400,000 ESA Claims Disappear From Stats
Dr Greg Wood posted this last Tuesday. I hope you’ll agree with me, readers, that this is one of those times when old is gold.
The old men of Caxton House might seem unworldly, but they know how to pull off a conjuring trick: they’ve made 400,000 claims vanish into thin air.
The Atos bottleneck has led to a huge number of jobless people getting stuck in welfare limbo (or “limboland” as IDS said in the House the other day). They wait…and wait…and wait for their ESA claims to be assessed.
In the meantime, how does the DWP classify them, in its official stats?
- JSA claimants?
- Unemployed?
- ESA recipients?
- Employees?
Answer: none of the above.
They aren’t recorded anywhere in the data fed to the press.
SHAZAM! The number of people claiming out-of-work benefits has fallen by 400,000!
As if by magic, job centre performance has improved too! Double bubble!
This legerdemain is actually a boon to JSA claimants being hassled to find jobs that don’t exist or they will never get. With a sick-note from their GP, they can disappear from the job centre roll faster than the staff there can wave a blank ESA50. These former JSA claimants will then be put on ‘assessment rate’ ESA – they’ll be paid at the same rate as JSA, but they won’t be expected to look for work and can’t be sanctioned until their fitness-for-work test comes around.
A blessing and a curse
Sadly, this hocus-pocus is not good news for everyone. The people who lose out are those who have a strong claim to sickness benefit. While they wait for a WCA, they will be forced to get by on less than their full entitlement.
Here’s the kicker: even when the claimant has a strong case, she might nevertheless wait so long that she has recovered from her illness or injury by the date of her WCA, at which point she will be assessed as being fully fit for work – and won’t get a single penny!
How’s that for smoke and mirrors?
Same Difference 
Ahhhh that’s why the unemployment number is under 2 mill http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29627831#“
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I’m one of the vanishing/vanished claim ants, I was on incap but they said I was fit for something but couldn’t say what, I lost appeal then waith on the esa for 12 months then I had to reapply to go in the support group and they wrote back and gave me some extra money so that I don’t lose out but I’m still waiting to hear if im going into the support group.
This was around March time this year but now my health much worse, I now have been diagnosed with vascular dementia and has the stress brought this on, who knows but I do know cameron is a liar with these figures he shouting out.
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Reblogged this on nearlydead.
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Reblogged this on sdbast.
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I had been in SG for three years and would have gladly given up my face 2 face appt. but no such luck, I got 0 points ( after 5 previous WCA’s ) and am now ‘fit for work’. Maybe I can get one of those £2 an hour jobs, but maybe even those might be beyond me due to my illnesses/ disability being the same that made me eligible for the SG for the last 3 years.
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Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
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Hi Sade, I hope you are feeling well and that Chris is too. Mum has sorted the mix-up with housing benefits – apparently the letter was sent thousands of people as it’s related to a change in procedure. Actually, we are £323 in credit, which is very good news, but a complete mystery as to why we are so much in credit. I’ve attached an email I’ve received from the Same Difference disability campaign group. The contents are taken information released by Dr Greg Wood, who it states on his website appeared in a BBC documentary as a ‘whistleblower’. Where got his evidence from is not stated, so it may, or may not be accurate, but during the Thatcher era these sorts of manipulations were common; if my memory serves me well by 1987 they had made 32 changes to how the unemployment rate was calculated. Love dadd
Shaun Thomas
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