Quote:
Originally Posted by MTJR
Thought I'd jump in and have my three pence worth.
Knowing someone who works for the DWP they can tell you of many, many people who are indeed "cheating" the system. That's not to say they all are just that a lot of them are. Also, there are people who claim to be ill who are nothing of the sort. Over the last 10 or so years there has been a massive increase in the amount of people with the "blue badge".
Furthermore, some of those who are "ill" are capable of some sort of work to some sort of degree. Not necessarily a 9-5 job.
What I think they are trying to do is to make it harder to be on benefits, to get people out of the mindset of claiming benefits. Whether it applies to you or not it helps everyone as it potentially reduces the spend the government makes on paying people who are out of work.
If people are truly incapable of work then what makes them fear being assessed for the same? Is it not possible that someone's previous assessment of a person was wrong also?
As an attempt to reduce the spend on benefits I'd have to say it's a decent enough starting place. The previous system wasn't working any better and the persistent dodgers had worked out all the ways they could trick the system. What we have at the moment are a lot of "what if's" and no evidence to suggest it won't work.
John
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The fear of assessments comes from the fact that the assessments are biased, legitimately ill people get results coming back saying they fit for work. This was even happening on the old assessment never mind the new one. In the days of hand written reports doctors used to alter reports with false information after the claimant had signed the old one off. These are the barriers claimants are up against, that non claimants dont realise happens.
Estimations of money gained by government due to (a) people not claiming when they entitled and (b) people been wrongfully kicked of benefit due to rules that are too harsh is greater than money claimed to be lost due to fraud, making the latter a smaller problem.