Forum Home → Discussion → Disability benefits → Thread
DLA reform: coalition is exaggerating benefit fraud for its own benefit
Further to today’s rightsnet news story on Iain Duncan Smith defends plan to take 500,000 claimants off disability benefits, Amelia Gentleman of the Guardian has published a very good response - DLA reform: coalition is exaggerating benefit fraud for its own benefit
Few people would argue with the government’s desire to tackle benefit fraud. But more problematic is the persistent exaggeration of the scale of abuse within the system that accompanies any statement of reform.
Two very different takes on this story in the Telegraph.
David Knowles, Assistant Comment Editor on the Telegraph website: I think that Iain Duncan Smith’s reputation as one of the few competent ministers in this Government might not survive very long. Add in the almost-inevitable failure of the Universal Credit he proposes to introduce next year (civil servants and contracted-in management consultants are currently panicking over the computer systems in a corner of DWP) and his reputation will be toast.
Neil O’Brien, director of Policy Exchange: I support what IDS is trying to do. But it’s important that the Government and the media get the tone right, too. Disability campaigners warn that the mistreatment of disabled people is increasing because they are being tarred as “spongers”. That’s profoundly sad.
People on DLA are not scroungers, and those who go out to work despite their disabilities deserve praise, not abuse. We need an objective and fair system to prevent abuse. But looking after people who are disabled is the hallmark of a civilised society.
See also the blog post at
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/05/14/how-the-telegraph-is-mislead-on-disability-benefits
copied in part below. - Robbie
======
May 14th 2012 - How Telegraph misled on disability benefits - by Sharon Brennan
Dear Daily Telegraph, ... Here are the basic mistakes in your article:
1. The subheader says IDS is going ahead with changes to DLA to “rid the system of abuse and fraud”. The Government’s own figures show DLA fraud is 0.5% for 2010/11. To start the article as you did just cements the idea in the mind of the public that all disabled people are scroungers and consequently increases disabled hate crime.
2. IDS says the number of claimants have risen by 30%. This isn’t true. According to IDS’s own department, the claimant case has risen by 16% amongst working-age claimants, to whom these changes will only apply, once population growth has been taken into account.
...
5. “Something like 70 per cent had lifetime awards, (which) meant that once they got it you never looked at them again”. This 70 per cent figure may be true and it is very high, but to suggest that some people should not receive lifetime awards shouldn’t automatically mean that no-one receives lifetime awards. Many claimants have degenerative incurable illnesses such as Parkinson’s or, like me, Cystic fibrosis, or are permanently paralysed. We can’t get better, so if we are found to need help this year then the same will be true in four years time. It is a waste of taxpayer’s money to reassess all claimants every few years.
6. You quote IDS as saying “Tony Blair’s government tried to attack DLA, just to restrict it. We’re not doing that”. Actually IDS is. The Government declared in its Budget 2010 policy costings document that it intends to save 20% from its DLA budget by changing the way it is allocated – this is the very definition of restricting DLA.
...
Yours sincerely,
Sharon Brennan (writer and journalist living in London and living with Cystic Fibrosis. Her blog at http://nhsbuff.blogspot.co.uk focuses on the latest news and opinions on NHS.)
And there’s this blog from Bendy Girl: Much of Neil’s piece is clearly intended to be empathetic and a way for the Telegraph to offer an alternative to the multiple derogatory articles run already that day. In fact, some of Neil’s piece is excellent, but he goes on to make some startling allegations because like most people writing on welfare reform, Neil lacks in depth knowledge.
But once again, this lack of depth and understanding by those commentating so ‘knowledgably’ upon welfare reform causes the truth to be distorted.
Frances Ryan is the New Statesman with a powerful piece entitled, Disability and the return of blame culture.
It’s no longer enough to be disabled. One must, in modern Britain, be a type. Are you the real type? The genuine that is, the sort that sits there quietly and is grateful for any hand-out they receive. Showing a bit too much life, there? Then you’re a faker, dear, undoubtedly a scrounger – and that objecting attitude means you’re a manipulative threat. It’s not enough to be disabled in these days of cuts and exclusion. There’s a right way to be lame and a wrong way, and if you spot someone doing it wrong it’s your duty as an able-bodied to let someone know.
