The news that the Government is softening its harsh approach to cancer patients claiming sickness benefits is a welcome relief. Yesterday it announced that the one year time limit for recipients of Employment and Support allowance will only start counting down once the patient has finished all their medical treatments. It has also said that cancer patients can avoid the WCA medical test carried out by Atos as a GP's report will be acceptable proof for the benefits office.
Finally, we think, the Government is being reasonable. It is trusting NHS doctors again to verify the health of their patients and at last recognises that forcing cancer patients to attend DWP job interviews will only slow down their recovery.
Yet perversely this common sense approach to benefits locks the Government into ever more irrational behaviour. As these changes will only apply to cancer patients, other people with just as serious illnesses will still be locked into an unfair system in which they will lose benefit payments after one year even if they are not well enough to return to work - remember the Government's own estimates show that 94% of people who received time limited ESA will not be better after 12 months. The work-focused ESA also forces sick people to seek jobs, attended job centre interviews and even do unlimited work experience while they are still too sick to work.
So yes this change is great news for cancer patients but it stinks to me of a Government running scared that the public is waking up to how punitative and harsh its sickness benefits system is, and is desperate to avoid appalling headlines like this one. Cancer receives widespread media coverage as it can happen to anyone at any time, so come the election such Government negligence could have become a real door-step issue. But ultimately if the Government recognises changes are needed for ESA and the WCA it has a duty to ensure that they are rolled out universally not just for a particular group of people for whom there is greater public sympathy or understanding.
Just as worryingly this shift in policy sets a precedent that those illnesses that have popular support from the public will get a fairer hearing in the huge welfare upheaval than those who suffer from rare or unpopular illnesses (think what a rougher ride those with depression receive from the tabloid press).
Earlier this year Ian Duncan Smith announced that under Personal Independence Payments (the controversial benefit replacing Disability Living Allowance) amputees will be unlikely to receive the top level of mobility support that they currently do under DLA, and warned the public that this would also apply to soldiers.Yet Cameron intervened saying that amputee war veterans will be exempt from the
harsh restrictions planned for the mobility component of PIP.
How can Cameron argue that a civilian with a below the knee amputation caused by a road traffic accident is any less disabled than a soldier with the same amputation caused by an IED?
I can see the way the wind is blowing on this issue and I for one don't want a society in which people with illnesses are pitted against each other in some bizarre X-Factor-style media popularity contest as the rest of us judge who is and isn't deserving of fair treatment.
Showing posts with label DLA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DLA. Show all posts
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Thursday, 22 March 2012
Budget 2012: the disabled marginalised yet again
Yesterday's budget contained a kick in the teeth for disabled people, quickly followed by a punch in the face.
The Chancellor's retreat on child benefit, moving the threshold for ineligibility from those earning over £43,000 to those earning over £60,000, was a bare-faced example of the Government looking after its own voters. When the planned benefit cut was announced last year there were howls of outrage amongst higher rate earners, and the Tories, mindful an election has to be fought in perhaps two years time, decided to try and save their own skins.
How is this relevant to disabled people?
When the recent Welfare reform Bill passed through the House of Lords, three defeats were enacted on the Government as the Lords chose to make changes that they believed would safe-guard some of the most sick and disabled in the country. One of those changes was to extend the length of time that people on contributory-based Employment Support Allowance could claim the benefit. The Government proposed that those people place in the Working Capability Group of ESA (so claimants who are too ill to work but should be able to in the future) could only claim the benefit for a year. The Lords voted to extend this to two years to ensure that people had enough time to get better before being forced into work. Macmillan cancer support for example argued that annually 7.000 cancer patients, routinely placed in the Working group of ESA, take longer than 12 months to recover.
Although the Lords followed due democratic process to enact these changes, they have not come into force. The Government used 'financial privilege' to block these amendments. In short, MPs cried "Sorry, no money!" and did so in a way that has seen no precedent.
But suddenly come budget day, the Government discovered a stash of cash to save the child benefit of higher rate tax-payers, those who are doing ok in life, and yet still no money to extend ESA for those who are too sick to work through no fault of their own. More worryingly for democracy, the Government places greater value on the opinion of its voters then on the democratic process of a Bill being passed into law.
The second fear hidden in the budget was Osborne's casual mention that Ian Duncan Smith would have to find a further £10 billion of welfare cuts on top of the £18 billion already slashed from these bills. The biggest slice of welfare is spent on old age - with today's vicious headlines about a granny tax I can't see the Government making any further cuts to pensioners. Child benefit cuts now seem completely off the table, a decision that Ian Duncan Smith may come to resent Osborne for as he frantically tries to cut £10 billion.
So where can more cuts be found? Housing benefit perhaps, childcare credits even, but a clear forerunner would be disability benefits. Disability Living Allowance is already scheduled to be scrapped next year, and replaced by Personal Independence Payments (PIP). In the Government's last spending review it arbitrarily decided to cut recipients of PIP by 20%, before it had even decided the criteria for eligibility or assessed the needs of a single disabled person.
What's the betting that in the next spending review the Government decides to save 25% or even 30% from the PIP bill? I for one am very worried.
