New benefits scheme shunting ill and disabled onto lower support

Work Capability Assessment figures have shown a doubling in the rate of claimants found ineligible for the Employment and Support Allowance.

The Government is shunting large numbers of ill or disabled people onto a lower level of support by deeming them ‘fit to work’.

There is now a real danger that people deemed fit and ineligible will fall out of the loop and fail to get anything like the support they need. This is particularly worrying if someone hasn’t worked for some time dues to poor health.

Unfortunately it’s all to easy for the Government to look at the disabled as an easy target to save benefits. But it’s not a cheap option. Most people aren’t fraudsters and most people need genuine support – financial or otherwise.

Tackling this issue in this – financially driven, may simply disguise the problem instead of dealing with it.The Government must track what happens to people who don’t meet the criteria set for these allowances to make sure that they are not just left to rot on a benefit with a different name.