# ESA why we should all be very afraid?

I am horrified by reports such as this one

 http://www.hi-mag.com/health-insurance/product-area/income-protection/article376112.ece

Just 6% of claimants pass work capability assessments...

And also...

Three-quarters of people who apply for ESA are not awarded the benefit

Words to strike fear into the heart of anyone who is currently off work on long term sick surely?

That so many of these quotes are also linked with the words, scroungers, malingers or lazy, too is very unsettling.

Can there really be so many people claiming benefit that they are not entitled to? It seems implausible to me.

Well the figures themselves may be misleading and if you go to the original data report

http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/workingage/esa_wca/esa_wca_26072011.pdf
you see a slightly different story.

Ø 7% of people into the support group, where they are saying they do not feel the person is capable of any work related activity but also that they will not be capable of it before the next review date.

Ø 17% as being put into the Work Related Activity group, where you will receive monetary support and support you in work related activities hopefully resulting in you getting back to some work before the next review date (to be discussed but can be 6months).

Ø 39% as fit for work but also

Ø 36% have their cases closed before assessment is complete

Ø 1% still in progress.

Now much as people might conclude that that means 75% are deemed fit for work/ refused benefit I don’t believe it does.

Cases are closed for many reasons and I feel that to include the figures is a misuse of statistics to include the people who have withdrawn their claim before completion of the assessment in the total refused benefit since this is not the case. They withdrew their claim!

 If you look at the completed claims only then you see that

Ø 10% of people are deemed not fit for any work

Ø 27% for work related activity and

Ø 63% fit for work

Not much better you say! Well then look at the statistics for the appeals.

The average appeal rate is 32% (range 20-39%) of these 40% average (39-41% range) win the appeal (Average for Oct 08 to Jun 09).

So that 63% fit for work is in fact 55% and though I still find that very high it certainly looks more realistic to me.

 And consider not being awarded ESA is pronouncing you fit for some work which is not to say you could hold down a full time job but just that you could do a few hours of paid work a week and isn’t that realistic for at least some of the people claiming incapacity benefit?

But how many?

 63% like the benefit claims are suggesting?

Or
                                    55% like the appeals are suggesting?
Or
                                    Even lower?

And really isn’t the question here about whether the extra money £100 or more we get paid when we qualify for incapacity benefit, disability living allowance etc., still required even if we can earn some money? Yet the government allowance for help is then drastically reduced when we are deemed fit for work.

We still have the same problems with our health, the same limits... or does the government really believe that 55% of people are getting more money than they require to live on.

They say it’s not a budget cutting exercise?!

However the fact that 40% (peak of 2500 people a month*) of people win their appeals seems to me to say that the system is failing a great many. The emotional stress that going through an appeal will create is surely going to set back anyones’ recovery, particularly if the reason they are on long term sick is for a stress related illness –and I’m including all mental health issues in this-

That this is new benefit and that as such it could be expected that there would be problems at the beginning may be acceptable but surely this is intolerable in the long term and it has been 2 years.

*a figure that is believed will increase as more people are moved over onto ESA