The Chancellor's retreat on child benefit, moving the threshold for ineligibility from those earning over £43,000 to those earning over £60,000, was a bare-faced example of the Government looking after its own voters. When the planned benefit cut was announced last year there were howls of outrage amongst higher rate earners, and the Tories, mindful an election has to be fought in perhaps two years time, decided to try and save their own skins.
How is this relevant to disabled people?
When the recent Welfare reform Bill passed through the House of Lords, three defeats were enacted on the Government as the Lords chose to make changes that they believed would safe-guard some of the most sick and disabled in the country. One of those changes was to extend the length of time that people on contributory-based Employment Support Allowance could claim the benefit. The Government proposed that those people place in the Working Capability Group of ESA (so claimants who are too ill to work but should be able to in the future) could only claim the benefit for a year. The Lords voted to extend this to two years to ensure that people had enough time to get better before being forced into work. Macmillan cancer support for example argued that annually 7.000 cancer patients, routinely placed in the Working group of ESA, take longer than 12 months to recover.
Although the Lords followed due democratic process to enact these changes, they have not come into force. The Government used 'financial privilege' to block these amendments. In short, MPs cried "Sorry, no money!" and did so in a way that has seen no precedent.
But suddenly come budget day, the Government discovered a stash of cash to save the child benefit of higher rate tax-payers, those who are doing ok in life, and yet still no money to extend ESA for those who are too sick to work through no fault of their own. More worryingly for democracy, the Government places greater value on the opinion of its voters then on the democratic process of a Bill being passed into law.
The second fear hidden in the budget was Osborne's casual mention that Ian Duncan Smith would have to find a further £10 billion of welfare cuts on top of the £18 billion already slashed from these bills. The biggest slice of welfare is spent on old age - with today's vicious headlines about a granny tax I can't see the Government making any further cuts to pensioners. Child benefit cuts now seem completely off the table, a decision that Ian Duncan Smith may come to resent Osborne for as he frantically tries to cut £10 billion.
So where can more cuts be found? Housing benefit perhaps, childcare credits even, but a clear forerunner would be disability benefits. Disability Living Allowance is already scheduled to be scrapped next year, and replaced by Personal Independence Payments (PIP). In the Government's last spending review it arbitrarily decided to cut recipients of PIP by 20%, before it had even decided the criteria for eligibility or assessed the needs of a single disabled person.
What's the betting that in the next spending review the Government decides to save 25% or even 30% from the PIP bill? I for one am very worried.
Thursday, 1 March 2012
The Government’s disability strategy out of touch with the reality of cuts
The Government is in the final week of its consultation asking disabled people to help develop its disability strategy. Maria Miller, minister for disabled people, has said that: “The Government is committed to enabling disabled people to fulfil their potential and have the opportunity to play a full role in their community”. But in reality it is clear that the Government lacks any cohesive policy that will enable this to happen.
In the last three years 31 people have died while awaiting appeals against Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) medicals that had found them fit to work. At their most vulnerable, the sick and disabled were left worrying to the day they died about how they and their family would cope financially while their illness was slowly killing them. Society should be in uproar that people in dire need turned to the state for help and were failed by it, but instead media and Government debate focuses on disabled ‘scroungers’, further isolating the disabled from their communities.
Yet while it could be argued in the case of ESA that Government incompetence is forcing disabled people into hardship, the same cannot be said for Personal Independence Payments (PIP), the new benefit that is replacing Disability Living Allowance (DLA). Under PIP eligibility rules, even if you cannot walk more than 50 metres and need a wheelchair to get about for any longer distances, a disabled person still won’t be eligible for higher rate mobility – which in short means they will most likely lose access to a car through the motability scheme and the freedom such a vehicle gives them that their body cannot.
By cold-hearted design, these ‘independence payments’ will in fact take independence away from severely disabled people and force them to remain in their homes. No wonder Lady Grey-Thompson, speaking to the Guardian last month, said: “I worry that it is going to become the way it was when I was young where you just didn’t see disabled people on the street because they were locked away.”
These aren’t the only cuts aimed at disabled people. The Department of Work and Pensions’ own analysis into the housing benefit reforms states that 450,000 disabled people will face cuts to their allowance under new rules. 78,000 disabled people who use legal aid to appeal against decisions to deny them benefit will lose this support under Ken Clarke’s reforms. The Independent Living Fund (ILF) has been entirely closed to new claimants and by 2015 payments to the 21,000 severely disabled people it helps will cease. Tax credits to help with the extra costs of raising a disabled child will be cut from a maximum of £54 a week to £27 a week under Ian Duncan Smith’s Universal Credit changes – cuts that the Children’s Society says will see some families with disabled offspring £1,400 worse off a year. According to a Government Select Committee on Health, nearly two thirds of local authorities in England have reduced their disabled and adult social care budgets. As such councils have drastically altered their criteria for providing care to disabled adults, leaving many people unable to wash and dress themselves properly isolated in their own filth as they are not disabled enough to qualify for care.
