Here’s yet another post about the crappy callousness with which the DWP treats people it finds fit for work and throws off disability benefits…
We’ve heard plenty of stories like the one below in the past few years and I imagine we’ll be hearing more of them as more and more people on the Employment and Support Allowance disability benefit are forced to look for work. At jobcentres recently, I’ve found more people who were either on ESA and recently found fit for work, or who are in the ESA work-related activity group (the group for sick or disabled claimants who are thought capable of some type of work in future and of attending work-related activities*) and being forced to attend the jobcentre for work activities, even when their jobcentre advisers happily concede that those work activities won’t lead to jobs. These few people don’t make a trend, of course, but I’m inclined to think they suggest a direction of travel – a DWP crackdown on people in the ESA work-related activity group and ESA in general. As you’ll know, George Osborne targeted new claimants to that work related activity group in his July 8 budget, so ESA is certainly in his sights. I already know people in the ESA Support Group who have received letters telling them to attend work-focused interviews (the ESA support group is for sick or disabled people who are supposed to be excused from work and work-related activities). I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again and why not: I think the government’s ultimate plan is to eliminate disability benefits, as well as the idea that some people just can’t work.
Anyway, I do sometimes wonder what the fallout from a crackdown on sick and disabled claimants in the ESA WRAG group will be… I can say this for sure: the DWP continues to remove benefits from people who have mental health conditions in a particularly shitty and cold-blooded way.
Take this latest example. At one of the Northwest London jobcentres a couple of weeks ago, I spent time talking to an older woman I call Mary in this post (this woman did say I could use her real name, but I decided not to at the last minute here, because I’m getting more and more nervous about DWP vindictiveness to claimants). Mary was not in a very good way. Mary said that she had long-term mental health problems and had receiving ESA because of this. She’d been on the benefit for about six years. Mary said that she had been in the ESA work-related activity group until very recently. A few days before we met outside the jobcentre, she’d received the letter which you can see below – the letter which told her that she was no longer entitled to Employment and Support Allowance. She’d been found fit for work after a June work capability assessment. Her last ESA payment had been made on 2 July – just a couple of days before we met. She was obviously very concerned about that money ending – as anyone would be – and had no idea what to do next.
“They didn’t give me nothing [at the work capability assessment] – zero points. I got my letter, but I’m doing this with mental health problems. I can’t read and write very well.” As you can see below, the letter that Mary just received from the DWP told her that she’d get no more money from early July and that she’d better pull finger and start looking for a job: “you should start looking for a job straightaway.” If she couldn’t get a job straightaway (and it seemed unlikely that she would at that very moment, given her age and history) the letter gave a number to call to make a jobcentre appointment. That was the end of that. Other than those mostly useless pointers, all this letter offered was a few of the DWP’s now-unavoidable odes to the joys and supremacy of work: “we know that most people are better off in work,” and blah blah blah. These letters are as sanctimonious as they are unhelpful. There’s a repulsive smugness about the DWP when it pulls the rug on people in these situations.
Which is the thing. I’m not talking about Mary in particular here, or her history. I don’t know enough about her history to go into it. I’m talking about the system Mary is stuck in, the way this bureaucracy behaves towards people who use it and the assumptions it makes about those people. I’m talking about a system which removes people’s small incomes at the stroke of a pen, and the amazing callousness that the DWP shows when it throws people with mental health problems off ESA. There’s no “We Get That Mental Health Conditions Are A Real Thing” going on in this letter, or even “We Get That Stopping Your Income Might Devastate You.” The assumption in this letter is that people who are found fit for work have been taking the piss and that everyone who is found fit for work is robust enough to deal with a major blow like a sudden and total loss of income. This, presumably, is how the DWP continues to “fix” people with mental health conditions and indeed to “fix” anyone who claims a disability benefit. Forget about eligibility for a minute, or whether or not people are “deserving,” so-called (nobody’s deserving as far as this government is concerned, so that conversation is barely worth faffing around with). The point is that this is how people are handled when decisions to stop their income are made.
