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conducted fortnightly for ESA and six-weekly for IB/SDA) after being declared fit for work and having their benefits withdrawn.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’”
David Davies
A more accurate description would be `died’.
I am dying of cancer, in the Support Group, but not quite ready to put on my wooden overcoat.
David Davies
Can someone please understand the distinction between `are dying’
and DEAD!
UnionJihack
Good old IDS back on top form I see
Leda
If you remove someone’s sole source of income in the full knowledge that they cannot possibly support themselves, and they die as a result, how are you NOT directly responsible for their death? Shit for brains.
RB2
Have you actually read anything about Nazi policies in
respect of disabled people as these developed through the 30s and the war years? The following is a very succinct description: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/heuthanasia.h tm
See these paragraphs in particular:
‘Code named “Aktion T 4,” the Nazi euthanasia program to eliminate “life unworthy of life” at first focused on newborns and very young children.Midwives and doctors were required to register children up to age three who showed symptoms of mental retardation, physical deformity, or other symptoms included on a questionnaire from the Reich Health Ministry.
A decision on whether to allow the child to live was then made by three medical experts solely on the basis of the questionnaire, without any examination and without reading any medical records.
Each expert placed a + mark in red pencil or – mark in blue pencil under the term “treatment” on a special form. A red plus mark meant a decision to kill the child. A blue minus sign meant a decision against killing. Three plus symbols resulted in a euthanasia warrant being issued and the transfer of the child to a ‘Children’s Specialty Department’ for death by injection or gradual starvation.’
Subsequently these policies were extended to apply to adults
also.
If you seriously think that this is a good historical parallel for the current UK government’s policies in respect of welfare and benefits payments then it you whose brains are, er, faecal.