Iain Duncan Smith has serious questions to answer
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has just published figures showing that between 2011 and 2014, 2,380 people died shortly after being declared ‘fit for work’.
Published in response to Freedom of Information requests, the statistics show that more than 50 people are dying each month just after a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) has declared them fit for work.
These deaths relate to just two benefits, Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Incapacity Benefit/Severe Disablement Allowance (IB/SDA), both paid to people too ill or disabled to work.
Between December 2011 and February 2014:
270 former IB/SDA claimants died shortly (scans are conducted fortnightly for ESA and six-weekly for IB/SDA) after being declared fit for work and having their benefits withdrawn.
1,340 ESA claimants who had recently completed appeals against the fit for work assessment died.
The DWP document states that ‘the mortality rate [for people of working age out of work] has remained around three times higher than for the general population. There are a higher proportion of people who are sick or disabled amongst those on benefits than in the general population.’
The fact that the DWP feels this needs to be said at all speaks volumes about the way it treats sick and disabled people – with suspicion and lack of compassion.
These figures are truly alarming for disabled people, especially as they come just days after Iain Duncan Smith announced an overhaul of the WCA system which would force many sick and disabled people to work. An investigation is also currently underway into the deaths of people who have recently had their benefits sanctioned.
Ruby Stockham is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward
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35 Responses to “New DWP statistics: more than 80 people are dying each month shortly after being declared ‘fit for work’”
Nick
Personally i think it’s too late for the likes of myself and that the sick and disabled will be wiped out over the next 5 years with only those with their own financial support managing to somehow stay alive
the horrors of seeing their sick and disabled friends perish however they too could succumbed and go down with mental health issues and then die
I think IDS thou could wipe out all sick and disabled if he put his mind to doing so it would be up to the press to stop him and with a right wing press as the majority IDS could indeed get away with it.
Keith M
You need to get real.
Keith M
Agree with you there.
RB2
No. Making it harder to get benefits is not remotely equivalent to actually directly killing disabled people. This is a stupid and distasteful parallel which detracts from valid criticism of government policy.
Nick
I’m afraid a death is death with grieving relatives irrespective of how a death took place. on your logic IDS could wipe out thousands of more lives unimpeded as he himself killed no one
My take is if you take others lives while in government through error/negligence or by whatever means then like in any other profession that you be held accountable in law and have to explain to a judge on why that person died and what led up to that persons death
my wife works in a end of life care home and has to account for all of her actions in writing on everyone that is on her watch every hour of the day including what they eat and how much etc and that in my mind is the correct procedure