Article by Chris Grayling Minister for unemployment
Whatever the claims and misinformation, let’s be clear: there are no targets for saving money or finding people fit for work
Not long ago I sat down with a woman who’d been off work for more than a decade suffering from depression. She had been through a work capability assessment and found to be capable of doing some form of work, so was referred to one of our Work Programme providers to give her the help and support she needed to do so.
She freely admitted to me she had found going through the process unbelievably difficult and on her first day on the Work Programme she’d been almost hysterical.
She simply hadn’t believed she could possibly return to work, but a month later she was doing a day a week volunteering in a local charity shop and had started to apply for part-time jobs. Now she sees how her life has been changed for the better.
That’s the change that too many people don’t see and understand when they attack our reforms of the incapacity benefit system. We’re dealing with a large number of people who don’t believe they can ever work again and have lost the hope they may do so – people who were simply written off in the past.
Of course not everyone is able to work – in many cases people are simply too unwell and that’s why they are rightly entitled to unconditional employment and support allowance. And far from the draconian picture some seek to paint, we’ve actually made changes which mean more people now end up in this support group.
But many more people are able to do more, or will in the future if they’re given the right help and support. It’s true they may not be able to return to the type of work they once did, but that doesn’t mean they’re not capable of doing something different and should be consigned to life on benefits.
Every voluntary sector group I meet tells me they want to get more people with health problems and disabilities into the workplace, and we can’t do that without some form of assessment. We’ve been making a considerable number of changes to the work capability assessment to improve the process and make it a more human experience – claimants now get telephone calls to explain the process, there’s more opportunity for people to submit evidence from specialists, we’ve introduced a new stage so decisions can be reconsidered at Jobcentre Plus level before going to formal appeal.
Over the coming months and years we’ll continue to do everything we can to make more improvements. We’ve accepted every recommendation put to us by Professor Malcolm Harrington, the independent expert who has been reviewing the process for us. When his third review is complete we’ll ask someone to carry out further reviews with a fresh pair of eyes – something we agreed with Prof Harrington months ago, an inconvenient fact to those who claim we’ve either removed him from his post or forced him to stand down.
However many improvements we make, the process will never be perfect. Not every decision made will be the right one. That’s why people have the right to appeal. But I want to be absolutely clear on one issue – whatever the claims and misinformation, there are no targets for saving money or finding people fit for work. This whole process is about saving lives, not money, and the latest official statistics showed 26% of new employment and support allowance claimants were put into the support group.
I know the process can be incredibly difficult for people to go through, but those who are capable of working are not left on their own. This whole process couldn’t happen if we hadn’t put the Work Programme in place, the biggest welfare-to-work scheme the country has ever seen and which gives tailored support to prepare people for the world of work so they’re not simply thrown in at the deep end.
In the end, the choice we have is whether to leave two million people to spend the rest of their lives on benefits or whether to identify those who can do more with their lives and give them the help they need to find their way back to work – something we know is better for their health and wellbeing. My view is unashamedly that we must not write people off.
Would sitting at home really have been a better solution for the woman I met? I don’t accept it would – and I don’t think she would either
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The loss of £90 a week has improved my life immeasurably.
Is she working for Atos?
Chris Grayling is the face of this Governments propaganda attack against people least able to fight back. It’s a disgrace and it must be fought to prevent the current wave of warranted prejudice against benefit claimants.
So, she’s working for nothing in a charity shop? I can’t see a point to this little fairy-tale. Every employer in the country would love us to work for nothing.
where are all these jobs anyway?
“This whole process is about saving lives…” (Chris Grayling, above article).
Like the lives of those who have died from their illness after being found fit for work? Like the lives of those who have committed suicide after being found fit for work?
He must’ve paid the writer of this work of fiction a few quid … obviously not out of his own pocket.
This is beyond belief, someone should apply the WCA to Chris Grayling!!. If you previously received incapicty benefit, it meant you had worked. You paid your tax. However, when did a tory minister ever let the truth get in the way of a good story!!
I look forward to being advised on how to got to work – degree level educated,blah blah blah, however physically I do not work. Sorry to blow my own trumpet, but I was good at what I did, but now no one would employ me because I am not physically reliable.
All this faux concern is ridiculous. They are not interested in helping people back to work, just about saving money.
I think it’s more about misdirection. Get people blaming the sick for the country’s woes and these evil bastards can get away with robbing the country blind. What terrifies me is the ease in which they are doing it. At least once a week something pops up on my news feed about “why should working people pay taxes just to give it to people who REFUSE to work?”. I know fine well who that is levied at, and the people who post it surprise me every time. Post it twice and they’re purged from my friends. The fact that Grayling used a person with depression as his example recently of how good it can be to strip someone of their benefits and how they will thank you for it later when they have a part time job indicates who the next priority targets are going to be (unsurprisingly the same as Hitler chose before he got to the Jews) and that is just sick. We can expect the Disability Working Tax Credits targeted which for me means starvation and probably homelessness since the best job I can get that i can do,despite an MSc, is £11,500 a year full time. I’d like to think the country would stick up for me when it comes to that but I know they will applaud these bastards and blame Labour whilst decent people suffer and they continue to rob us blind. Where’s the national outrage at this dicks pilfering of £100,000 and odd thousand? Where the Hell is the so called “opposition” in the Commons? I really really want to get out of this country before I have to wear a symbol to identify me as mad.
Grayling, you know what you are doing and so do we. You and your colleagues are no more than a gold-plated disgrace. Britain is no longer a civilised society under your “government”. You are a bad example to the young and a grim reaper for those of us unlucky enough to have disability and sickness. Of course you could become disabled at anytime too. however, you have enough cash reserves not to worry so why care about anyone else. Resign! You are not worthy of British citizenship.
BROKEN BRITAIN UNDER TORIES – WHAT DO WE ACTUALLY PAY MP’S FOR ?
Cameron ,Clegg ,Miliband and the rest of the Bunch are not in real life as they appear in their roles as Politicians .If any of us were given a researcher a secretary our own office and advice on how to present ourselves in dress and speech tempted by high pay and low work output we would jump at the chance .A new Politician is only on the fringes of Corruption until he gets to Parliament ,like all novices they have very good ideas on what changes are needed and enter Parliament with that intension until they end up being disillusioned and told to ‘Toe the Party Line’ .Some eventually reach the status of past masters such as ID Smith for example a Liar ,Public Purse Thief ,hypocrite and self delusionist .D.Miliband on the other hand because he couldn’t have the top prize ,Leader he just upped sticks and moved to the USA to work for a charity ,what happened to his commitment to help Britain his Country out of the doldrums ,like most he had no commitment in the first place .
http://www.brokenbritainundertories.com .