its not fair but its not a fair world.

Wed, 2010-10-27 20:52 — Daniele1

@yeti
I love the "everybody knows that most people who receive the benefit are in fact scroungers". Thanks for that. You perfectly illustrate how a lot of people swallow the anti poor propaganda from the right wing Murdoch press. How gullible are you to come up with such a
puerile statement!
Mind you it isn't really your fault. There is no left wing press to speak of in this country. You are bound to believe any rubbish they tell you, if repeated enough times.
How can you believe ANY figure they tell you like this magic 75%. Ridiculous!
If it was true, this country would represent the most dishonest population on earth!
So Mrs Smith is very ill with cancer, but she can make a cup of tea (one of the questions asked at the test). Does that make her able to find and perform a job?
Even if some of these sick or disabled people could, on a good day, make a cup of tea or hold a pen (another question) or sit at a computer, how on earth are they supposed to land a job when they are going to be thousands, possibly millions, perfectly healthy people, who will not be able to find one.Who is going to give them a job?? It is disingenuous and cruel to pretend otherwise.

Wed, 2010-10-27 21:10 — Nick (not verified)

Quite where they get £96.85 per week from I do not know. There are very few in the support groups who qualify for in excess of the £65.45 they would get on JSA. Claimants find it hard enough getting the basic allowance, let alone the innefective support package which is meant to help people 'find' work.

Wed, 2010-10-27 21:37 — Nick (not verified)

Daniele: I suppose once they've shifted the mythical 75% over to JSA, they will then be saying the same people won't take work when plenty is available!

Wed, 2010-10-27 22:48 — jie4v7i14

Keep London for Londoners, born within any church bells they choose to call home,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7w_EC90C98

Gets me these modern day arse'oles, better known as gormless condems, without any concept of historical feeling around hidden corners of the country, east west north and south. Total wanks the lot of them.

Wed, 2010-10-27 22:53 — jie4v7i14

Chris Bryant, brilliant piece of Parliamentary government stirring up,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3xd9jv0BXc

Clegg - touched a nerve methinks. Clegg's a total twat.

Wed, 2010-10-27 22:57 — jie4v7i14

Anyway, what will happen with Londons postal service when all their low paid postmen/women are moved out into the provinces with all this? Ey?

Wed, 2010-10-27 23:00 — stuart (not verified)

never forget, george bush invaded iraq not for all this bullshitt about oil and chemical weapons but to finish off what his father did not do in the first gulf war and flatten iraq,so i remind you david camerons whole idealogy is to carry on the legacy of margeret thatcher and finish off the job that she never got the chance to finish,here we go back to the 80s.

Thu, 2010-10-28 00:29 — Left Is Forward (not verified)

The appropriate question to be asking now is not "Are the people involved in this government twats?" (we know the answer to that one) but "What can we do, as individuals, to bring this government down?"

After we've done that it'll be the time to ask "What can we do to punish those who propped those bastards up?" I hope that the punishment is sharp, effective, and brutal - since the language of power seems to be all that the super-rich understand. If the Tories are in the pockets of the multimillionaires, let's just make sure there are NO multimillionaires - by attacking tax avoidance, forcing them to open up business asset ownership to worker co-operatives or social ownership by nationalisation, expulsion of foreign-born businessmen if proven that they have ripped off consumers and overworked/underpayed their workers in the pursuit of profit, and a vigorous wealth tax against those who remain. If we destroy the multimillionaires as a class, nobody will be able to fund the Tories anymore, and we can look forward to a brighter century.

Thu, 2010-10-28 01:01 — Daniele1

@left is forward:
What a plan!! when can we start?
oh but you forgot something.The first thing to do is to abolish the Monarchy and turn British subjects into proper citizens!

Sat, 2010-11-06 11:21 — c hench (not verified)

You won;t find a easy option to stop this government.A peasant revolt is needed it sounds harsh,but to a government that has no compassion it is the only way,they have their polictical ear plugs in, where the poor are concerned.They need to be physically removed the tories,are the new anti christ...You will cease to be considered human all time they are in office...We need to do something now they cant'treat people like this ,if we let them,dont write on here and complain about it.

Thu, 2010-10-28 10:40 — bendy girl

75% of Incapacity Benefit Claimants are NOT being found fit for work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PBKrsOEV8g
The Broken of Britain

Thu, 2010-10-28 11:28 — Robert Taggart

Now be the time for us scroungers to make our case... by 'standing aside' we are giving those who really want to work a 'clear shot' at all vacancies. We are doing them a service for as little as 2.5K p.a. value for money or what ? !

Thu, 2010-10-28 11:39 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

@Leftisforward: Lets get rid the multimillionaires .. really is that your solution? And do you think that will happen? Get real. It's impractical. What practical steps can you take? Why are you avoiding this question?

I want to know practical steps.