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Work and pensions minister Chris Grayling is conducting an urgent review into a new medical test for incapacity benefit after fresh figures showed only 6% of those tested were deemed to be totally incapable of working.
The figures, covering all new claims from October 2008 to the end of November 2009, show 39% are being tested as fit for work and a further 37% are dropping their claim before the assessment is complete. The figures are widely out of line with estimates initially made by officials from the Department for Work and Pensions.
The figures suggest that either tens of thousands of incapacity benefit claimants are not as ill as they claimed, or that something is wrong with the way the tests are being applied. So far the tests have applied only to new claimants for the employment support allowance, the successor benefit to incapacity benefit, but ministers are planning to apply the test to nearly 1.6 million people already on incapacity benefit over the next three years or so.
Speaking to the Guardian , Graylingtoday did not seize on the figures to claim there was an army of scroungers, but said instead many people had been made anxious about the figures. He did not suggest there was an army of scroungers, but said: "We do not think and nor does anybody else think there is anything wrong in principle about these tests. Almost every major group working with people suffering long-term disability or sickness wants them to have the opportunity to get back into the workplace. But we have to look at how [the tests] are working in practice."
"There is quite a lot of anxiety around about the details of these tests, and whether we are categorising correctly. These tests need to be applied sensitively, especially in cases of depression or mental health. A lot of organisations such as the CAB and Mind have come to us to say they are concerned about how the tests are being applied."
A new scrutiny group set up by Grayling met for the first time yesterday to advise him on claimants. Its members believe the tests are not being applied sufficiently flexibly. The scrutiny group is due to report by the end of the year with proposals for reform to medical tests.
Paul Farmer, Mind's chief executive and a member of the scrutiny panel, welcomed the Grayling review.
"Simplistic use of the basic figures around failed ESA (employment support allowance) applications only serve to fuel the negative rhetoric around benefits, which in itself can have a devastating impact on people with mental health problems who find themselves labelled as 'benefits scroungers' regardless of their genuine needs," Farmer said.
Grayling defended the principle of the tests. "Nothing has been done about the 2.2m people that have been on IB (incapacity benefit). Many of them have not been seen or been in contact with the state for a very long time.
"They have been on the fringes of society being paid benefits every month but actually with no help, guidance or support at all. Our plan is to put 1.6m of these people through an independent medical assessment between 2011 and 2014. It is a huge challenge and has never been attempted before."
The remainder – approximately 600,000 – will not be tested since they are due to reach retirement age before the test can be applied to them.
Those that are deemed fully capable of work are put straight on to jobseeker's allowance, and those deemed potentially capable of work will be put in a higher rate form of employment support allowance.
Article taken from the Guardian website |