Sightings of letters like this one and of people in Mary’s situation reeling around outside jobcentres are among the reasons why I await the outcome of Mike Sivier’s request for benefit deaths statistics with interest. There’s absolutely no concession in the above text-heavy letter to the fact that the sudden stop of ESA might have a very bad effect on someone with mental health problems, or that such a letter might make those problems worse. There’s certainly nothing at the front of the letter about help to sign on for jobseekers’ allowance for some income in the first instance, or help to navigate the difficult path to jobseekers’ allowance, or how someone who once claimed ESA might deal with JSA’s difficult, demanding and punitive jobsearch regimes (I don’t count the provision of the Jobcentre Plus phone number on page 2, or the warbling on about Work Coach help at a jobcentre as immediate and intensive support). For her part, Mary was going to try and appeal the fit-for-work decision: “I’m on medication,” she said. “I’m going to my doctor now to get the letters.” I gave her my number and have her address: hopefully, we can catch up and find out how things went. Suffice to say for now that I expect to see more and more people clutching these letters outside jobcentres as Osborne and the boys target ESA – and the people who collect it – for destruction. Cute, innit.
*Update Monday 20 July: sentence with * changed from “thought fit for some type of work” to “thought capable of some kind of work in future” as original could be interpreted as “fit for work” as in a WCA decision to end an ESA claim altogether. Also added “and of attending work-related activities” inside the bracket, as agree with commentator below that the work-related activities requirement for WRAG should be made clear as part of that sentence. Good ESA WRAG definition here.
Kate wrote: ” I think the government’s ultimate plan is to eliminate disability benefits, as well as the idea that some people just can’t work.”
Many would argue, “What’s so special about this Government?”
Or, what should we expect when a rotten to the core American health insurance company Unum — formerly Unum Provident — has been advising successive UK governments in the matter of ‘welfare reform’ since the 1990’s, despite having been branded by one US judge around the year 2000 as “purveyors of disability denial factories”?
See DPAC posting A Tale of two Models: Disabled People vs Unum, Atos, Government and Disability Charities :Debbie Jolly.
Unum has been fined $millions for its crimes. How much better would things be if such bloodsuckers were subjected to criminal sentences? Yet, Speaking at a conference [on June 17], Karen Bradley, minister for preventing abuse and exploitation, said the government will later this year consult on plans to expand the crime of wilful neglect to children’s social workers who fail to report abuse.
Do you think any government or even party will be able to turn this round, though? I doubt it. Look at Syriza. And Labour – which I wouldn’t compare with Syriza – is utterly complicit. The solutions will be external to existing political structures, including existing political parties, I think.
i too have a mental illness and simply cannot understand any letters i get from the government … i need some one to explain them to me ,,, im not a thick person but feel stupid when i ring or someone rings them up for me ,,, they have no compassion at all for the mentally ill , you would think the government would train their staff on how to help us , but they dont .. the pressure of waiting for someone you dont know making decisions about you , makes you really , we the mentally ill ..do have everything to lose … society is meant to help those who arent well enough .. i have had to go through 3 appeals and luckily won them all.. but i couldnt do it alone… i need lots of help just to appear normal … and cope in society and i know there are many like me . we dont choose to be ill and being mentally ill is the worst …
I have had a long mental health issue. Ive been put into prison for 10 days as i threatened my old social worker and solicitor. I have paranoid schizophrenia and co morbid personality. I have to take medication every day and an injection eI am dreading very 10days to keep me sane. At the moment my cpn does not understand how ill i feel reading what this government has planned. I was until recently looking at training to get a job but instead i cannot live alone any more so back to the parents house with a supportive step dad.
I am dreading the letters and more than once not read them, i have been through 5 tribunals the last one was for PIP, i was in a low secure unit when we applied for PIP and only recently won it. I have spent 5 yrs in and about hospital enviroments but now out of that support I feel my self falling backwards.
IDS and cronies have not helped in this instance and my cpn and i go through the mail that i have unopened.
Yet again parliament has failed but this lot has a load of sway with the rich who cling to their power and the poor who support them. I served 3 years in the Naval reserve and for what, to be told that I can never serve my nation again and no pension to speak of.
This isnt the life I had planned
Sometimes I wonder if all of this is not some sort of horrible test, to see how much the British people will actually take before they rebel. And by the look of it, the answer seems to be, a very great deal.
The welfare state is in ruins, the NHS half privatised, and some of the most vulnerable people in society are being deliberately reduced to destitution.
We are hurtling towards ‘victorian levels of poverty’ to quote a recent report.
The DWP seems to be answerable to no-one, and largely above the law. Acting as some sort of state within a state, with the tacit approval of the government.
Child poverty is abolished at a stroke, by changing the definition of child poverty.
How long before the concept of ‘disability’ is abolished as well ?
If only this were just a bad dream, then we could wake up, and it would all be over.
