MORE than half of claimants surveyed by mental health charity Mind say fear of having their Incapacity Benefit removed has led them to have suicidal thoughts.
One-and-a-half million Incapacity Benefit claimants began receiving letters yesterday instructing them to come to a test on their ability to work.
Work and Pensions minister Chris Grayling claimed: ‘It’s not about forcing people to return to work.’
But under the coalition’s onslaught 1.6 million vulnerable people have to go to a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) by spring 2014 to establish whether they are eligible for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or will be thrown onto Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) and expected to find work.
Mind polled over 300 people claiming IB for mental health problems about the upcoming reassessments and found that:
• 75 per cent said concern about the WCA had made their mental health worse.
• 51 per cent reported it had made them have suicidal thoughts.
• 45 per cent have visited their GP or psychiatrist and 32 per cent have increased their medication as a result of the anxiety caused by the prospect of reassessment.
• 78 per cent did not feel well informed about forthcoming changes to IB.
• 95 per cent do not think that they will be believed at their assessment.
• 89 per cent believe that they will be forced back to work before they are ready or able.
Mind believes that the WCA is too rigid and unsophisticated to recognise people’s mental health needs and is concerned that it is delivered by people with insufficient mental health training.
Since the test was introduced in 2008 for all new ESA claimants, approximately 40 per cent of people declared ‘fit for work’ have appealed and around 40 per cent of these appeals have been successful.
Much of the focus of reform has been around ‘weeding out benefits scroungers’, when in fact IB only has a fraud rate of 0.5 per cent, the lowest of all the benefits.
Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of Mind, said: ‘We remain extremely concerned about the mass reassessment of people on Incapacity Benefits, as despite some changes to the process it still lacks the sensitivity to understand conditions such as mental health problems.’
The charity is preparing for a sharp rise in enquires to its help line, as up to 11,000 people a week will be called for reassessment from May 2011.
One of the line’s advisors said: ‘People are contacting us in a state of panic. Some of them want to work but can’t get a job because no one will employ them with their medical history. Some can’t work.
‘All have seen the news and coverage of welfare reform where claimants are being portrayed as lazy scroungers.
‘They’re terrified that they’re going to be cut off, next week, next month and they’ll be left with no income and no way to cope.’