Social policy: commentary and updates
Paul Spicker
I have been looking at the January 2012 statistical release for the review of Employment and Support Allowance. According to the tables 1,023,000 claimants have been reassessed (table 1a) 622,000 have been found fit for work (table 1a) 521,000 of those found fit for work have appealed (table 3), and 38% of those cases heard … Continue reading “ESA Appeals”
A friend has forwarded an appeal for support from Iain Duncan Smith. I’m always eager to show different sides of the debate, so here it is for you to see. XXX, At the heart of our welfare reforms is a simple goal: to tackle the culture of welfare dependency that Labour allowed to develop.So we’re … Continue reading “A special appeal from Iain Duncan Smith”
The front page of the i newspaper reports that “Sick and disabled benefits stopped for missing appointments”. It’s not exactly news – the trend has been growing over a period of several months, and yesterday the BBC commented about the ‘shocking’ increase in sanctions – but it’s welcome that the media seem to be waking … Continue reading “The problems with ESA get worse”
Information from a range of sources suggests that the system for assessing entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance has broken down. The most obvious immediate problem is the withdrawal of Atos from the system, leading directly to a backlog of 712,000 assessments. Quite apart from that, however, is the revelation that in addition to the … Continue reading “ESA assessments: the system is broken”
Following discussions last week, I’ve come back to the question of what has happened to all the people who have lost their entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance after being found ‘fit for work’, and who have appealed the decision. A year ago, the Tribunals Service was reporting a backlog of 220,000 cases relating to … Continue reading “Missing WCA appeals”
Figures were released in March for the reassessment of ESA claims, and in April for new ESA claims. The reassessment figures show that over time, increasing numbers of people who formerly claimed Incapacity Benefit are being found as fit for work – 37%, when in the pilots it was 22%. The new claimant figures show … Continue reading “ESA assessments: new figures”
I am not sure that a blog is the best place to solicit information, but a query to Rightsnet has not given me an answer, and I am going to try it here as an experiment. It looks from the stats as though a very large number of appeals are lodged about ESA decisions, but … Continue reading “Missing appeals”
The reports of delays in access to Employment and Support Allowance are unsurprising. The finger of blame has been pointed at Atos Healthcare. Atos has been the subject of a barrage of criticism during the last couple of years; their processes were described by the Harrington report as “mechanistic” and “impersonal”; many of the decisions … Continue reading “Reassessing claims for ESA”
The ‘Independent Group’, the seven MPs who have quit the Labour Party has posted a statement of principles on its website. (Not only do they have a website, they’ve even got a Wikipedia page; not bad for a movement that is less than one day old. ) The site opens on a positive statement of … Continue reading “The Independent Group wants us to click on “I Agree”. Unfortunately, I don’t.”
The DWP has released figures on the deaths of people claiming ESA and related benefits between December 2011 and February 2014. There has been a lot of comment about them on the Net. I’m not sure I can make clear sense of them – it’s far from clear, for example, how much overlap there might … Continue reading “These people told the authorities they were ill, and weren’t believed.”