The Herald has seen an advanced copy of the report, Unfit For Purpose, from Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS), in which serious concerns are raised about the number of clients with severe illnesses being told they must find work following assessment for the Employment & Support Allowance (ESA).
Matt Lancashire, policy officer for CAS, said: “We’re seeing people with terminal cancer, severe multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and mental health problems being found fit for work.
“The welfare system should protect people from that happening. We welcome the idea of people going back to work it they can, and if they can find suitable quality employment, but what we’re finding is that the system is deeply flawed and that administrative problems plague applications throughout.
“We have seen a number of cases of attempted suicide when people have been found fit for work.”
The issue will be debated tomorrow in the Scottish Parliament and is the subject of a documentary tonight on BBC1 Scotland.
ESA was introduced in October 2008 to replace incapacity benefit and income support paid to those unable to work. It has so far applied to new applicants only, but the 2.4 million people already on incapacity benefit will also be migrated on to ESA by 2015.
Under the ESA system, applicants must undergo a work capability assessment, which is carried out by health professionals employed by ATOS Healthcare, a medical services contractor to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Based on the ATOS assessment, the DWP either finds the claimant fit for work, in which case they are transferred to Jobseekers’ Allowance; puts them in a supported work-related activity group while still receiving benefits; or exempts them from work.
The number of claimants being found fit for work significantly exceeds the Government’s original intentions. Ministers intended that approximately half of claimants would be found fit for work under the new ESA assessment, up from 37% on incapacity benefit. However, 68% are being passed as able to work.
An additional 21,000 appeals against ESA assessments were expected in the first year, but according to CAS, if the most recent statistics are extrapolated to cover the whole first year of ESA, there will have been 50,000 appeals.
Lancashire said: “In Scotland, 70% of appeals are successful, showing that in those cases, the original decision was flawed.”
The report paints a picture of inaccuracy and delay, and details claimants’ concerns that ATOS staff have not listened during assessments, or have ignored or disregarded evidence from a claimant’s GP or consultant.
CAS makes a number of urgent recommendations, including that claimants with serious illnesses or disabilities should not be made to go through the assessment process; greater emphasis should be placed on evidence from GPs and other medical professionals; the recommendations made by ATOS professionals should be regularly checked for accuracy; and the DWP should urgently investigate what is happening to those clients who are found fit to work.
A spokeswoman for the DWP said: “The work capability assessment enables us to give individuals better help to get back into work and for those who can’t, additional support. Anyone who is terminally ill automatically qualifies for this extra support.”
Benefits -- Who’s Cheating Who, is on BBC1 Scotland tonight at 10.45pm.
‘I can walk, but I can’t feel my foot’
Case Study: Mary Hodgson could not believe her eyes when she read that she had been judged fit to work after an ESA work capability assessment.
Hodgson, 42, from Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, formerly a support worker for people with learning disabilities, had to give up work when an operation to correct a prolapsed disk resulted in nerve damage and other significant health problems.
“It left me with no power in my foot,” she says. “I can walk, but I can’t feel my foot. If I’m outside I have to use crutches and if I was going any distance, I would have to go in a wheelchair.”
She has also had to give up driving. She cannot perform most household tasks and requires care from her partner.
Earlier this year, she was assessed for ESA. At the interview, she had to be helped up off her chair by the assessing doctor. Inside the assessment room, he asked her to walk a couple of steps.
Hodgson had hoped she would be assigned to the work-related activity group, but instead, to her amazement, she was told she was fit to work.
“I didn’t think it was me they were talking about,” she says.
“It said I can walk independently and can lift things off the floor, which I can’t. I was very upset. I read it and thought, ‘that’s not me’. They should have consulted my GP.
“I’ve worked since I was 17 and I’d never had a day off sick until this happened. For people who want to work but can’t, the Government aren’t helping.”
Hodgson is awaiting a date for her appeal tribunal.