These cuts will severely curtail disabled people’s ability to “fulfil their potential”. PIP will actually remove independence from disabled people, the scrapping of ILF will see disabled people condemned to care homes, decisions to limit ESA to one year, leaving 7000 cancer patients without any financial support while they are still too unwell to work, will only help in moving disabled people into poverty, not into the workplace. Cuts to legal aid will take away their voice, housing benefit remove them from often supportive communities and homes that are specially adapted for their needs. Harsh reductions in social care budgets will see people stuck in hospital for longer periods of time as they cannot be discharged into communities because they lack provision for their basic care. Disabled people were already twice as likely to be living in poverty than others before these cuts were imposed: no wonder disabled people up and down the country are scared stiff of these ‘reforms’.
The Government’s consultation document, entitled ‘Fulfilling potential’, makes specific mention of “tackling discrimination” towards disabled people and “promoting positive attitudes”. Yet charities have directly linked a rise in disabled abuse with the increasing rhetoric from Government ministers that disabled people are scrounging off society.
So bad has the Government’s attitude become that disability groups are now questioning whether they can continue to work with it on shaping further welfare reforms.
By the end of this parliament, if all these cuts are implemented, far from disabled people fulfilling their potential, the Coalition would instead have successfully reversed twenty years of advances made in helping the disabled play a valued and active part in society. Shame on all MPs if that is their intention. And if it isn’t, then the Government must wake up to the impact of these cuts, ban negative ministerial rhetoric linking the disabled with ‘scroungers’ and honour its supposed desire to develop policies that give back respect and support to some of the most vulnerable people in society.
In the last three years 31 people have died while awaiting appeals against Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) medicals that had found them fit to work. At their most vulnerable, the sick and disabled were left worrying to the day they died about how they and their family would cope financially while their illness was slowly killing them. Society should be in uproar that people in dire need turned to the state for help and were failed by it, but instead media and Government debate focuses on disabled ‘scroungers’, further isolating the disabled from their communities.
Yet while it could be argued in the case of ESA that Government incompetence is forcing disabled people into hardship, the same cannot be said for Personal Independence Payments (PIP), the new benefit that is replacing Disability Living Allowance (DLA). Under PIP eligibility rules, even if you cannot walk more than 50 metres and need a wheelchair to get about for any longer distances, a disabled person still won’t be eligible for higher rate mobility – which in short means they will most likely lose access to a car through the motability scheme and the freedom such a vehicle gives them that their body cannot.
By cold-hearted design, these ‘independence payments’ will in fact take independence away from severely disabled people and force them to remain in their homes. No wonder Lady Grey-Thompson, speaking to the Guardian last month, said: “I worry that it is going to become the way it was when I was young where you just didn’t see disabled people on the street because they were locked away.”
These aren’t the only cuts aimed at disabled people. The Department of Work and Pensions’ own analysis into the housing benefit reforms states that 450,000 disabled people will face cuts to their allowance under new rules. 78,000 disabled people who use legal aid to appeal against decisions to deny them benefit will lose this support under Ken Clarke’s reforms. The Independent Living Fund (ILF) has been entirely closed to new claimants and by 2015 payments to the 21,000 severely disabled people it helps will cease. Tax credits to help with the extra costs of raising a disabled child will be cut from a maximum of £54 a week to £27 a week under Ian Duncan Smith’s Universal Credit changes – cuts that the Children’s Society says will see some families with disabled offspring £1,400 worse off a year. According to a Government Select Committee on Health, nearly two thirds of local authorities in England have reduced their disabled and adult social care budgets. As such councils have drastically altered their criteria for providing care to disabled adults, leaving many people unable to wash and dress themselves properly isolated in their own filth as they are not disabled enough to qualify for care.
These cuts will severely curtail disabled people’s ability to “fulfil their potential”. PIP will actually remove independence from disabled people, the scrapping of ILF will see disabled people condemned to care homes, decisions to limit ESA to one year, leaving 7000 cancer patients without any financial support while they are still too unwell to work, will only help in moving disabled people into poverty, not into the workplace. Cuts to legal aid will take away their voice, housing benefit remove them from often supportive communities and homes that are specially adapted for their needs. Harsh reductions in social care budgets will see people stuck in hospital for longer periods of time as they cannot be discharged into communities because they lack provision for their basic care. Disabled people were already twice as likely to be living in poverty than others before these cuts were imposed: no wonder disabled people up and down the country are scared stiff of these ‘reforms’.
The Government’s consultation document, entitled ‘Fulfilling potential’, makes specific mention of “tackling discrimination” towards disabled people and “promoting positive attitudes”. Yet charities have directly linked a rise in disabled abuse with the increasing rhetoric from Government ministers that disabled people are scrounging off society.
So bad has the Government’s attitude become that disability groups are now questioning whether they can continue to work with it on shaping further welfare reforms.
