The following details have been supplied by the TUC :
A Government claim that the 'vast majority' of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA ) claimants should not be receiving the benefit, contradicts the evidence and its own admissions just two months ago, the TUC has charged. The government said official statistics show most ESA claimants are either being found fit for work after undergoing a Work Capability Assessment or stop their claim before they complete the application process. It added that this demonstrates 'why ministers are determined to reform the welfare system' and to reassess all those currently receiving the 'old style incapacity benefit.' Employment minister Chris Grayling: 'We are determined to get the medical assessment right and provide the necessary help for those that need it, however these figures show just how many people are found to be fit for work and not entitled to ESA .' The government said its figures, based on an assessment system that was found to be seriously flawed two months ago by the government-commissioned Harrington review, showed 39 per cent of claimants were 'fit for work' and a further 39 per cent did not complete their claims. TUC 's Richard Exell said the government's plans did not sit well with the findings of the Harrington review. 'This said that 'there is strong evidence that the system can be impersonal and mechanistic', that Jobcentre Plus advisers 'often do not have or do not appropriately consider additional evidence submitted to support a claim for Employment and Support Allowance' and that 'some of the descriptors used in the assessment may not adequately measure or reflect the full impact of such conditions on the individual's capability for work'.' He added: 'At the time the Secretary of State not only welcomed Prof Harrington's report, he went out of his way to say that the government 'fully endorsed' its recommendations. Now, just two months later, the DWP uses results from the same test to justify their plans. The government should call a moratorium on extending the WCA to existing Incapacity Benefit claimants until the recommendations of the Harrison review have been implemented.'
