Oct 092014
 

It is disheartening to read Labour’s press release, “Labour Pledge New ‘Work Support Programme’ For Disabled Benefit Claimants”

That the DWP is wasting a lot of money, we already know that, although how the £8bn have been calculated is not explained by Labour. But the implication that some people should not be claiming disability benefits is the sign that the use of selective statistics for political purpose is not the prerogative of the Coalition. Like the following figures show, these variations happened under the Coalition and Labour.

What is shown here is the difference, month by month in the number of ESA +IB claimants, with the total in bold

What is shown here is the difference, month by month in the number of ESA +IB claimants, with the total in bold

But what is really disheartening is that Labour knows that:

  • The Work Capability Assessment is in the state of virtual collapse
  • There is a backlog of 700,000 ESA claimants in the Assessment phase

Which means that any figures produced between the beginning of the collapse of the WCA around July 2013 and now are likely to be untypical and should not be relied on.

Added to that, Labour is aware of the outcomes of the Evidence Based Review of the WCA, where it was identified that around 83% deemed fit for work would need “on average, two or three” adjustments; 50% would need flexible working hours; and 24% would need a support worker, and the panel recognised that these people were unlikely to get the support they needed. Where was Labour when this needed to be highlighted? Where was Labour when activists have repeatedly shown that very sick or even dying people were being found fit for work? That Labour is now using a very atypical figure to show that some people claiming disability benefits don’t deserve them is shameful. It is disabled people who have been short changed all these years, and it is disabled people who have been doing the job the opposition party should have done.

Extract from the Report by the Social Security Advisory Committee under Section 174(1) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 and the statement withdrawing the proposed regulations by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (March 2005):

“We would think it better that the Department should run the risk of possibly paying a few “undeserving” cases, rather than risking the virtual certainty of denying benefit to a few genuine cases.”


Here are some of the things we’ve said previously about the WCA, and we still stand by them:

“The WCA presumes that there are too many people on disability benefits because disabled people are too lazy or too comfortable living on benefits to work. It is founded in the idea that disabled people need to be harassed and hounded out of their comfortable life into finding work under the threat of loss of benefits.No one is comfortable living on benefits. Disabled people are no more lazy that the rest of the population. The real reason that there are so many people on benefits is that society does not include disabled people.We do not have the same access to education, transport, housing and jobs. Social attitudes ensure that disabled people in the workplace are seen as a problem, rather than an equal opportunity.And there are large numbers of disabled people who simply can not work. Why should they be harassed? Why should they be hounded?. Why should they have to live in fear?.We know, and this report confirms, that many people have wrongly been found “fit for work” when they can’t work. We also know and the UK courts have confirmed WCA discriminates against claimants with mental health impairments.

The Work and Pensions Committee report recommends “improvements” to make the system more workable and less harmful. This is pointless, because it would not make the WCA any less wrong or any more useful

We call once again on Labour to commit to scrapping the WCA and to address the real problems that disabled people on benefits face in society. ”

read more here – https://dpac.uk.net/2014/07/response-to-the-work-and-pensions-committee-report-into-wca-joint-statement-by-bt-dpac-mhrn-and-newapproach/

“Labour should realise that disabled people are deeply distrustful of any Labour reform of a Work Capability Assessment system, which Labour introduced in the Welfare Act of 2007 with the stated aim of removing 1 million claimants from the benefit system [3].Our position has been and will be that the Work Capability Assessment is deeply flawed in its basic concept, not just in terms of the details of its delivery, and inclusion in the workplace for disabled people cannot simply be achieved by a ‘back to work’ test.A comprehensive and strategic plan of action is developed with disabled people and our organisations to tackle the discrimination and exclusion disabled people face in work and employment including: increasing quality and range of personalised support available to disabled people, strengthening disabled employees rights and tackling employer discrimination and poor practiceEconomic productivity must not be the only measure of people’s worth and value, volunteering offers as much value to society as paid employment. While we recognise that volunteering can offer additional skills, it should not be the default option for disabled people because of our exclusion from paid workThere must be policy and media recognition that there will always be disabled people who are unable or too ill to work. These individuals must be supported by a publically funded system. They should not be penalised or demonised as they are currently.

For true inclusion in the workplace for disabled people a wider approach is necessary including but not limited to:

• Will Labour commit to the restoration of Disabled Student’s Allowance,
• Will Labour commit to the restoration of the Independent Living Fund,
• Will Labour commit to the extension of Access to Work (AtW) to include unpaid voluntary positions,
• Will Labour commit to the reversal of the reduction of people who currently receive DLA, but will not receive PIP and also lose their Motability access,
• Will Labour commit to the reinstatement of the requirement for councils to produce equality schemes on employment and access
• Will Labour commit to the provision of accessible transport.
• Will Labour commit to the reinstatement of “day one” protection from unfair dismissal in employment law
• Will Labour commit to the provision of Employment Tribunals enforcing mandatory organisation-wide measures on preventing disability discrimination
• Will Labour commit to the provision that all government contracts, at a national, regional and local level, are only awarded to companies that are fulfilling measurable equality targets for the employment of disabled people

These currently are some of the barriers to inclusion in the workplace for disabled people, and they will not be fixed by simply amending the WCA. The issue must be seen within the context of the wider interconnected system of barriers in place. It must be seen in terms of what a large majority of disabled people have already identified as key problems.

In terms of inclusion we also need from Labour, a recognition that for many disabled people to be able to work there has to be a nationally transportable social care system with a guarantee that people would keep the same levels of funding wherever they needed to move to work.

We need recognition that there is an onus on government and employers to fully accept the spirit of the Equality Act 2010 [4] with its requirement to the opening of work opportunity to disabled people. Without this, no “fit for work test” aimed at cutting disability benefits will make any impact whatsoever on the numbers of disabled people who can attain and sustain employment.

We also need from Labour a stronger recognition that there are many disabled people who cannot enter the work place and should not have to live in fear of being pressured into doing so.”

Read more here: https://dpac.uk.net/2014/04/dpac-response-to-how-labour-would-reform-the-work-capability-assessment/

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 Posted by at 18:29

  4 Responses to “DPAC Response to Labour pledge of new ‘Work Support Programme’ For Disabled Benefit Claimants”

  1. For the first time in my life I’m living in fear of our own Government.

  2. I really thought Labour cared about people diagnosed with incureable diseases and people with diagnosed
    disabilities. My diabetic neuropathic pain is so bad,together with severe spinal problems how the hell can
    any government consider making sick people work. I know a friend with disabilities that tried to cut carrots
    to help his mother prepare a meal. He had a hypo attack and the knife fell so he couldn’t help his mother.
    I can’t vote LABOUR whilst this attitude exists. It looks like serious discrimination now exists towards
    disabled people. Life is getting harder and harder by the day.Iain duncan smith says people can live on £60 @ week. Its ridiculous. Friends I know in Belgium say there un-employed get at least 200 euro’s @ week.
    Were is the fairness. Let us all stop the vendetta against genuine sick people in our country.WELL DONE DPAC .You fight for us ,we must always support you in this fight

  3. As a disabled person I have never been afraid of the future until recent times
    It is really distressing to hear that disabled people face the real prospect of destitution
    Next year I am due to be reassessed yet again for ESA and from DLA to PIP
    I am genuinely fearful of this prospect in my darker moments I have considered suicide

  4. I’m an OAP, and voted Labour all my life but reading this I’m slowly losing my patients with LABOUR. They are forgetting their roots, of why this once great party was foundered. Like football it’s not for the ordinary working men/women anymore.

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