News

Government and media reports”​ over the last few months have made some interesting statements about the number of people claiming various benefits and the outcomes of those claims. We have seen headlines such as this by the Daily Express [1]: “​SICK BENEFITS: 75% ARE FAKING”​

But the data do not support these headlines. So why the confusion?First, remember that any official count of people with disabilities is restricted by the definition of '​disabili​ty'​. So the number of people with self-reported disabilities may be much higher than figures for people entitled to benefits because of the additional costs due to their disabilities.[2]

Disability charities and claimants have complained about the misuse of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), and the slant given to reports. Their concerns have been supported by the recent Select Committee report from the Work and Pensions Committee - Sixth Report, The role of incapacity benefit reassessment in helping claimants into employment [3] which stated ‘​Sections of the media routinely use pejorative language, such as "​work-shy"​ or "​scrounge​r"​, when referring to incapacity benefit claimants.

We strongly deprecate this and believe that it is irresponsible and inaccurat​e.’​

Full Article from www.signific​ancemagaz​ine.org