• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / News Archive / Figures show ‘fitness for work’ test has made ‘considerable advances’

Figures show ‘fitness for work’ test has made ‘considerable advances’

By John Pring on 3rd May 2013 Category: News Archive

Listen

theweeksubFor the first time, the government’s own figures show that the majority of people whose “fitness for work” has been tested have been found eligible for out-of-work disability benefits.

New government figures show that 48 per cent of those whose claim was assessed for employment and support allowance (ESA) were found “fit for work” by government “decision-makers”.

The figures relate to those who started a new claim for ESA between June and August last year.

Conservative work and pensions ministers have previously made much of figures that they claimed showed most of those seeking the benefit for the first time were actually able to work and ineligible for support.

But the new figures show that the majority of assessed claimants are now being found eligible for ESA.

And once the impact of appeals has eventually fed through the system – with about two-fifths of those found fit for work appealing, and between 30 and 40 per cent of such appeals successful – the proportion found eligible for ESA is likely to be even higher.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) report also states that 29 per cent of all completed assessments that were started between last June and August found the claimant eligible for the support group – for those disabled people not expected to carry out any work-related activity.

This compares with just 11 per cent of those who began claims between December 2008 and February 2009, the first period of what was then a new benefit.

The DWP report suggests that the fall in the percentage of new claimants found fit for work, from a peak of 65 per cent four years ago, could at least partly be due to changes introduced following the three independent reviews of the WCA carried out by Professor Malcolm Harrington.

But the figures also show that – once the effect of appeals has been taken into account – the proportion of claimants being found fit for work has hardly changed in three years.

This could suggest that the Harrington changes are having most impact on the way the assessments are carried out by the government’s contractor, Atos Healthcare.

The disabled activist and blogger Sue Marsh, a leading campaigner for WCA reform, said the system was still “badly flawed and still gets way too many decisions wrong” but that there had been “considerable advances”.

She said: “At the moment, some [campaigning] groups give the impression that no-one is successful, which just terrifies people unnecessarily.”

She said campaigners should celebrate the much higher numbers now being placed in the ESA support group, “while calling for areas still failing to be improved”.

Mark Hoban, the Conservative employment minister, said: “The improvements we have made to the work capability assessment since 2010 are making a real difference.

“By continuing to refine the system to make it fairer and more accurate we can ensure that people who are able to work get the encouragement they need to get a job, while those who are too sick to work get real support.”

2 May 2013

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

Image shows a man wearing glasses sitting by an open laptop The text reads: Free Career Support for Disabled People Our services include: 1-2-1 Coaching Online Career Resources Find Support near you Search for Inclusive Jobs Career Events and Workshops Visit the Evenbreak Career Hive today to find out how we can help you

Access

Latest Stories

Government’s long-awaited accessible housing plan ‘does not go far enough’

Government’s advisers say ministers’ plans will not deliver an accessible railway

Thousands of disabled customers waiting months for cars, Motability admits

Commission ‘will hold government to account over pandemic failures’

Grenfell: Court challenge for Home Office over rejection of evacuation policy

More than half of care homes inspected are failing, says regulator

MPs’ silence on deaths evidence ‘shows they have abandoned benefit claimants’

Staff levels ‘completely inadequate’ for rail access, say government advisers

Watchdog threatens government with legal action over ‘unacceptable’ detentions

Benefit claimants back up MP’s claims of assessment secret tricks

Advice and Information

Readspeaker

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2022 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web