Inhumane disability benefits assessments need reforms but not way Tories think
There’s been much buzz in the last few weeks about the DWP's plans to reform disability benefit assessments.
Minister for Work and Pensions Mel Stride has vowed to get more people back into work and Minster for Disabled People Tom Pursglove has said the system needs reform.
And I agree, the way disability benefits are assessed and awarded does need to change - but not in the way the Tories think.
Many assume that it’s easy to get benefits and that everyone just pretends to be disabled so they can lie on the sofa watching daytime TV, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
The disability benefits process is a gruelling inhumane system that involves lengthy hard to hard-to-process forms where you have to divulge deeply personal and traumatic information and then a twelve-week wait for the horrendous assessments.
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I’ve heard from people who failed assessments because they had clean hair, wore makeup, were seen walking around the centre, and interacted with receptionists.
All of which have nothing to do with their conditions. Friends who were made to attend assessments at centres miles away then penalised for being able to travel that far.
Even though the only reason they put themselves through the stress and pain of travelling that far in the first place was through fear of failing if they couldn’t get there.
Having been through them myself I know how brutal they can be, I was once denied Employment Support Allowance because I said I could work probably for an hour at a time.
The DWP thought not only would this be enough for me to live on but that anywhere would employ me to work such short hours.
And that’s exactly the problem with the disability benefits assessments and work capability assessments. Stride is claiming too many don't have to look for work, but we’re not looking at how many don’t get that far.
Data uncovered by The Big Issue this week uncovered that the DWP has spent over £750 million in the last decade to fight disabled people who are appealing benefit assessment decisions.
On PIP alone, which isn’t means tested so doesn’t take into account if you can work, the DWP has over £352 million in the last decade. The Big Issue has estimated that’s enough to pay 39,000 the highest level of PIP for a year.
For ESA reconsiderations and tribunals, the government has spent £221.6 million in the last decade, for DLA which came before ESA and it’s £81 million.
These are both being phased out for Universal credit, for which the government has already spent £92.7 million on trying to deny recipients.
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The vast majority of decisions are overturned at tribunal, meaning that instead of supporting disabled people the government is spending millions trying to deny us.
The focus of disability benefit reforms is forcing recipients into work, whether they are able to or not, but it should be on how the government can create a fairer system that focuses on support instead of proving disabled people don’t need it.
But when have the Tories ever been fair?
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