Crackdown on 10,000 incapacity claimants

A CRACKDOWN on more than 10,000 people on sickness benefits across Oldham will begin within days.

Letters will start arriving through the doors of 10,240 incapacity benefit (IB) claimants, informing them of the tough new work test.

Around 300 people a week will be tested in each region, starting next month. That figure will treble to 900 from May, when 11,000 tests are planned nationwide.

In trials, 30 per cent of claimants were judged fit to work and were immediately placed on job-seekers’ allowance (JSA) instead — losing at least £25 a week in benefit.

A further 40 per cent were assessed as able to look for work, with support. That means they will be moved on to JSA after one further year.

If the work-capability assessment (WCA) produces the same result across Oldham, it would mean around 7,168 of the 10,240 IB claimants will be stripped of the benefit. The Government is convinced that many people on sickness benefits are fit to work and hopes the shake-up will save £1 billion over five years.

But the new test has been widely-criticised as too harsh, failing to properly understand and measure mental-health problems and other “fluctuating conditions”, for example.

In the trials, a staggering 40 per cent of decisions were overturned on appeal, but only after the sick and disabled were put through the trauma of being told they will lose their benefits.

People with terminal cancer and multiple sclerosis have been found fit to work. In one trial, in Aberdeen, two terminally-ill people died while awaiting their appeals.

Now Prof Paul Gregg, a welfare-reform expert who helped to devise the test, has urged the Government to slow down the change, recommending a further trial before it is introduced across the country.

But the Department for Work and Pensions insisted it had listened to earlier warnings about the assessment and made the necessary changes. As a result, there will be mental-health experts in all assessment centres, better advise on what the test involves and some tests will be filmed.

Work Minister Chris Grayling insisted the shake-up was motivated by a desire to help people on sickness benefits find work — not the need to save money.

He added: “There is no letter from the Treasury saying your mission is to save £1 million . This is not about saying ‘Can we squeeze a few more people into the fit-for-work group’.”