Norfolk disability rights campaigner calls for Govt. to scrap planned cuts to welfare budget
People claiming disability benefits are getting "unacceptably poor service from the Government"- according to a group of MPs
A disability rights campaigner from Norfolk is calling on the Government to scrap planned cuts of £3 billion to the welfare budget- saying this will exacerbate existing problems facing people.
It's as those claiming disability benefits are getting "unacceptably poor service from the Government", and experiencing the longest waits to get their calls answered- according to a group of MPs.
"There's a huge under-claiming problem"
Mark Harrison is part of 'Disabled People against Cuts':
"Disabled people want to work, but they need employment where there aren't barriers to them taking up the jobs.
"So if they focus more on making things like 'access to work' function properly, so that people can get medical treatment, when they need it in a timely way, that would be far better.
"There's a huge under-claiming problem, as we've seen recently with the winter fuel payments.
"There were many older people who were eligible but didn't claim them. Taking away a universal benefit is disproportionate and the same thing goes with disabled people".
The report in more detail:
The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) took on average 26 minutes and 53 seconds to answer calls from employment and support allowance (ESA) claimants in the year to March 2024, the Public Accounts Committee said.
This compared with an average wait of only two minutes and 45 seconds for universal credit claimants.
The committee concluded claimants of disability benefit in particular "are receiving an unacceptably poor service", including time taken to process their claims.
Committee chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said in some cases people "are literally calling for help and receiving no answer", and said the public "would be forgiven for thinking the state is Awol (absent without leave) just when it needs it most".
Sir Geoffrey said: "Our report's disheartening findings illustrate the stark disparity of experience between claimants for disability benefit and other users of the system."
He urged the DWP to "do more to ensure that claimants are reunited with the money to which they are entitled, as well as to understand the needs of vulnerable claimants".
The report also highlighted "unacceptably high" levels of fraud and error the system.
In the year to March 2024, £9.5 billion of benefit expenditure - which equates to 6.7% and excludes state pension was overpaid, up from £8.2 billion (6.6%) in the previous 12 months.
Underpayments also rose, from claimants getting an estimated £3.5 billion (1.5%) than they were eligible for in the year to March 2023, to £4.2 billion less (1.6%) in the year to March 2024.
The DWP has previously blamed an "increasing propensity for fraud in society", which it said began before the pandemic and has continued to "place an upwards pressure on fraud in the welfare system".
Last year, the department said it had estimated the "long-term behavioural trend creates a headwind that would cause fraud levels to grow at around 5% per year without action to reduce it".
But the committee was critical of the DWP's "dangerous mindset" and insisted it is the department's job to "improve its defences and ensure benefit claimants receive the right amount of money".
Sir Geoffrey said: "We are also as concerned at the picture of growing underpayments as we are with overpayments, and have little sympathy for the DWP's argument that this rise is driven by a growing propensity for fraud in society.
"This amounts to saying that the DWP's job is too hard to do well - not a defence that this committee is prepared to accept."
Among its recommendations, the committee called on the department to set out how it will improve its speed in answering calls from ESA claimants; to ensure people get what they are entitled to by making it easier for claimants to provide updates on changes of circumstances; and to set out how it will use the extra £110 million it received in the autumn Budget to counter fraud and reduce overpayment rates.
The committee also warned of the potential negative impact on vulnerable customers of the department's use of artificial intelligence (AI), with Sir Geoffrey saying "the onus is also on the DWP to prove it is using these powerful tools in a safe and fair manner".
What's the Government said so far on this?
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall said in July:
"The fundamental problem we face is that the current system of employment support is designed to address the problems of yesterday – not today, tomorrow and beyond.
"Over the last 14 years the DWP has focused almost entirely on the benefits system, and specifically on implementing Universal Credit, and that “nowhere near enough attention has been paid to the wider issues – like health, skills, childcare and transport – that determine whether people get work, stay in work and get on in work.
"We will empower local leaders and local areas to tackle economic inactivity and open up economic opportunity.
"We will give local places the responsibility and resources to design a joined-up work, health and skills offer that’s right for local people.