By the end of this parliament, if all these cuts are implemented, far from disabled people fulfilling their potential, the Coalition would instead have successfully reversed twenty years of advances made in helping the disabled play a valued and active part in society. Shame on all MPs if that is their intention. And if it isn’t, then the Government must wake up to the impact of these cuts, ban negative ministerial rhetoric linking the disabled with ‘scroungers’ and honour its supposed desire to develop policies that give back respect and support to some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
DLA reform should be PAUSED until TWO key issues resolved
Following on from last week's dramatic defeat in the House of Lords of three proposed welfare reform changes, the debate has now moved on to the reform of DLA. The Lords will be voting tonight on the plans, including an amendment by Baroness Grey-Thompson, of paralympic fame, that there would have to be a pilot before a new medical assessment of DLA is brought in. You can also read more about this at Sue Marsh's great blog. However, for the sake of the taxpayer and disabled people across the nation, DLA reform should be paused until two key issues are resolved.
1. Do not scrap DLA until the Government can clearly demonstrate that its desire to cut 20% from the budget will not leave genuinely sick people in need
Government statistics show the fraud of DLA is 0.5%, yet in its 'Budget 2010 policy costings document" the Government unveiled its intention to cut the number of those in receipt of DLA by 20% despite the fact it is yet to outline any eligibility criteria for PIP. This obviously raises serious concerns that genuinely ill people will be denied benefit solely to meet a pre-decided budget and that 'eligibility' for PIP will be driven by costs not by need. As Sue Marsh highlights in her blog, the current tabled legislation has so few details in it, which are meant to be decided by MPs under secondary legislation at a later date, that we do not know how these reforms will affect our lives, despite the fact it is being introduced NEXT YEAR.
2. Halt any introduction of PIP medical assessments until the financial and emotional catastrophe surrounding the similar medical for ESA is sorted out
The Government wishes to introduce a medical assessment for all recepients of PIP, despite the fact that a similar assessment process for Employment Support Allowance is currently in a huge mess. Society should be in uproar that 31 people have DIED while awaiting appeals against ESA medicals that found them fit to work.
40% of decisions to deny ESA are overturned at the appeal stage. Appeals have so far cost the taxpayer £80 million and the contract with private company Atos to manage these medicals is worth £801 million over ten years. Atos is yet to have any financial penalities imposed upon it for inaccurate reports resulting from the medicals it has conducted.
That's me done, hospital appointment later and typically the day I need to leave the house my lungs are behaving terribly. Fingers' crossed the vote in the House of Lords helps bring back common sense and support & respect for disabled people across the country.
1. Do not scrap DLA until the Government can clearly demonstrate that its desire to cut 20% from the budget will not leave genuinely sick people in need
Government statistics show the fraud of DLA is 0.5%, yet in its 'Budget 2010 policy costings document" the Government unveiled its intention to cut the number of those in receipt of DLA by 20% despite the fact it is yet to outline any eligibility criteria for PIP. This obviously raises serious concerns that genuinely ill people will be denied benefit solely to meet a pre-decided budget and that 'eligibility' for PIP will be driven by costs not by need. As Sue Marsh highlights in her blog, the current tabled legislation has so few details in it, which are meant to be decided by MPs under secondary legislation at a later date, that we do not know how these reforms will affect our lives, despite the fact it is being introduced NEXT YEAR.
2. Halt any introduction of PIP medical assessments until the financial and emotional catastrophe surrounding the similar medical for ESA is sorted out
The Government wishes to introduce a medical assessment for all recepients of PIP, despite the fact that a similar assessment process for Employment Support Allowance is currently in a huge mess. Society should be in uproar that 31 people have DIED while awaiting appeals against ESA medicals that found them fit to work.
40% of decisions to deny ESA are overturned at the appeal stage. Appeals have so far cost the taxpayer £80 million and the contract with private company Atos to manage these medicals is worth £801 million over ten years. Atos is yet to have any financial penalities imposed upon it for inaccurate reports resulting from the medicals it has conducted.
That's me done, hospital appointment later and typically the day I need to leave the house my lungs are behaving terribly. Fingers' crossed the vote in the House of Lords helps bring back common sense and support & respect for disabled people across the country.
Friday, 13 January 2012
For the taxpayer’s sake, halt the introduction of disability benefit PIP
In response to every criticism of the Government’s austerity drive, the Coalition insists there is no alternative to the cuts and yesterday morning was no different. Speaking on the Today programme, Work and pensions minister Chris Grayling again argued that it was in the taxpayer’s interest for the Government to press ahead with disability welfare cuts despite last night’s dramatic defeat in the House of Lords of three proposed welfare reform changes. Yet as the debate shifts to other aspects of the welfare bill, it can be argued that key elements of the proposed reforms in fact short change the taxpayer.
The Government is intent on scrapping DLA and replacing it with Personal Independence Payments (PIP), despite the fact that only 7% of organisations that took part in a recent DLA consultation were fully in support of this change. The reasons given by the Government for abandoning DLA struggle to stand up under scrutiny, as this week’s excellent Responsible Reforms report by disabled campaigners highlight, but what is clear is that the Government has estimated it will cost £675 million to scrap DLA and introduce PIP.