I’ve just done a DLA renewal claim (HR Mob/MR Care) for a 19 year old man who has heart disease from birth and suffered a stroke age 4. He has pronounced left sided weakness and his poor mobility is markedly pronounced and visible. He now suffers from depression and will not leave the house alone, if at all, following an unprovoked and violent assault by a 40 odd year old thug (already under charge for a previous assault) while in town with a friend on an early evening in December last year. His assailant subsequently got sent down for 6 months. He suffered a black eye, required several stitches to his mouth and was badly shaken up. He has now gone onto ESA and put in the WRAG. He has appealed to get into the support group but is contemplating but is thinking of gibbing it as he cannot face going to a WFI. He’s been advised of option of waiver, home interviews etc.
Now, was he deliberately targeted as a disabled person? I don’t know. I wasn’t there. His attacker had previous so obviously has a liking for violence. Was he a bully who chose his targets carefully as those who wouldn’t put up much of a defence, disabled or otherwise? Again, I don’t know. But, I will say this. Attacks on disabled people have gone up and it didn’t start on the Tories watch either. And, if the constant targeting of disabled people by the government for public spending savings sharpens some people’s hostility towards disabled people as somehow, in some twisted form of thinking, responsible for the alleged deficit and therefore as legitimate targets for attack, verbal or otherwise, making such attacks more likely, then it might be legitimate to assume there is prejudice behind any individual attack, until proven otherwise.
Senior politicians, while in government, who stay silent on such matters or, worse still, utter mealy mouthed words of condemnation for such attacks while still driving through the cuts agenda should stand vilified as a stain on the soul of a civilized society.
Hear hear.
I have a client with a young disabled son (cerebral palsy). Recently she took son, in his wheelchair, onto a bus. She was confronted by a woman who demanded to know how much taxpayer’s money was going towards the son’s wheelchair. The same client has a friend with MS who was physically attacked and knocked to the ground by two men who abused him for parking in a disabled parking space (and for having a Blue Badge).
These aren’t isolated incidents I fear.
Owen Jones has written a piece in today’s Independent, picking up on many similar themes.
What does it say about modern Britain when the pre-meditated massacre of six children is described as “an accident waiting to happen” on national television? In the early hours of last Friday, someone poured petrol through the letterbox of the Philpott household, unleashing a blaze that ended in one of the most appalling mass murders in our country’s recent history. Whoever was responsible must have known the almost inevitable consequences of their actions. No rationalisations exist for this sort of atrocity.
But as the surviving Philpotts face an agony most would struggle to imagine, right-wing shock-jock Carole Malone argued that they had effectively brought it on themselves. “This family became a target a couple of years ago,” she argued on ITV’s This Morning; they had “probably upset a lot of people” by being a family of 17 who were receiving state benefits. “I suspect they have many enemies out there because they were seen to be on benefits,” she suggested with a tone that did not betray a hint of compassion. With the country in such a dire financial state, “People have seen families – maybe like this – wanting to take advantage.” Referring to the “culture of the family” and the fact they had brought “attention to themselves”, Malone concluded that “six innocent children have died as a result”.
And, presumably, by the extension of her own twisted logic, if someone were to ‘take out’ this ridiculous, self impoprtant nonentity of a woman because of her poisonous views, then she will only have brought it upon herself.
Excellent articles those Paul. It’s been a long campaign by the rainbow coalition of New Labour, The Tories and the right wing media trolls but they have finally succeeded in rebranding disabled people as the undeserving poor. Well done! Their parents must be really proud of them.
Thanks Paul, its encouraging to see people starting to become much more vocal over the stigmatisation of benefit claimants and disabled people. I hope you don’t mind but I just tweeted a link to your post earlier on about the young lad you were helping, because I think it’s a really powerful picture of how this is playing out in real life.
Don’t mid at all Paul. Glad to contribute anything that might help.
Another irony of course is that a lot of the idiots in our area who target and abuse “benefit scroungers” are in receipt of benefits themselves of one kind or another (child benefit, JSA/ESA or WTC and their parents/grandparents may also recieve SRP/PC/HB/CTB)
A couple of local scrotes were seen swigging cans of lager outside a local offy whilst abusing a woman trying to get into her mobility car. The Ironic cries from these idiots of “get a job” were tempered by the fact she was actually on her way to work, and is unable to work without the HRM award getting her the car.
The thing is though we all know that in-fighting regarding benefits is as old as grass.
