Archive | October 2012

Disability’s Not Working

Oct9

The government has plans to further sanction long-term sick or disabled people if they deem these people to not be working hard enough.  There are already sanctions if these people do not attend all of their ‘work focussed interviews’ or fail to satisfy ‘work-related activity’ requirements.  The government is extending this ‘work-related activity’ to include work experience; it is now legal for officials to mandate people in WRAG to carry out work experience,[1] although plans for unpaid work experience have not yet been finalised.[2]

“Ministers strongly feel there is a link-up to support those moving close to the labour market, and the individual’s responsibility to engage with the support.  Ministers feel sanctions are an incentive for people to comply with their responsibility.”

I find this sort of statement deeply frustrating.  I’m not interested in what Ministers feel.  I’m interested in facts.  What exactly does it mean for a long-term sick or disabled person to ‘engage with the support’?  Who decides what is engagement and what is not, and does the decision maker understand what it means to be long-term ill or disabled?  In what way will sanctions successfully incentivise people to comply with their ‘responsibility’?  What is their responsibility, given that they are long-term sick and thereby have reduced capabilities?

Work-related activity as defined in the Welfare Reform Act 2007 is that which “makes it more likely that the person will obtain or remain in work or be able to do so.”  The 2012 extension is that this work “includes work experience or a work placement.”  Work-related requirements for those found to have limited capability of work (i.e. in WRAG) is limited to ‘work preparation’:

Section 16 of Welfare Reform Act 2012

(1)In this Part a “work preparation requirement” is a requirement that a claimant take particular action specified by the Secretary of State for the purpose of making it more likely in the opinion of the Secretary of State that the claimant will obtain paid work (or more paid work or better-paid work).

(2)The Secretary of State may under subsection (1) specify the time to be devoted to any particular action.

(3)Action which may be specified under subsection (1) includes in particular—

(a) attending a skills assessment;

(b) improving personal presentation;

(c) participating in training;

(d) participating in an employment programme;

(e) undertaking work experience or a work placement;

(f) developing a business plan;

(g) any action prescribed for the purpose in subsection (1).

(4)In the case of a person with limited capability for work, the action which may be specified under subsection (1) includes taking part in a work-focused health-related assessment.

(5)In subsection (4) “work-focused health-related assessment” means an assessment by a health care professional approved by the Secretary of State which is carried out for the purpose of assessing—

(a) the extent to which the person’s capability for work may be improved by taking steps in relation to their physical or mental condition, and

(b) such other matters relating to their physical or mental condition and the likelihood of their obtaining or remaining in work or being able to do so as may be prescribed.

(6)In subsection (5) “health care professional” means—

(a) a registered medical practitioner,

(b) a registered nurse,

(c) an occupational therapist or physiotherapist registered with a regulatory body established by an Order in Council under section 60 of the Health Act 1999, or

(d) a member of such other profession regulated by a body mentioned in section 25(3) of the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002 as may be prescribed.

The plan is that those considered capable of ‘work-related activity’ may be mandated to carry out voluntary work for charities, public bodies and high-street retailers.  There is no plan for a time limit for such work, despite the existence of time-limits for people on JSA.  There is also no evidence that this will be at all effective; it may even be detrimental.  The government’s paper on work and health, published in 2006, concluded that there is no data on the impact of work on people with chronic health-problems, and that there is a significant minority for whom work has negative effects.[3]  Whilst it is to be hoped that this significant minority would be placed in the Support Group, there is no confidence amongst disabled and long-term sick people that this is the case.

There is a real risk that this requirement will cause deteriorations in people’s health.  These people have been found unfit for work; some of the reasons they are unable to work will also apply to their ability to carry out mandatory unpaid work.  If a person would find paid work exhausting or painful, or would be unable to regularly attend due to fluctuations in health, surely this will also be the case for mandatory unpaid work?  Advisers lack medical knowledge that would enable them to assess a patient’s ability to carry out work, whether paid or not, or understand why health issues can make such work impossible.  There is then the possibility that advisers will require people to carry out work that is beyond their capabilities, and then sanction them when they are unable to carry on.