In addition, despite fierce opposition from disabled people and, at 0.5%, DLA having the lowest fraud rate of all Government benefits, the Government is still intent on introducing a medical test for all potential recipients of PIP. It is suggested it would operate along the lines of the Working Capability Assessment (WCA) administered by private company Atos healthcare for those currently applying for Employment Support Allowance. Frankly, this assessment isn’t currently fit for purpose. 40% of decisions that people are ‘fit to work’ are overturned at the appeal stage, and these original decisions are very heavily based on the findings of the WCA. Atos has not yet been given any financial penalty for any inaccurate report it has produced despite the fact that the hefty appeals process for ESA has cost the taxpayer a staggering £80 million to date. On top of this, the Government is already paying Atos £801 million over a ten year period and one can only presume the contract will increase in size were Atos to be asked to also undertake the medical assessments for PIP eligibility.
In its ‘Budget 2010 policy costings’ document, the Government highlighted a desire to cut DLA payments by 20%. Currently annual DLA payments amount to £12.6 billion, so a 20 per cent saving on this figure would come in at £2.52 billion annually. The up-front PIP implementation costs plus a medical assessment contract similar in size to Atos and any subsequent appeals expenses would eat up half of these savings.
In an age where we are continually told that every penny counts, the Government must justify these costs, including whether it is in the taxpayers interest that 100% of DLA recipients will be forced to attend a medical, even those that have an incurable, end-stage illness. Wednesday's successful House of Lord’s amendment to the welfare bill to exclude cancer patients from being subject to the one year ESA time limit, and therefore implying a medical test for such patients would be redundant, suggest there isn’t the public appetite to impose stressful health tests on the seriously ill who are trying to claim benefits in their hour of need.
The Government also has an obligation to the taxpayer to ensure its money is sensibly spent. The medical tests for PIP eligibility are set to begin in 2013, despite the fact that the latest Harrington report, which examined the practical implementation of the WCA medical test, states it will take at least three years to see if its recommendations have improved the accuracy of the medical test in identifying real need. Until the Government manages to get WCA appeal rates under control, there is little point adding another hefty bill to the taxpayer’s purse to extend the number of ill people required to undergo similar assessments. Indeed the Government should be obliged to go further and ensure the taxpayer is getting value for money from existing medical assessment contracts by forcing financial penalties on those companies making repeated mistakes for which the taxpayer is currently picking up the bill to rectify.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in favour of an arbitrary 20% cut in DLA and I’ve written before voicing my concerns that people who need genuine Government help will be deemed ineligible in order to meet a pre-decided budget cut. But it seems to me that the Government is simply scrapping DLA only to replace it with a similar benefit at great cost to the taxpayer to avoid the PR fall out of being seen to take money away from the long-term sick. In an age of austerity there cannot surely be any spare cash to help the Government save face.
If the Coalition wishes to reform or cut DLA then it should have the courage to makes its case in a fair and democratic manner and make changes within the current benefit. It should not hide its agenda behind a name change or ‘independent’ medical assessments. The introduction of PIP should be recognised as a waste of money which cannot demonstrate any clear benefit to the taxpayer. It should be halted now, before it too becomes a disastrous, administrative nightmare like ESA is now proving to be.
The Government is intent on scrapping DLA and replacing it with Personal Independence Payments (PIP), despite the fact that only 7% of organisations that took part in a recent DLA consultation were fully in support of this change. The reasons given by the Government for abandoning DLA struggle to stand up under scrutiny, as this week’s excellent Responsible Reforms report by disabled campaigners highlight, but what is clear is that the Government has estimated it will cost £675 million to scrap DLA and introduce PIP.
In addition, despite fierce opposition from disabled people and, at 0.5%, DLA having the lowest fraud rate of all Government benefits, the Government is still intent on introducing a medical test for all potential recipients of PIP. It is suggested it would operate along the lines of the Working Capability Assessment (WCA) administered by private company Atos healthcare for those currently applying for Employment Support Allowance. Frankly, this assessment isn’t currently fit for purpose. 40% of decisions that people are ‘fit to work’ are overturned at the appeal stage, and these original decisions are very heavily based on the findings of the WCA. Atos has not yet been given any financial penalty for any inaccurate report it has produced despite the fact that the hefty appeals process for ESA has cost the taxpayer a staggering £80 million to date. On top of this, the Government is already paying Atos £801 million over a ten year period and one can only presume the contract will increase in size were Atos to be asked to also undertake the medical assessments for PIP eligibility.
In its ‘Budget 2010 policy costings’ document, the Government highlighted a desire to cut DLA payments by 20%. Currently annual DLA payments amount to £12.6 billion, so a 20 per cent saving on this figure would come in at £2.52 billion annually. The up-front PIP implementation costs plus a medical assessment contract similar in size to Atos and any subsequent appeals expenses would eat up half of these savings.
In an age where we are continually told that every penny counts, the Government must justify these costs, including whether it is in the taxpayers interest that 100% of DLA recipients will be forced to attend a medical, even those that have an incurable, end-stage illness. Wednesday's successful House of Lord’s amendment to the welfare bill to exclude cancer patients from being subject to the one year ESA time limit, and therefore implying a medical test for such patients would be redundant, suggest there isn’t the public appetite to impose stressful health tests on the seriously ill who are trying to claim benefits in their hour of need.
