Government is ignoring collateral damage

THE stories of people with a terminal illness (and possibly within weeks of the end of their lives) being denied welfare benefits on the basis they are fit to work arise daily and there is plenty of evidence to show that the resulting additional stress shortens their lives even further.

The government attempts to defend itself by repeating the laudable and altruistic objectives of its welfare reforms, but continues to ignore the fact that the problem is with the process it has designed to achieve them and its decision to ignore “collateral damage”.

The problem began when in 2008 it decided that DWP administrators with minimal training were better able to assess often complex medical conditions than GPs and decide whether or not benefits should or should not be paid. The test applied was the now infamous Work Capability Assessment. It argued that GPs were far too soft and would sign people off work at the hint of a runny-nose. Some undoubtedly were, but through its obsession to reduce what it saw as benefit fraud, DWP failed to consider the harm it might do at the other end of the spectrum – to those people who desperately needed the benefits to survive but would be denied them.

The WCA process will never be perfect. However, as a GP’s first priority is patient well-being they will always err on the side of caution. I for one am grateful that my GP leans that way. By contrast, the DWP decision makers whilst not being given pass/fail targets as such were operating in an environment of “if in doubt don’t pay out” which inevitably creates a bias in the opposite direction.

Unfortunately the consequences of the two types of error are not equal. On the one hand it is purely financial – someone receives benefits when they should not. On the other hand not paying benefits when they are genuinely needed, can have huge and far-reaching consequences. Personally I am quite prepared to live with the former to avoid the latter. R Collingwood