2,600 benefit claimants die within weeks of being ruled fit for work

  • At least 2,600 sick and disabled people died after being declared fit to work
  • The government contractor approved them to work following assessment
  • Critics have demanded an inquiry after they died when taken off benefits

By Tamara Cohen for the Daily Mail

Published: | Updated:

At least 2,600 sick and disabled people died shortly after being declared 'fit for work' by a Government contractor.

Figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions show that around 100 people per month died shortly after being ruled well enough to take a job.

Officials from Iain Duncan Smith's department insist the overall mortality rate for people on out-of-work benefits, and specifically sickness and disability benefits, has fallen every year over the last decade in line with the rest of the population.

But critics demanded an inquiry as it emerged that, over a period of two years, 2,380 people died within 14 days of being taken off Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) because they were declared 'fit to work' by a controversial assessment process.

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At least 2,600 sick and disabled people died shortly after being declared ‘fit for work’ by a government contractor
Iain Duncan Smith

At least 2,600 sick and disabled people died shortly after being declared 'fit for work' by a government contractor, according to figures released by Iain Duncan Smith's department

A further 270 died within six weeks of being taken off Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disablement Allowance – older benefits which are now being phased out – taking the total to 2,650 between December 2011 and February 2014.

Atos, the French firm which carried out the assessments for the DWP, ended its contract with the Government earlier this year, after a series of complaints that people were wrongly recommended for work.

Claimants for ESA must have this Work Capability Assessment, and are divided into a 'work-related activity group' who could do some work with the right help, and a 'support group' who are not expected to work. Around two million assessments have been carried out since 2010.

The figures from the DWP showed that 1,360 people declared fit for work had completed an appeal against the decision before they died, although it is unknown how many were upheld. Some previous figures suggested 42 per cent of appeals against the company's decisions were upheld.

Government officials are now seeking a new firm to carry out the assessments. Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham said: 'These are shocking figures that for the first time show the human cost of this Government's punishing benefits regime.

'It raises serious questions about this Government's punitive approach to people on benefits.'

Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham said the figures were a consequence of the Government's 'punishing benefits regime'

Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham said the figures were a consequence of the Government's 'punishing benefits regime'

David Cameron announced in June that the statistics showing how many people who have died after losing their benefits would be published.

A Freedom of Information request to release them was blocked by the DWP, after Mr Duncan Smith said his department did not collect these numbers.

But the Information Commissioner's Office overruled this decision in April and said the figures should be published within 35 days. The DWP appealed but have now released them.

Many of those found fit for work go on to claim Jobseekers' Allowance, which is paid at a lower rate of £73 a week – compared with up to £103 a week for those on ESA.

A DWP spokesman said: 'The mortality rate for people who have died while claiming an out-of-work benefit has fallen over a ten-year period.

'This is in line with the mortality rate for the general working-age population.'

  • A spokesman for the Department of Works and Pensions asks us to make clear that some of the claimants who died would have been going through the appeals process and would have still been receiving benefits. It is therefore impossible to make any link in these statistics between someone dying and their being found fit for work.

 

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