The Government also has an obligation to the taxpayer to ensure its money is sensibly spent. The medical tests for PIP eligibility are set to begin in 2013, despite the fact that the latest Harrington report, which examined the practical implementation of the WCA medical test, states it will take at least three years to see if its recommendations have improved the accuracy of the medical test in identifying real need. Until the Government manages to get WCA appeal rates under control, there is little point adding another hefty bill to the taxpayer’s purse to extend the number of ill people required to undergo similar assessments. Indeed the Government should be obliged to go further and ensure the taxpayer is getting value for money from existing medical assessment contracts by forcing financial penalties on those companies making repeated mistakes for which the taxpayer is currently picking up the bill to rectify.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in favour of an arbitrary 20% cut in DLA and I’ve written before voicing my concerns that people who need genuine Government help will be deemed ineligible in order to meet a pre-decided budget cut. But it seems to me that the Government is simply scrapping DLA only to replace it with a similar benefit at great cost to the taxpayer to avoid the PR fall out of being seen to take money away from the long-term sick. In an age of austerity there cannot surely be any spare cash to help the Government save face.
If the Coalition wishes to reform or cut DLA then it should have the courage to makes its case in a fair and democratic manner and make changes within the current benefit. It should not hide its agenda behind a name change or ‘independent’ medical assessments. The introduction of PIP should be recognised as a waste of money which cannot demonstrate any clear benefit to the taxpayer. It should be halted now, before it too becomes a disastrous, administrative nightmare like ESA is now proving to be.
Thursday, 12 May 2011
Are disability cuts just aimed at 'scroungers'?
I'm in hospital for the next couple of weeks trying to get healthy for my upcoming wedding (one month to go!). I've just taken part in a Guardian panel piece about yesterday's Hardest Hit March which demonstrated against the Government's plethora of cuts against disabled people.
I know there seems to be a prevailing concept in the wider society that these cuts are justified because it is only effecting those that aren't truly ill and just want an easy life. But that really isn't the case. I wasn't well enough to go on the march yesterday so to do my bit I've compiled some news stories about how disabled people are already being effected by cuts and their fears for the future. Please just spend thirty minutes reading around the issue with an open mind.
The Guardian is obviously a good place to start but there have been stories cropping up in even the more right wing media. Here's a selection of writing to get everyone thinking:
Guardian: Disabled people are marching for their lives
Guardian: It is now officially unsustainable to support disabled people
The Sun: No Cash as leg may grow back
The Mirror: Amputee loses benefit after walking
Scotland's Evening Times: Call for fairer benefits test as men [declared fit to work] die
Guardian: 'The Medical was an absolute joke' Heavily researched piece on flawed ESA medical tests
The Independent: Disability charities raise welfare concerns
I know there seems to be a prevailing concept in the wider society that these cuts are justified because it is only effecting those that aren't truly ill and just want an easy life. But that really isn't the case. I wasn't well enough to go on the march yesterday so to do my bit I've compiled some news stories about how disabled people are already being effected by cuts and their fears for the future. Please just spend thirty minutes reading around the issue with an open mind.
The Guardian is obviously a good place to start but there have been stories cropping up in even the more right wing media. Here's a selection of writing to get everyone thinking:
Guardian: Disabled people are marching for their lives
Guardian: It is now officially unsustainable to support disabled people
The Sun: No Cash as leg may grow back
The Mirror: Amputee loses benefit after walking
Scotland's Evening Times: Call for fairer benefits test as men [declared fit to work] die
Guardian: 'The Medical was an absolute joke' Heavily researched piece on flawed ESA medical tests
The Independent: Disability charities raise welfare concerns
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
It's now officially 'unsustainable' to support disabled people
Been away from my blog for a while and I had every intention when I wrote something again for it not to be about benefits. However the Government then announced its proposed changes to DLA and I felt compelled to write about benefits again! Blame them not me if you feel I've droned on about the subject!
I've had the piece published online at The Guardian so please follow the link to read my latest blog thoughts. Do let me know whether you agree with me or not!
I've had the piece published online at The Guardian so please follow the link to read my latest blog thoughts. Do let me know whether you agree with me or not!
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Behind the media furore lies the real cost of disability benefit fraud
It's a bad time to be disabled.
The populist way to solve the massive UK deficit, in large part due to multiple bank bail-outs, is to reduce the welfare budget. And attention has turned itself time and again to the cost of supporting disabled people with the media often misrepresenting or even falsely presenting the facts.
In a recent Telegraph article about the intended government use of credit agency Experian to weed out fraudulent benefit claimants, the paper stated: "The agencies will get a “bounty” payment for each fraudster they identify under government plans to cut the £5.2billion annual fraud bill". Except that this figure is not correct.
When publishing data on benefit monies, the Government bundles erroneous payments and fraudulent payments into one headline figure. In fact, last year the cost of fraud was £1.5 billion compared to payments made due to error of £3.7 billion. So why the media misrepresentation?
