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The government has begun its crackdown on sickness benefits today as ministers suggest half a million claimants could be found fit for work.
Letters are being sent to 1.6 million people on incapacity benefit, asking them to submit to reassessments.
By the end of the week 7,000 individuals will have been contacted, increasing to 10,000 a week by the end of April. The first assessments will take place in June.
Trial assessments in Burnley and Aberdeen found almost a third of claimants were fit for work while a further 38 per cent had the potential to work if supported correctly.
Of those 1,626 individuals assessed in the trial areas, 32 per cent were transferred with immediate effect to the Jobseeker's Allowance, 38 per cent were assessed as able to work with the right support, while 30 per cent were placed in the support group for Employment and Support Allowance.
Employment minister Chris Grayling claimed the results showed that if replicated nationally, around half a million people could be found fit for work in the next three years as the exercise is completed.
And a further 600,000 could work if given support.
Under the new scheme, private companies will have the ability to help people off benefits and back into work. Fees of up to £14,000 will be given for each individual case.
Chief executive of disability charity Scope Richard Hawkes said the changes had not gone far enough, with many of the assessments not being carried out fairly.
"This test is a very blunt medical questionnaire where you sit across the room from somebody you've never met before," he said.
"It just doesn’t take into consideration things like fluctuating impairments, or things like ME (chronic fatigue syndrome) where you might not be able to do things over a sustained period of time."
Article Comments
I care for my friend full time as he has a fluxuating illness that has impaired his ability to walk and to even hold a mug in his hand as he has peripheral neuropathy along side his main illness which had rendered him house bound with the ability to only walk short distances.
He was signed off from work after reassessment in 2007 by the DWP does this mean that now under the new government he will be picked on?
Tom
4th Apr 2011 at 7:04 pm
How will the Government cope with me who has to spend on average 18 hours a day in bed, be surrounded by carers and be equipped with specialist equipment.
This is because of a progressive degenerative terminal neurological disease. Why worry they'll probably find me a job walking ten miles to work packing something. I may as well drop dead at work as in the dignity of my own bed. For the gutter press not everyone is a scrounger or malingerer. Do something useful stop grabbing pointless headlines and get information out to those who need it and there are many. For the Red Tops I have paid thousands of pounds in tax and National Insurance during a working life when I was fortunate not to be sick and I did not begrudge one penny being spent on welfare benefits for those in need.
Gerald Phillips
4th Apr 2011 at 6:25 pm
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