I was in a similar situation. I was injured at work and went on Employment support. I was cut off and I appealed. Won my appeal but three months later was taken off again. I protested and used their regulations against them. Appealed, lost but then they reconsidered and redeemed the ESA payment. Why?
I was an injured Police Officer with knowledge of law. I was injured and received ESA when my statutory sickness pay ran out and then my insurance ran out and I was in no man’s land. They restored it only because I was retired on ill health. The incontrovertible truth that I could not do my job- they were retiring me because I was not able to do my job. I got a phone call to say my ESA had been repaid and back paid. I know many others are not so fortunate. A great proportion of claimants get reinstated because they challenge the findings and so much more. If you manage to get good advice you can make a case for not dropping off the face of the earth. Get help, it makes a difference!
Excellent article. Wish it all wasn’t true.
In Line 6 of the second paragraph you refer to the WRAG people being fit for some type of work. However they are only supposed to be fit for work related activity.
David Cameron was complaining that people on JSA got jobs 7 x faster than people in the WRAG & that was why they needed to spend the WRAG component money on getting these (sick) people back to work! He seems singularly Ill informed.
Re Liz’s second para here, I have long pointed out that a fundamental flaw in the change from Incapacity Benefit to the ESA Support Group/WRAG divide was that government never bothered to monitor and research the progress — or rather, lack of progress — of those JSA claimants with disabilities who genuinely volunteered and jobsearched.
I know, because I was one of them after so called ‘Employment Rehabilitation Centre in 1978 told me that I was “too slow to ever benefit from any further state-funded education and training.” Yet when I applied for what was Invalidity Benefit, I was told that I was not disabled enough! Decades of volunteering for causes I believed in and numerous ‘keeping people off the dole queue while on the course’ and paid employment gaps later, I applied for ESA and won a tribunal that got me into the Support Group.
So while I hate labelling character, maybe the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group singers have it right about the character of David Cameron? Or, as I prefer to think of it, they should be referring to Cameron’s supporters in the chorus ‘hook’ of a song Kate has publicised already on this blog and that I have heard has ‘gone viral’. A KUWG comrade has observed:
“The youtube ststistics are still showing around 8000 views in total.
“But someone has downloaded it and then re uploaded it direct to Facebook, where it has over 35,000 views. As the facebook video doesnt link to the youtube video, none of these views are included in the youtube statistics….”
I have a long term illness, and have been claiming benefits for some years.
I find it very difficult to get advice as the local law centre in Hounslow has shut down, and the local CAB is not running drop-in sessions locally and booking an appointment is impossible. Without accessible legal advice it is impossible to ensure that you are treated fairly or even register a complaint. The DWP are apparently not taking written complaints, complaints are now taken on the telephone, but with no written record, the details of a complaint are open to dispute.
This is not the way to deal with people who are dependent on the payments of benefits. The DWP are actively vicious, uncaring, and without competent legal advice, and a proper complaints procedure, claimants are more vulnerable than ever.
With the advent of Universal Credit, ESA claimants will have to deal with being forced into part-time and temporary jobs, with the inevitable disputes leading to destitution, and there is generally no hope of a good mainstream employment. How did the tories win the last election!
Been on jsa years since being diagnosed with chronic back and leg pain. Developed RSI due to having to do job search layed on my front. Was also having to eat my tea this way. Slowly improved but i have regular flair ups. One today all morning the pain has been so bad i felt physically sick and been unable to take my meds. 2 hot baths layed on accupuncture mat, back belt + finally got some meds down it’s easing. Still i’m meant to manage my pain in employment. I did mandatory work experience 16hrs a week in a charity shop where they were very understanding to give me motivation. All this has done is confirmed i’m struggling big time and twice i was close to having to go doctors due to sharp pains going through my back and legs. Thank goodness it was summer time as winter i no id not of lasted. I have decided to continue 1/2 day once a week as i enjoy it but thats me being in control.
Do the powers that be really think i went to agriculture college because i was bone idle and my goal in life was to be on jsa or esa. I’ve gone from a career i loved cash in my pocket a healthy social life etc to pretty much nothing.
Ill say this if there was something i thought i could do id be doing as no one capable of work needs the job centre to help find employment.
Now — November 2016 — it seems, the DWP has learned from its failings but does not admit to have been in error.
See the references to Disability Employment Advisers at http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/ministers-set-to-force-work-related-activity-on-everyone-in-esa-support-group