Added to this, the government is making sanctions are even harsher.  It is as if they have forgotten that they themselves assessed these people as unable to work due to health problems.  Current sanctions have a maximum of £28.15 a week, but from 3rd December this will change to £71 a week, which is 70% of the weekly payment.[4] As Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, said, “Whatever an individual’s health problems, slashing their benefit is only going to exacerbate the strain they are already under. The additional stress and anxiety incurred by the sanction – worries about paying for bills, rent and even food – risks devastating their mental health.”

It is essential that the government starts listening to disabled people and what they need, not what the government wants.

Death rates and the WCA

Oct8

Recently, the discussion around the numbers of people who die after being found fit for work has come up on twitter again.  This is because of the release of a government report, as a result of a freedom of information act, dated 9th July 2012.[1]

The headline figure on twitter is that 10 600 people have died within six weeks of their WCA claim ending, in less than one year.  This comes from page 6 of the report, where the number of deaths within six weeks of a claim ending is broken down into those for whom the assessment had not been completed (2 200), those who had been put in WRAG (1 300) and those who had been put in the Support Group (7 100).  These provide an update to the figures that the Daily Mail received to their FoI request back in April.[2]  The figures then were for Jan-Aug 2011, whereas the latest figures are for Jan-Nov 2011.

This number of deaths sounds pretty big.  It’s 11 000 people in one year; a lot of people, in a short period of time; a lot of people who are very sick.

But alone these figures do not tell us much.  We can hype them up, say it’s a huge and alarming number and the government needs to do something about it, but before we do that we need to put them into context.  After all if it were 11 000 people out of an overall group of 11 million people, that would be a very low death rate and not something to be upset about.

We need to know at what rate working-age people normally die. Then we can compare death rates for those waiting for ESA assessments, those in WRAG and those in SG to what they would be if these groups were made up of average members of public.  That’s the best way to find out how alarming these figures are.

Every year, 225 in every 100 000 working-age people die.[3]

Using data on the number of people in WRAG , SG and still under assessment in each quarter from November 2010 to February 2012 – to calculate the number of man years in the respective groups from Jan 2011 to Nov 2011 – and the number of deaths, adjusted to be per 100 000 and per year, the comparable figure is 573 for the assessment phase, 537 for WRAG and 6910 for SG.

People who have applied for ESA die at a rate 2.5 times higher than for the average working-age population.  People in WRAG die at 2.4 times the expected death rate.  People in SG die at over 30 times the expected death rate.

These are seriously ill people, putting to lie the government’s assertions that people on ESA are festering or abandoned.  It is not just those whom the government recognises to be ill; it’s also those who are applying for ESA or have been deemed fit for ‘work-related activity.’  This is very simple data and it would be dangerous to read a lot into it, but the one message this data gives on its own is a very simple one: people receiving ESA are genuinely ill.  The government needs to stop peddling this myth that people on ESA do not need to be there.

[2] Sommerlad, N., 32 die a week after failing test for new incapacity benefit, 4th April 2012, Daily Mail. http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/04/32-die-a-week-after-failing-in.html

[3] Office of National Statistics. This is the average death rate per 100000 for males and females between 15 and 64.  http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-265234

Disciple All the Nations

Oct7

Nations exist in space.  There are the nations of the UK, Germany and France; South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe; Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.  Many Christians have gone to these and other nations.  The church I was in at university sends students out to Zambia; the church I am in now sends people to Tanzania and South Africa.

We are told to go out to all nations, telling them the good news of Jesus.  Christians make a point of trying to reach people whose ancestors had no knowledge of Christianity.  These are called the unreached people; the ones who have never heard.

But nations exist in time as well as space.  150 years ago, our nation was composed of entirely different people.  Every day new people join our nation and old people leave.  So our nation today is a new nation; people today are new people.

We cannot assume that people in the UK have heard the truth in Christianity.  Many may have heard a garbled version.  There are many people who think Jesus’ death for sin applied only to people up to the time of Jesus; who think Mary is the third person of the Trinity; who have no idea that Christians today believe God miraculously heals people; who think Christians are homophobic and misogynistic.  People are astounded when they hear the true good news.

We cannot assume that people will hear from their parents or general society.  The message people hear is that church is boring, stuck in past cultures, judgemental, intolerant.  How will they hear the truth if we make no effort to tell them, choosing instead to go to other people in other places?  How can we expect them to decide when their knowledge is incomplete and biased?

All nations today are new nations.  All need to hear about God.  Don’t forget the people around you in your own country, your own nation that needs to hear.