Two-thirds don’t get new sickness benefit
posted: 14/10/2009
The loss of Incapacity Benefit, or much lower weekly benefit, hangs over many people living with HIV, within the next 2-3 years. This is the lesson from a report into the workings of Employment and Support Allowance which will replace Incapacity Benefit for everyone.
More than two-thirds of people who apply for the new sickness benefit fail in their claims. This suggests that many of the 2.6 million existing incapacity benefit claimants will be forced on to a lower level of benefit when they are assessed over the next two to three years. Only 5% claiming the new employment and support allowance now get the full £108.55 a week.
The findings come in research published today by the Department for Work and Pensions into the impact of a tougher medical assessment for the employment and support allowance (ESA), introduced in October. 36% of claimants have been refused because they are fit to work – more than double the rate of refusals under the old medical test.
The study of nearly 200,000 claims suggests the government will make big savings from its tougher approach to welfare, despite growing unemployment.
The results
Overall, the research found only 5% of those seeking ESA were totally incapable of work and so entitled to the full benefit of £108.55. A further 11%, were potentially capable of work, and put on a rate of £89.80 a week, and are expected to co-operate with efforts to ready themselves for work. A third of the initial claimants dropped out before completing their claim, and a further third were decided as fit for work.
The new assessment, the work capability assessment, focuses on the work claimants could do rather than what they can’t do. Based on these findings, substantial government savings could be made between 2010 and 2013, the existing 2.6 million people on incapacity benefit are tested using the new tougher assessment.
Expect a quarter of a million refusals a year
On this basis the number of sickness-related benefit claimants likely to be rejected in a year will top 250,000.
The work and pensions secretary, Yvette Cooper, did not pass judgment on the findings. She said: "In the 80s and early 90s, the number of people claiming incapacity benefit rose by a million. Too many people ended up on long-term sickness benefit without help to get back to work. That must never happen again."
George House Trust comment
This study makes clear that many people living with HIV who are now on Incapacity Benefit will either lose that completely (and need to claim Job Seekers Allowance) or face a cut in the amount paid under Employment Support Allowance.
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