Copied below is a second letter sent by DPAC to MPs late yesterday in an attempt to inform them of the misrepresentation of statistics used to justify the cut. Many thanks to Nick Dilworth for the content of the letter.
We would like to bring to your attention an important communication on the misleading call for cuts to the WRAG group of ESA and the use of 1% by Lord Freud, Justin Tomlinson and Priti Patel. This submission was prepared by Nick Dilworth, who has been working and researching for many years on the Employment and Support Allowance, and whose research led to a complaint to the UK Statistics Authority which was upheld, and to DWP changing the way it presented its ESA statistics
Nick Dilworth: Blog https://ilegal.org.uk/thread/7258/serious-flaws-governments-statistics?page=25&scrollTo=23136
Twitter account : @Mylegalforum
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On Monday the House of Lords’ proposed sensible amendments to the welfare reform and work bill which require a report to be provided before the government presses ahead with plans to reduce the income of people already adjudged to be limited in their capability of work by around a third of their income; around £1,500 per year.
The Lords’ amendment was voted through and returns to the House of Commons on Wednesday the 2nd March 2016. The proposed change in legislation is deeply unpopular with many effective representations being made against its implementation. A significant number of disabled people’s organisations have voiced their concern over this drastic reduction of income and the effect it will have on around half a million Employment & Support Allowance claimants in the ‘Work Related Activity Group’.
Members of Parliament on all sides are strongly urged to reject the government’s plans to introduce this policy which is due to take effect from 2017.
The government has simply not set out its case and has shown no convincing grounds for voting this policy through on the grounds of financial privilege.
In particular, the Government has advanced a narrative that only 1% of claimants in the Work Related Activity Group come off Employment & Support Allowance in this group.
To quote the Right Honourable Member of Parliament for Witham, Priti Patel (23rd February 2016)
“However, with just one in 100 work-related activity group claimants leaving the benefit each month, it is clearly not working.”
This simply is not the case.
DWP statistics show that as of the August 2015 quarter, 465,860 claimants were in the Work Related Activity Group with 227,360 of them derived from new Employment & Support Allowance claims and 238,500 being claimants previously on incapacity benefits but deemed to be eligible to Employment & Support Allowance on the grounds of their limited capability for work.
For the avoidance of doubt, claimants in the Work Related Activity Group have already been through rigorous Work Capability Assessments, need to be signed off by their doctor as unfit for work as a condition of their claim, and should not be confused with people who are deemed capable of work and actively available for and seeking work. The criteria for claimants who are unemployed and who would otherwise claim Jobseeker’s Allowance is totally different to the economically inactive claimants affected by this policy.
The DWP Work Capability Assessment outcome statistics confirm that between October 2008 and March 2015 573,200 new Employment & Support Allowance claimants had been initially assessed as eligible for placement within the Work Related Activity Group (by month of claim), to this should be added a further 488,400 claimants assessed as eligible for placement within the Work Related Activity Group (by month of referral).
The cumulative figure for all claimants initially placed within the Work Related Activity Group between October 2008 and March 2015 is therefore 1,061,600.
It stands to reason that if the number of claimants assessed in to the group is in excess of 1 million and less than half a million currently remain in the group, a significant number have been moved out of the group; contrary to the narrative that only 1 in a 100 move out of group.
Further DWP figures confirm that between December 2011 and August 2015, a total of 2,357,520 claimants came off Employment & Support Allowance.
This ‘off flow figures’ can be broken down as follows:
499,460 designated ‘unknown’
1,379,840 in the Assessment Phase
251,510 in the Work Related Activity Group
226,680 in the Support Group
That quarter of a million claimants have moved out of the Work Related Activity Group clearly shows the 1% or “1 in a 100′ statistic to be deeply flawed. It should also be pointed out that of the 499,490 claimants designated ‘unknown’, a fair proportion will be Work Related Activity Group claimants. The ‘unknown’ status is used when claimants are on Employment & Support Allowance, but do not derive a payment from their claim.
The argument upon which the government has advanced this policy is unreliable and therefore it is hoped Members of Parliament will see the sense in agreeing to the Lords’ on the need for a more substantial and evidence based report. There is a clear need to get to the heart of what is going wrong within the Employment & Support Allowance assessment programme and to ask why over 5.5 million Work Capability Assessments, carried out at great cost to the tax payer, has resulted in so few attachments to the DWP Work Programme and even less when it comes to affirmative job outcomes.
* Between October 2008 and March 2015, 5,503,500 Work Capability Assessments (all cohorts) have been conducted)
DWP cumulative Work Programme figures confirm that from June 2011 to September 2015, a total of 318,710 incapacity related claimants were attached to the Work Programme, of which 297,270 had a ‘disability’ marker applied.
Of those attached to the programme, in the incapacity related cohorts, 41,020 culminated in a job outcome with only 2,780 coming from ex-incapacity benefit sets.
In conclusion, this is a clearly failing policy, it is wrong for genuinely sick claimants to end up paying the price by facing a 30% reduction in their already meagre income. Future promises of help from the yet to evolve Universal Credit is not the answer, nor is setting up future local discretionary funding to make good the shortfall. What is required is what has been needed for decades, a proper look at the system, a time to stop and pause for thought. Knee jerk reactions to make good the chancellor’s budget should never be proposed with so little evidence upon which the policy can be safely agreed, the right course of action is dictated by common sense; Member of Parliaments must agree to accept the Lords’ reasonable amendment request.
We hope you will consider this crucial information and vote in favour of the Lord’s amendment for an impact assessment.
Yours Sincerely
The DPAC Team
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