The Sun similarly misreported benefits statistics on Monday. In its campaign against benefit scroungers (surely a campaign against overtly risky banking practices would save this country more money in the long-run) it highlighted the fact that almost 900,000 people have claimed incapacity benefits for over a decade. It went on to say: "A scheme introduced in 2008 by the previous government has so far found three-quarters of those claiming incapacity benefit were able to work". The scheme it alludes to is the Employment Support Allowance medical test that has been heavily criticised by disabled charities, doctors and even the Government for passing too many claimants as fit to work when they are clearly not - one extreme example was telling a man with terminal lung cancer to go back to work when he only had five months left to live.
The Government itself is surprised at the volume of people declared fit to work by the new ESA medical test and has asked for an urgent review. Labour was previously expecting to cut the incapacity benefit recipients by 20% but instead this new test is so inflexible and basic that more than 60 per cent are being declared fit to work - three times the initial estimate.
The Sun reported none of the controversy surrounding this new test, clearly using the statistics to persuade the average reader that most long-term sick are faking it. Moreover, the paper talks about the cost to the taxpayer but makes no allowance for the fact that many disabled people who find themselves on long-term benefits have worked at some point during their life and contributed taxes like everyone else.
In fact government figures published by the House of Commons Work and Pensions committee suggest that benefit fraud has REDUCED since 2001 from 2.2 per cent to 0.8 per cent between 2008-2009 (the most recent year for which statistics are available). This fraud figure represents housing benefit, Disability Living Allowance, pension credit and carers' and attendance allowance. It does not include data for fraudulent claims for ESA, incapacity benefit, Job Seeker's or Income Support as the Government had not been able to provide statistics for publication! Extrapolating out from this statistic it is fair to say that out of 889,000 long-term disability claimants only 7,192 are tricking the system. Or to put it another way of the estimated £460 million spent each year on incapacity benefit for the 889,000 long-term sick, only £3,600,000 was misspent. I bet you'll never find that statistic printed in The Sun.
The harsh truth isn't that the long-term sick are scrounging benefits but that there are actually many serious illnesses that are incurable and highly debilitating. Medical advances often mean it's possible to keep someone alive but not keep them well enough to allow them to work.
So hiding behind all this anger at disabled benefits is this: Does society want to pay out money to support disabled people whom it clearly sees as no benefit to society as they are unable to pay taxes? Perhaps it's easier for a Government to complain about people tricking the system than to admit that it no longer wishes to pick up the bill for caring for the sick?
The populist way to solve the massive UK deficit, in large part due to multiple bank bail-outs, is to reduce the welfare budget. And attention has turned itself time and again to the cost of supporting disabled people with the media often misrepresenting or even falsely presenting the facts.
In a recent Telegraph article about the intended government use of credit agency Experian to weed out fraudulent benefit claimants, the paper stated: "The agencies will get a “bounty” payment for each fraudster they identify under government plans to cut the £5.2billion annual fraud bill". Except that this figure is not correct.
When publishing data on benefit monies, the Government bundles erroneous payments and fraudulent payments into one headline figure. In fact, last year the cost of fraud was £1.5 billion compared to payments made due to error of £3.7 billion. So why the media misrepresentation?
The Sun similarly misreported benefits statistics on Monday. In its campaign against benefit scroungers (surely a campaign against overtly risky banking practices would save this country more money in the long-run) it highlighted the fact that almost 900,000 people have claimed incapacity benefits for over a decade. It went on to say: "A scheme introduced in 2008 by the previous government has so far found three-quarters of those claiming incapacity benefit were able to work". The scheme it alludes to is the Employment Support Allowance medical test that has been heavily criticised by disabled charities, doctors and even the Government for passing too many claimants as fit to work when they are clearly not - one extreme example was telling a man with terminal lung cancer to go back to work when he only had five months left to live.
The Government itself is surprised at the volume of people declared fit to work by the new ESA medical test and has asked for an urgent review. Labour was previously expecting to cut the incapacity benefit recipients by 20% but instead this new test is so inflexible and basic that more than 60 per cent are being declared fit to work - three times the initial estimate.
The Sun reported none of the controversy surrounding this new test, clearly using the statistics to persuade the average reader that most long-term sick are faking it. Moreover, the paper talks about the cost to the taxpayer but makes no allowance for the fact that many disabled people who find themselves on long-term benefits have worked at some point during their life and contributed taxes like everyone else.
In fact government figures published by the House of Commons Work and Pensions committee suggest that benefit fraud has REDUCED since 2001 from 2.2 per cent to 0.8 per cent between 2008-2009 (the most recent year for which statistics are available). This fraud figure represents housing benefit, Disability Living Allowance, pension credit and carers' and attendance allowance. It does not include data for fraudulent claims for ESA, incapacity benefit, Job Seeker's or Income Support as the Government had not been able to provide statistics for publication! Extrapolating out from this statistic it is fair to say that out of 889,000 long-term disability claimants only 7,192 are tricking the system. Or to put it another way of the estimated £460 million spent each year on incapacity benefit for the 889,000 long-term sick, only £3,600,000 was misspent. I bet you'll never find that statistic printed in The Sun.
The harsh truth isn't that the long-term sick are scrounging benefits but that there are actually many serious illnesses that are incurable and highly debilitating. Medical advances often mean it's possible to keep someone alive but not keep them well enough to allow them to work.
