REGARDING Charlie Kerr’s view that, “re-assessments, carried out by medical practitioners, should be made of everyone claiming disability, so that those who really need it might get a little more while those abusing the system would be found out and deprived of payments to which they may not be entitled” (Long Letter, March 13).
First of all, the Department for Work and Pensions’ own figures suggest that the percentage of disability benefits fraud is actually very small. In addition, far from the existing assessment system being too lax (as Charlie seems to imply), it is punitive and callous, with many chronically ill and disabled people having to go through a lengthy and highly stressful appeals process, causing them avoidable stress and exacerbating their health problems etc. This has been widely documented. A system that reverted to genuine medical assessments being carried out would actually be fairer and less harmful.
READ MORE: Tories do all they can to inflict austerity on the poorest in society
Secondly, the notion that if the benefits of some supposedly undeserving people are stopped or cut, the amount saved would be given to other claimants, is a complete myth. Do any of us really think that Tory-led governments that have made the entirely ideological choice to cut £37-39 billion from social security the past ten years are inclined to improve people’s benefit levels (the recent temporary uplift to Universal Credit notwithstanding)? The overwhelming evidence would suggest quite the opposite. And there’s not anything like the amount of fraud there would have to be to afford an increase to other claimants’ payments in any case. The overall figure from various benefits that go unclaimed, on the other hand, absolutely dwarfs the amount lost to fraud and error – a caring UK Government would have a take-up campaign so that all the unclaimed benefit would go to all those who are entitled to it, including pensioners. Fat chance!
Those of working age who rely on the safety net have been absolutely hammered the past ten years, disabled people and those with long-term health conditions perhaps most of all, having suffered multiple cuts to their social security and support services. The UK state pension may be the worst in Europe – I’m all too aware of the extent of pensioner poverty, and have been so for some years – but pensioners have at least been comparatively protected from the vicious cuts to benefits that have been carried out under the guise of “austerity”.
READ MORE: Open Minds #8: The UK pays the worst state pension in the developed world
From 2016-2020 there was a freeze on many working-age benefits, which amounted to a £16bn cut from the social safety net over the four years. This has been one of the most harmful of the many heinous measures imposed by Geoge Osborne, especially given rises in prices and living costs over that time. The £20-a-week temporary uplift to Universal Credit is nothing if not an admission that existing benefit levels were inadequate to meet basic needs. Those in receipt of the legacy benefits haven’t received this uplift – a cohort that includes unemployed people, chronically ill and disabled people, carers, and families with children.
A single person over 25 still in receipt of the legacy benefit Jobseeker’s Allowance receives the princely sum of £74.35 per week. The uprating due in April will increase this amount by 35 pence, meaning that person will be “better off” by £18.20 over the whole year. This is also the amount that a single person over 25 who has been found unfit for work due to a health condition but placed in the Work-Related Activity Group receives (following another jolly Osborne cut a few years ago – in the past this person would have received around £20 more a week). Bear in mind that some of those people stuck on these below-subsistence-level incomes will be in their 50s or early 60s and the chances of them being able to find work are very slim indeed.
I’m really grateful to those SNP MPs who continue to press the UK Government to extend the £20 uplift to the legacy benefits and I appeal to them to keep shining a light on this inequity, even if they continue to receive non-answers from the Boris Johnson et al, as the SNP’s David Linden did last week at PMQs.
Mo Maclean
Glasgow
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