Incapacity tests reject 37% of claimants

[Jimbuna]

I'm wondering how fair these tests are because whilst I accept there are those who con the system I know of three people who are clearly in need of said benefit but have recently had it taken away from them.

More than a third of incapacity benefit claimants being reassessed for the new Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) have been deemed fit to work.
Of the first 141,100 claimants reviewed since last April, 37% would no longer be paid the benefit, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17379564

[Herr-Berbunch]

I think it should be dependent on what job it is you do/want - obviously some jobs are better suited for certain people - someone with a history of chronic back problems should not be working in a hand car wash. It's the idiots that try to con the system that fail it for all, as usual.

[Jimbuna]

Yeah...I'm looking for something along the lines of a diecast aircraft polisher

[Herr-Berbunch]

Sorry, that's all outsourced to china.

[STEED]

The money grabbing cheats have done a number and they know it. And those who need real help and not pulling a fast one will suffer the broom.

To be honest the whole country is heading for the toilet U-bend.

[Oberon]

It's not what you have, me old fruit, it's where you have it. The big smoke seems to have an easy eye on claimants but around here if you are still able to put one foot in front of the other then there's nothing wrong with you, even if doing so causes you a lot of pain and you can barely walk twenty-five meters before your hip gives way.

Wasn't there a problem in that the agency doing the testing had to fail a certain number of people.
Didn't they get some bad press for declaring terminally ill people fit for work and then having them die before they had recieved the letter telling them they were fit.
Come to think of it as something over 40% are overturned is this another A4e case where one of call me daves buddies is scamming the tax payer and commiting fraud in the name of "saving money" for the government.

[Diopos]

Eventually all the population will be declared healthy, able and happy by presidential decree and then we can still enjoy a welfare state with zero cost!



.

[Harald_Lange]

Yea, this is a sensitive subject with me. My brother in law has Chrones disease and has had most of his digestive tract rebuilt over the years, He spends most of his morning toilet-bound now and has had to give up being an electrician. He weighs 7 stone and probably won't see old age.

I know having to give up work has done him in and if he'd been able to, he'd have a bunch of chaps working for him now and a successful business, his own home, you name it. Every year he has to provide medical reports to retain his disability allowance (each progressively worse than the previous year) and what's more he's treated with contempt as to a passer by, he doesn't look 'disabled' as he can walk.

Then my neighbour, the other end of the spectrum, has never worked a day in his life, has been given a free car, and claims for a 'bad back'. He really is the classic 'waste of space'. He recently threatened and abused my 83 year old neighbour as she refused to allow the cable TV company to dig up her lawn to install his cable TV.

Its a crazy mixed up world indeed!

[Jimbuna]

^ One of the many concerns of this exercise...how divisive it can often be.