29/06/10

By Andrew Holt

The Chancellor’s announcement yesterday on welfare reform threatens to heap misery on more disabled Scots, according to Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS).

George Osborne said that he wants to cut welfare costs, in part by speeding up plans to transfer Incapacity Benefit claimants to a new benefit system which concentrates on assessing their ability to work.

CAS spokesman Matt Lancashire said: “We support the principle of helping sick and disabled people into work where they are capable of working. But the process of assessing their ability to work must be fair. This is not currently the case, and that must be sorted out before it is applied to yet more people.

“Only last month we published evidence showing that the current system for assessing disabled people for their work capability is deeply flawed and is putting many sick and disabled Scots under unfair pressure to find work or face cuts to their benefit.

“We’ve seen huge numbers of people coming to Scottish CABs having been assessed as ‘fit for work’ when they are nothing of the kind. They include people with serious illnesses such as cancer, parkinsons disease, multiple sclerosis and severe mental illnesses. It doesn’t do these people any good at all to force them to find work when they are not able to hold down a job. Nor does it help employers, or society as a whole.

“Increasing numbers of people seem to be realising that this new system is deeply flawed, so it seems quite wrong to apply these same flawed tests to yet more disabled claimants before the problems have been sorted out.

“We support the intention, but if the pace of these reforms is speeded up as the Chancellor is indicating, our concern is that the misery that is already being experienced by many sick and disabled people in Scotland will be heaped on to even more.”

The CAS report exposing the failure of the Employment & Support Allowance system (ESA) - ‘Unfit for Purpose’ - is available href="http://www.cas.org.uk">here

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