So hiding behind all this anger at disabled benefits is this: Does society want to pay out money to support disabled people whom it clearly sees as no benefit to society as they are unable to pay taxes? Perhaps it's easier for a Government to complain about people tricking the system than to admit that it no longer wishes to pick up the bill for caring for the sick?
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Budget reaction - disabled benefits overhaul must recognise the unpredicability of serious illness
I'm sure we're all paying attention to the budget, listening out for the sections that will directly affect our lives and those of our families. For those ill enough to be in need of benefits, there may well have been a sense of trepidation ahead of what some of the media is calling the 'Bloodbath Budget'.
So I turn my initial reaction to Disability Living Allowance, a benefit for those with significant disabilities to help them with the extra costs of living and care that their health requires. Chancellor George Osbourne has just announced that by 2013 all those in receipt of DLA will need a medical assessment to determine their continued need for such a benefit.
This sounds positive in some regards. Osbourne claims that the introduction of a medical assessment will make the process of claiming simpler - the current forms to claim disabled benefits are hard to understand and do not show an understanding of how long-term illnesses can affect someone's life. For example the new Employers Support Allowance, replacing Incapacity Benefit, has many tick boxes about whether you can stand up, raise your arm and walk. It fails to ask a single question about the time it takes every day to do medicine, how much extra rest an ill person needs, and the fact that someone's health can dramatically vary from day to day, meaning fixed working hours might be untenable. It is such a complicated form it puts the more vulnerable members of society at risk: those who struggle to read; who don't know how to access the support of charities to help understand the form; who aren't used to writing lengthy arguments at the end of the form to support their claim.
But a word of warning to a Government that wants to introduce medical assessments to long-term illnesses - living with uncertainty is something disabled people learn to do from a young age, and my guess is that MP's will soon learn that an illness is very hard to comprehend in a half hour assessment by a doctor that doesn't know the patient.
For those with degenerative illnesses like CF, diabetes, MS and Parkinson's there is no clear timeline of how long your health can continue to hold out, and your health varies massively from day to day, let alone month to month. For someone with CF, an over-simple doctor's assessment in winter rather than summer could result in a different decision to award DLA. Plus continuing to work might literally put some sufferers in an early grave, when being allowed to 'retire' could dramatically improve a disabled person's quality, and could extend it by years.
So MPs, in advance of 2013 please talk in depth to the disabled and medical community first to get a true understanding of long-term illnesses and how they affect day-to-day life and life expectancy. Ensure that the medical assessors have a deep knowledge of the condition they are assessing (perhaps ask doctors from one specialised medical centre to assess patients from another) and keep in mind that everyone should have a right to protect their long-term health.
If an overhaul of the disabled benefits system weeds out the minority of claimants who are unfairly claiming DLA then it can only be a good thing - as long as it doesn't jeopardise a single claim from someone who truly needs help.
So I turn my initial reaction to Disability Living Allowance, a benefit for those with significant disabilities to help them with the extra costs of living and care that their health requires. Chancellor George Osbourne has just announced that by 2013 all those in receipt of DLA will need a medical assessment to determine their continued need for such a benefit.
This sounds positive in some regards. Osbourne claims that the introduction of a medical assessment will make the process of claiming simpler - the current forms to claim disabled benefits are hard to understand and do not show an understanding of how long-term illnesses can affect someone's life. For example the new Employers Support Allowance, replacing Incapacity Benefit, has many tick boxes about whether you can stand up, raise your arm and walk. It fails to ask a single question about the time it takes every day to do medicine, how much extra rest an ill person needs, and the fact that someone's health can dramatically vary from day to day, meaning fixed working hours might be untenable. It is such a complicated form it puts the more vulnerable members of society at risk: those who struggle to read; who don't know how to access the support of charities to help understand the form; who aren't used to writing lengthy arguments at the end of the form to support their claim.
But a word of warning to a Government that wants to introduce medical assessments to long-term illnesses - living with uncertainty is something disabled people learn to do from a young age, and my guess is that MP's will soon learn that an illness is very hard to comprehend in a half hour assessment by a doctor that doesn't know the patient.
For those with degenerative illnesses like CF, diabetes, MS and Parkinson's there is no clear timeline of how long your health can continue to hold out, and your health varies massively from day to day, let alone month to month. For someone with CF, an over-simple doctor's assessment in winter rather than summer could result in a different decision to award DLA. Plus continuing to work might literally put some sufferers in an early grave, when being allowed to 'retire' could dramatically improve a disabled person's quality, and could extend it by years.
So MPs, in advance of 2013 please talk in depth to the disabled and medical community first to get a true understanding of long-term illnesses and how they affect day-to-day life and life expectancy. Ensure that the medical assessors have a deep knowledge of the condition they are assessing (perhaps ask doctors from one specialised medical centre to assess patients from another) and keep in mind that everyone should have a right to protect their long-term health.
If an overhaul of the disabled benefits system weeds out the minority of claimants who are unfairly claiming DLA then it can only be a good thing - as long as it doesn't jeopardise a single claim from someone who truly needs help.
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