{"id":13153,"date":"2017-08-31T18:15:34","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T17:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=13153"},"modified":"2017-08-31T18:15:34","modified_gmt":"2017-08-31T17:15:34","slug":"govt-slammed-disabled-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=13153","title":{"rendered":"Govt slammed in disabled \u00e2\u20ac\u0098shame\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Tories blew \u00c2\u014139m over a year in mostly fruitless efforts to block benefits for sick and disabled people, new figures show.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The cash was spent contesting appeals from thousands of people who believed they were wrongly denied government support.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Disability rights campaigners say benefit<\/a> assessments, which are carried out by private firms, are not fit for purpose and are being manipulated to cut down on costs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Disability News Service<\/a> has compiled a list of 200 cases involving alleged \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdishonesty\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 by officials.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of claimants have appealed decisions on eligibility for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and the Personal Independence Payment (PIP).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Approximately 20 per cent of the initial appeals \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which the government decides internally \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are successful.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However when claimants take their appeal to independent tribunal the figures rocket to 47 per cent for ESA and 61 per cent for PIP.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

New figures <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

New figures published by the Independent<\/em><\/a> reveal the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spent \u00c2\u014122m processing first-stage appeals in 2016.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It then spent an extra \u00c2\u014117m on tribunal costs during the same period.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Work and Pensions Committee chairman Frank Field said the high success rate of appeals at independent tribunals raised fears over the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s motivations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He said, “There is a clear incentive here for the department: by doubling down on the quality of the initial assessment, it would save itself tens of millions of pounds each year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“But the country as a whole also has a stake in improving this initial assessment: that is to prevent the injustice of human suffering, reported by food banks to be on an industrial scale, among some of our most vulnerable citizens who are on the brink of destitution.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A DWP spokesperson insisted that the majority of successful appeals are because \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpeople have submitted more oral or written evidence.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Head of Unite Community<\/a> Liane Groves said the Tories treatment of disabled people \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbrings shame on the country\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and called on the government to change the way initial benefit assessments are made.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Appalling\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tories treatment of disabled people continues to be appalling \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just the opinion of Unite and disability campaigners in the UK, but also of the United Nations who have said that welfare reforms amount to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098grave and systemic violations<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of disabled people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rights,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Groves said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese latest figures reiterate that the Conservatives are determined press their ideological austerity agenda regardless of the damage it causes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bA society can be judged by the way it treats its most vulnerable and the fact that the Tories spent such an inordinate amount of money on tribunals that more often than not ruled against them brings shame on our country.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bReform needs to happen now, starting with the replacement of unfair work capability assessments with a system that does not seek to punish the sick and disabled.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tories blew \u00c2\u014139m over a year in mostly fruitless efforts to block benefits for sick and disabled people, new figures show.   The cash was spent contesting appeals from thousands of people who believed they were wrongly denied government support.   Disability rights campaigners say benefit assessments, which are carried out by private firms, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,231,172,44],"wps_subtitle":"Tories blow \u00c2\u014139m trying to block benefits","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13154,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13153\/revisions\/13154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}