Labour Victimises Disabled Claimants with Attack on Incapacity Benefit

The New Labour government has brought in changes to disability benefits this week that will make it even harder for sick and disabled people to claim benefits.

It will leave many disabled people worse off and further expand the role of the private sector in attempting to push people off benefits into work.

The new Employment and Support Allowance will replace incapacity benefit for people with a long term sickness or disability that prevents them from working.

Work and pensions secretary James Purnell says the aim of the change is to get a million people off disability benefits and into work.

In reality it will cause increased misery for thousands of sick and disabled people – subjecting them to tougher assessments and sanctions.

Contrary to tabloid representations of an easy life on benefits, most people already struggle to claim the disability benefits they are entitled to – because of the long, complicated forms and stressful assessments.

Pilot schemes have shown that the new benefit has an even stricter eligibility test than incapacity benefit.

New claimants – with the exception of those with a terminal illness – now face a 13-week assessment period in which they will be paid a lower “assessment phase” rate.

Those who successfully claim the benefit will then be divided into a “support group” of the most severely disabled and a “work group” of those deemed capable of some “work-related activity”.

Those in the “work group” will be paid a lower rate and face a regime of compulsory interviews and activities, with the threat of benefit cuts for those who fail to attend or participate.

The government claims that the changes are about offering more support.

But in the last three years it has slashed 30,000 jobs in the Department for Work and Pensions. It wants to cut another 12,000 by 2011.

These are the very workers who could have offered skilled support and advice.

Private companies already play a growing role in the government’s “welfare to work” plans.

Private and voluntary sector organisations are now bidding for contracts to deliver the “work-orientated” part of the new benefit.

Most companies winning new bids are expected to be paid for “outcomes” – in other words, for the number of people they can show they got into some form of work.

With the recession bringing growing unemployment, many of these companies are already making noises about charging the government more for their work schemes.

Meanwhile Gordon Brown has made it clear that recession and unemployment do not mean any letting up of the pressure on those on benefits. “An economic downturn is no time to slow down welfare reform,” he said.

This is a frightening thought for those on the receiving end of his welfare “reforms” and the growing numbers threatened with job losses. It is another reason to unite to say that we won’t pay for the crisis.

© Copyright Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original and leave this notice in place.

In other Health and Disability News from the UK and Europe

Problems with mobility and dexterity are experienced by some 56 per cent of all people with a disability and nearly half suffer from pain, figures published today show. The first results of the National Disability Study 2006 published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) provide information on the level of difficulty experienced by people in carrying out their daily activities across nine different types of disability. A mobility and dexterity disability was reported by 56 per cent of all those with a disability. Pain was reported by 47 per cent. Difficulties remembering and concentrating (35 per cent) and emotional, psychological and mental health difficulties (34 per cent) were the next most reported disability types.

***

A CAMPAIGN has been launched to recruit urgently needed foster carers in Edinburgh to look after children with disabilities and complex needs.

The city council's campaign includes press and radio advertising, as well as posters and flyers being distributed across the Capital and the Lothians. Carers are required full or part-time for 50 disabled children with complex needs and there are ten children with challenging behaviour and complex needs who are also waiting for full or part-time care. Anyone interested in finding out more can call the council free on 0800-174 833 or visit http://egfl.net/fostering/

***

Help is at hand for disabled and elderly people in the Isle of Man to make the switch to digital TV.

The Switchover Help Scheme is run by the BBC through an agreement with the UK Government and comes in preparation for when the Island goes digital in June next year. To be eligible, you need to be over 75 or on disability allowances, or are registered blind or partially sighted. HDTV and Digital Broadcast Information

***

Israeli and UK Researchers have found DNA from human tuberculosis bacteria in the 9,000-year-old bones of what a mother and baby found at Atlit-Yam, which is now submerged off the coast of Haifa.

It is reportedly the earliest known case of human tuberculosis ever identified, using paleopathology and molecular analysis of the bacteria's DNA. Tuberculosis is a major global cause of death and disease, and around two billion people - about one third of the world's population - are believed to be infected with tubercle bacilli. Yet only around a tenth of infected persons become ill with active disease.

***

In a recent survey seventy per cent of Britons said they would not consider having sex with someone who had a physical disability.

Just over one in four would not rule out the possibility, while only four per cent have actually had sex with someone with a physical disability. Men are slightly more likely than women to rule out the possibility.

***

The Queen is meeting charity staff as part of the group's 60th anniversary celebrations.

A reception is being held at St James Palace in London to mark the milestone year for Leonard Cheshire. The charity works to dispel negative attitudes to disability, and supports 21,000 disabled people in the UK each year. It was founded by Second World War hero Group Captain Lord Cheshire of Woodhall in 1948 who agreed to care for a terminally ill serviceman who had nowhere to go. Lord Cheshire then found other people coming to him in need, and so established the charity.

***

GETTING disabled people off benefits and into the workplace is the aim of the latest initiative launched by the Government this week.

The new Employment And Support Allowance marks the death of the old Incapacity Benefits system for new applicants and, according to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), “is tailor-made for disabled people and people with ill-health”. The DWP says this is the end of the era of writing people off and marks “the dawn of a new benefit, designed to give people the support they need to improve their health, their skills and look for work”. But is this just a case of the Government bullying people back to work who are not up to the job?

Health and Disability News for Seniors:

Elderly people who have a positive outlook, lower stress levels, moderate alcohol consumption, abstention from tobacco, moderate to higher income and no chronic health conditions are more likely to thrive in their old age, according to a study in the October issue of The Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.

"Important predictors of 'thriving' were the absence of chronic illness, income over $30,000, having never smoked, and drinking alcohol in moderation," said Mark Kaplan, DrPH, lead author and professor of community health at Portland State University.

"We also found that people who had a positive outlook and lower stress levels were more likely to thrive in old age." The Gerontological Society of America. "Study Reveals Factors Of Exceptional Health In Old Age."