I am not an underclass

It’s hard to argue that fraud is only a minor problem when the latest DWP estimates for 2008/09 suggest that £3 billion of total benefit expenditure was overpaid due to a combination of fraud and error … unless you also notice that this constitutes only 2.2 per cent of the overall benefit bill. [The fraud estimate for Incapacity Benefit in isolation is only 3.5 per cent - the lowest of all the continuously monitored benefits - while Pension Credit is put at 5.1 per cent. No mass public condemnation of rorting wrinklies seems imminent but perhaps they’re saving that for when the pensions crisis really bites.]

Not that the Guardian hasn’t joined most of the press in drawing a very long bow over the applicant failure rates for the new Employment Support Allowance (ESA) - now replacing Incapacity Benefit - in the course of its first year. Despite their Society section having one of the best articles describing the intricacies and contradictions of the new medical assessments, it didn’t stop political editor Patrick Wintour attempting to apply ESA failure rates to migrating IB claimants without considering IB failure rates …

More than two-thirds of applicants for a new sickness-related benefit are failing in their claims, suggesting many of the 2.6 million existing incapacity benefit claimants will be forced on to a lower level of benefit when they are assessed over the next two to three years …

Overall, the research found only 5 per cent of those seeking ESA were thought totally incapable of being ready for work and so entitled to the full benefit of £108.55. A further 11 per cent, thought potentially capable of work, were put on a rate of £89.80 a week, and were expected to co-operate with efforts to ready themselves for work. A third of the initial claimants dropped out before completing the claim, and a further third were seen as fit for work.

But at least the broadsheets acknowledged that the whole definition of “fit to work” had been changed. At the tabloid end of the spectrum, editors were a bit clearer about the message these results sent to them.

75% ON SICK BENEFITS ARE FAKING
LABOUR’S failure to crack down on scroungers has let three-quarters of incapacity benefit claimants get away with faking their illnesses. Daily Express.

Just one in six incapacity benefit claimants “is genuine” as tough new test reveals TWO MILLION could be cheating. Daily Mail.

Head meet desk

At the time ESA was launched I wondered why the government was needlessly duplicating the cost of privatised medical assessment in setting up a whole new benefit when they could have simply used the receipt of Disability Living Allowance to determine whether an IB claimant was genuine or not (DLA has had privatised medical inspections for over a decade and is paid alongside most income benefits to meet the additional costs of care and/or transport incurred when you’re disabled.)

Even if the numbers were still too high they could restrict eligibility further by dropping out those who only received the lower-rates of the two components … but that would have been validation of one of the benefits it has since turned out they were also planning to scrap (a fact not openly admitted until ministers changed their minds).

Though impressed by some of the Conservative moves towards openness about their priorities, I find Mr Cameron’s agreement that politicians need to be more careful with their statements to be somewhat disingenuous. Politicians are very careful with their statements. These are carefully scripted by an army of special advisors … take this choice nugget from Theresa May, the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

The Government needs to get to grips with Britain’s benefit culture and radically reform our welfare system. It’s hardly surprising that so many people spend their lives on benefits when in some cases they can get as much money from benefits as many people earn in work. Things really have to change.

Hard to argue with that one as most people would agree that people who work should end up with more money than people who don’t, but the solution is left carefully unstated.

The Right hear, “The unworthy poor are receiving too much money. Cut their benefits!”

Libertarians hear, “Low income earners are paying tax too early. Raise the personal threshold over £10,000!”