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Fit to work benefit checks rolled out

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Fit to work benefit checks rolled out

Incapacity benefit claimants in north-east Scotland and Burnley are to be the first to be reassessed systematically ahead of UK-wide welfare reform. Those deemed fit enough to work, using a points-based 'work capability assessment' system, will be moved to the jobseeker's allowance. More than 2.5m people claim the benefit or its successor, employment support allowance, costing £12.5bn yearly. Eventually everyone claiming incapacity benefit will have to undergo a medical examination to assess their physical and mental abilities. Those deemed fit for work and placed on jobseeker's allowance could face a reduction in benefit of about £25 a week. Those judged capable of limited work will be supported back into part-time employment, says the government. Employment minister Chris Grayling commented: 'While some of these people will be genuinely too sick to work, there will be others who through no fault of their own were told by the state that they were better off on the sick and then left behind - this stops now.' The tests will be undertaken for DWP by private firm Atos Healthcare. Left Economics Advisory Panel chair Andrew Fisher has charged that the company's assessment decisions may well be target-driven in order for it to keep the profit-making contract. The Prospect members working for Atos Healthcare who are responsible for assessing benefit claimants' capability to work warned last week they were not allocated sufficient time to assess complex cases such as those coping with multiple sclerosis or Parkinson's disease, but were instead under pressure to complete 10 or more cases an day (Risks 477). Patients' groups have warned the test, used already on new or routinely reviewed claimants, wrongly assesses many incapacity benefit recipients as fit for work (Risks 467).

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