Let's look at things from the Coalition's point of view, putting the human cost to one side if we can.
The government has said, or implied, at various times that the WCA programme is about:
- Getting more disabled people into work, or;
- Getting them off benefits, or;
- Sorting the strivers from the skivers.
Yesterday the DWP Press Office tweeted a histogram showing the number of people who have been taken off IB or ESA since the Coalition came to power in 2010. The total number given was 156,000, from a total number of 2,460,000. That's only 6%.
Back in June the DWP announced the results of the two year Work Programme: only 5% of those people who were taken off IB or ESA found sustained employment.
That means that only 1 in 20 of the 6% of people who were taken off long-term out-of-work sickness benefits actually found a job - that's a minuscule 0.3%, or 1 in 333 of the total.
And from my own experience, the WCA process doesn't set out to identify skivers. Has the Coalition trumpeted any 'skiver' or 'benefit cheat' who has been outed as a direct result of a WCA? No.
So here are the results, after three years of the new and more stringent WCA:
- 99.7% of people who were on long-term out-of-work sickness benefits in 2010 are still out of work.
- 94% of those unemployed disabled people are still receiving IB or ESA.
- No skivers have been unmasked as a result of undergoing a WCA.
How does that fit with all the anguish surrounding the WCA?
It does seem to go against the fact that around 700,000 people have been put through the Atos mill each year since 2010 - with a high rate, initially at least, of being found fit for work. Here are some explanations:
- Some people are found to be unfit for work at their initial Atos WCA.
- The DWP Decision Makers occasionally go against the Atos recommendation.
- Some decisions are overturned later after formal Reconsideration by the DWP.
- Many are overturned by Appeal Tribunals.
- Some people, who are found fit for work, successfully make a new claim for ESA soon afterwards.
- There is a regular turnover of people coming on and off ESA as their health changes, in contrast to the idea that most people are 'languishing' on benefits or are 'trapped' in welfare dependency.
