THOUSANDS of sick and disabled people are being subjected to "upsetting and unnecessary" benefits assessments, charities have warned.
People living with progressive and degenerative conditions, such as Parkinson's, motor neurone disease and rheumatoid arthritis, who apply for Employment Support Allowance (ESA) are being told they will recover enough to look for work in the future, it was reported.
One charity said it was a "disgrace".
About a third of claimants with progressive conditions have been left to "languish" in the work-related activity group (WRAG) of ESA despite having very little chance of recovery, said the report.
People placed in this group are deemed able to recover from their condition to the point where they can look for work, and can be subject to financial penalties if they fail to do so.
Almost 5,000 people have been placed in the WRAG despite assessors recognising on their reports the prospect of work is "unlikely in the longer term", it was claimed.
Five charities - MS Society, Motor Neurone Disease Association, Parkinson's UK, the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust - are calling for people deemed unlikely to return to work in the longer term to be automatically placed in the support group.
They also want assessors to use medical evidence to justify placing anyone with a progressive condition in the WRAG.
Steve Ford, chief executive at Parkinson's UK, said: "These nonsensical decisions are a prime example of how benefits assessors lack even the most basic levels of understanding of the conditions they are looking at."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article