I am sick of hearing clients (who arrive with ESA50s, GL24s or DLA forms) saying to me that they are “more” entitled to whatever benefit than some guy up the road as “theres nowt wrong with him, they should give it to ME instead and kick HIM off the sick instead” etc etc etc
This is becoming more prevalent since IB -> ESA conversions are causing more people to be told they are not entitled to sickness benefits any more. That may be partly responsible for peoples attitudes.
Why people still choose to blame the wrong people for their troubles on a regular basis baffles the hell out of me though.
Contrast all of the above with this yesterday from The Sun, talking about “deserving” disabled ex-soldiers: -
Wounded heroes beat MoD in benefits battle By TOM NEWTON DUNN, Political Editor Published: 17th May 2012
WOUNDED war heroes are to keep their disability benefits for life after the PM stepped in to halt a bid to cut them. Worried veterans — including soldiers who lost limbs in battle — had been facing humiliating re-tests that could have seen them stripped of crucial cash. But David Cameron has now slapped down MoD bureaucrats and ruled that anyone left disabled by military service must be exempt from benefit cuts. They will also be exempt from a new scheme to re-examine all claimants aged 16 to 64.
The PM intervened to help Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who has been fighting civil servants over the issue since December. Mr Cameron said: “I made a promise to our forces that they will get special treatment, and I intend to stick to it.”
The Government plans to replace Disability Living Allowance with a new benefit called the Personal Independence Payment for all working age people with serious difficulties. Incredibly, MoD bureaucrats were insisting that wounded heroes get the same grilling as suspected cheats and scroungers — because they feared their cash-strapped department would be left to pick up the bill for administering the payouts. Mr Duncan Smith is now drawing up plans for wounded personnel to get their own tailor-made support package when they leave the forces.
The Royal British Legion welcomed the move, saying: “We applaud the PM and Iain Duncan Smith for standing up for our wounded heroes.”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/article4321544.ece
Two more blog pieces on this issue that I have come across.
First from disability campaigner Bendy Girl:
Phew. Thank goodness for that! “Worried veterans” will now be exempt from “humiliating retests” that could have seen them “stripped of vital cash” They will no longer get the “same grilling as cheats and scroungers.” You know, all those cheating cancer patients, fraudulent layabouts on transplant lists, feckless paraplegics and lazy lummoxes with cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy.
The thing is Mr Cameron, I thought you said the tests would be fair? I thought you said “genuinely disabled people” had nothing to fear from disability benefit cuts?
And this one from Tom Pollard of MIND:
The last year has been frustrating for those of us campaigning for a fairer welfare and benefits system - one that accurately assesses people with illnesses and disabilities, offers the right support for them to return to work and adequately provides for people who can’t work.
Disabled people, grassroots campaigners and representative organisations have all fought hard. We tried big protests, spoof newspapers, and mass online mobilisation. But the Coalition Government has forced through changes that will make things even worse.
Further down, Tom lists a 10-point plan of changes that he’d like to see implemented, including looking for a solution to the ‘revolving door’ of endless WCA appeals and reassessments, and targetting key sections of the media to help shift public opinion on welfare and benefits.
This is a classic example of the kind of mealy mouth nonsense I was talking about.
It includes such gems as:-
The DWP is “is in the process of developing a new cross-government disability strategy to give renewed impetus to the Government’s commitment to disability equality.” So, that’s ok. The government is going to develop a strategy. In other words, it’s going to try to work out how to shut the stable door now that the horse has bolted
And this in relation to distorted benefit statistics.
“….benefit statistics are freely available for everyone to access on our website. Our press office operates a 24/7 service so there is always someone available to help explain the statistics to journalists and help ensure accurate reporting. The Department is also in regular dialogue with journalists to correct inaccurate reporting.”
Marvelous. We can now rest assured that the usual suspects who regularly write their knowingly inaccurate and puerile drivel in the tabloid press are suddenly going to see the error of their ways and rediscover the lost integrity that they somehow managed to mislay on the road to hacksville.
And, it gets funnier. Government ministers and senior civil servants who regularly brief journalists in this back scratching symbiotic relationship where the hacks sell the spin in return for the exclusives, are suddenly going to come to their senses, become boy scouts and start censoring the hacks en masse, telling them not to be naughty boys. It seems that these ministers and civil servants have suddenly forgotten how the tabloids sell newspapers and how the political village operates.
Please!!