In a story yesterday headed Three-quarters of incapacity benefit claimants are fit to work, says DWP, the headline and opening paragraph over-compressed findings issued by the Department for Work and Pensions....
Its section on appeals notes that of people found fit for work after making a claim for ESA between October 2008 and August 2009, 33% have had an appeal heard to date; of these, the original fit-to-work decision was "confirmed for 60%"; by implication 40% of fitness rulings were not upheld (27 October, page 12).
This is interesting - I overlooked it. So of the 39% found fit to work, a third appeal and 40% of those are overturned. So the number of people undergoing the WCA actually being judged fit to work is 33.8%. About a third. That's quite different from 78%! It would be interesting to see why people didn't appeal. Did they accept the decision, or did they not have the nous and resources to appeal it?
Meanwhile the Daily Mail (ever ready to outrage) reported this bogus story as:
75% of incapacity claimants fit to work: Benefits test weeds out workshy. The Sun also ran with it. The French Tribune managed the greatest distortion by claiming the figure was almost 90%! I didn't find any major daily newspaper who accurately reported the figures.Stories of seriously ill people getting judged fit to work by the WCA:
A record of Wednesday's debate on Work Capability Assessments, Westminster Hall debates, 27 October 2010.
It is apparent that the appeal success rate various enormously from place to place - one MP saying that is was 95% from one advocate in his constituency - depending on what I wonder? We just don't know enough about what is going on when people are judged fit for work. How many of them are getting jobs?
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