Cost Of Sickness And Disability Benefit Appeals Soars To Record £66 Million
The cost of appeals against Employment and Support Allowance decisions (ESA) - a benefit for sick and disabled people unable to work - has soared to a record-breaking £66 million, up £21 million since 2009/10.
The information came to light following a parliamentary question from the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Liam Byrne MP.
Responding to the question, Justice Minister Helen Grant said that the number of appeals had increased by 66% from 279,000 in 2009-10 to 465,500 in 2012/13.
Benefit claimants have the legal right to appeal against decisions they believe to be wrong: firstly by asking the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to reconsider the decision and secondly by appealing to have their case investigated by a Social Security Tribunal.
Labour's Liam Byrne MP laid the blame for the soaring cost of benefit appeals firmly at the feet of the private french firm Atos, who are paid £150 million per year to carry out disability benefit assessments on behalf of the government and the DWP.
Speaking to the media, Mr Byrne said:
"Atos is now spinning out of control and it is costing the taxpayers millions to clean up the mess.
"The hard truth is that more decisions are wrong than ever before, and the result is more and more appeals and a price tag that has soared by 30 per cent in just the last year.
"DWP have got to get a grip of this fast before more public money is wasted."
A number of protests have been carried out against Atos by campaigners who accuse them of making mistakes when assessing sick and disabled people for ESA and figures suggest that Atos could be getting it wrong in as many as 1 in 5 cases. Despite this Atos insist that the DWP always make the final decision on benefit eligibility.
News reports have shown growing examples of cases where Atos have allegedly gotten their recommendations wrong, and where sick and vulnerable people have died or taken their own lives shortly after being found fit for work. The website Calums list has documented many of these examples.
Campaigners have demanded that the assessment, known as the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), be scrapped in favor of allowing a persons own GP or other health professional to make the decision on whether a person is 'fit for work'.
Their calls were strengthened last year when GP's unanimously voted in favour of a motion calling for the WCA to be scrapped, during a British Medical Association (BMA) conference.
Some MP's have also called for the scrapping of the WCA or demanding big improvements to the system of assessing sick and disabled peoples eligibility for the ESA, despite independent reviews into the process having being carried out and a final review taking place this year.
Labours Michael Meacher MP, has led the way on calling for Atos to be held to account for their failures.
A spokesperson for the DWP said:
"It is completely unsurprising that the number and cost of appeals has risen, because the number of work capability assessments carried out has increased substantially since we started reassessing 1.5 million incapacity benefit claimants in 2010.
"We have made significant improvements to the assessment since 2010, and the percentage of people getting long-term unconditional support has more than doubled in two years.
"Anyone has the right to appeal their decision so it's not surprising a lot of people do this, but most of our decisions are upheld and we are committed to looking for further improvements so as many people as possible get the right decision first time."