Today’s Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit

Over the last few months, Left Foot Forward, along with Full Fact and Touchstone, has been critical of misleading press stories about the benefit system and those who depend on it based on figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions – in some cases released confidentially to selected journalists.

A reprimand from the Statistics Commissioner has led to some improvement in transparency in DWP’s handling of evidence, but the problem of misleading reporting hasn’t gone away. While inaccurate stories may in some cases be attributed to failures on the part of journalists, the fact is that if government doesn’t want the figures it is releasing to be distorted, it can take steps to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Right-wing-press-Incapacity-Benefit-myths
As anybody who has been involved in briefing the press on issues of public concern knows, heading off easily-anticipated misinterpretations of the evidence is a key part of the task. Misleading stories such as this one in today’s Telegraph (and Mail, Sun and Express) are eminently avoidable.

The Telegraph headline read:

‘Two in three benefit claimants are fit for work’

With the report stating:

“That means roughly 70 per cent of those claiming money on the grounds that they were too sick to work were in fact capable of holding down some form of paid employment.”

The evidence for this assertion comes from the first results from the pilots extending Employment Support Allowance to existing claims for Incapacity Benefit and incapacity-related Income Support.

In fact, as the DWP’s press release shows, the reassessment found that 71 per cent of claimants were not ‘fit for work’. How did the Telegraph, Mail, Sun and Express get it so wrong – and get it wrong in exactly the same way?

The main changes which ESA has brought in compared to the previous system are:

(a) A tighter assessment of eligibility, known as the Work Capability Assessment (WCA); and

(b) The introduction of a new distinction between claimants who are deemed to be able to undertake some ‘work related activity’ and those who are not. IB didn’t make this distinction, meaning that people with very different levels of impairment were treated similarly.

Under ESA, those who are found to be ‘fit to work’ on the new WCA are not eligible for ESA, but can apply for Jobseeker’s Allowance – in other words, they are treated as being unemployed rather than as having ‘limited capability for work’. Those who are found to have ‘limited capability for work’ are entitled to ESA and are assigned either to the ‘work-related activity’ group or, if they are not deemed able to undertake work-related activity, to the ‘support group’.

Today’s press stories conflate those who are found ‘fit to work’ with those who are not found fit to work but are found capable of some ‘work related activity’.

This shows a complete misunderstanding of the main intention of introducing ESA in the first place, which was to provide more support and greater conditionality for those who were not ‘fit to work’ but could be expected to be able to return to work at some point in the future, while maintaining unconditional support for those who were not in this position.

That 29% were found ‘fit to work’ looks like a strong enough finding, so what led journalists to exaggerate this to ‘two in three’? Perhaps the steady stream of misleading stories about Incapacity Benefit over recent months has raised the bar to the point where 29% just doesn’t look like a big enough figure.

The figure is not in itself surprising: the WCA was introduced with the explicit intention of tightening eligibility compared to IB and it is widely believed that the incentives for the providers who conduct the assessment are designed to bias judgment towards rejecting claims (a view supported by the high rate of successful appeals against WCA decisions).

What is more surprising in today’s figures is the high percentage of those who are not ‘fit for work’ who are also not able to undertake any ‘work-related activity’. When ESA was first proposed, it was widely assumed that the great majority of claimants who were not immediately ready to return to work would be able to start a ‘journey back to work’ with appropriate support. But for 526 claimants assigned to the work-related activity group, 422 were assigned to the support group.

This finding tends to support the argument raised here recently: the severity of impairment among claimants of incapacity benefit is far higher than is generally recognised. The fact that more than half of IB/ESA recipients, and two thirds of long-term recipients are also in receipt of Disability Living Allowance suggests that some of the expectations which both the current and previous governments have encouraged about the impact of changes to the benefit system are exaggerated.

Addressing the employment penalties faced by disabled people – at all levels of severity of impairment – is a much bigger task than the rhetoric of welfare reform often implies.

Most of today’s press coverage is emblematic of the distortions to which virtually any evidence on the welfare system is subject in the current climate: these stories seem be designed to foster suspicion and grievance with regard to benefit claimants.

When four national newspapers converge on the same misinterpretation of the evidence, some responsibility surely lies with those providing the figures.

Government could easily reduce the risk of this kind of misleading reporting by making sure that journalists understand the evidence and that its own briefing is clear and unambiguous – and when public resources are used for government media handling, why should we expect anything less?

• Read more about this story on Full Fact.

http://twitter.com/bendygirl/status/36093743631179778 BendyGirl

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
http://twitter.com/romilagupta/status/36094880136564736 Romila Chaplin

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
http://twitter.com/sinnaluvva/status/36095462457098240 Malcolm Evison

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v
http://twitter.com/chr1sr0berts/status/36095913743089666 Chris Roberts

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
http://twitter.com/swannisgod/status/36097269455396864 Tom Wood

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
http://twitter.com/batsgirl/status/36097631465902080 Mary

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
http://twitter.com/graeme__smith/status/36097767117946880 Graeme Smith

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
http://twitter.com/brokenofbritain/status/36097838903468033 Broken OfBritain

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v #ProjV #DLA
http://twitter.com/ldtuc/status/36100269544574976 L DTUC

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
http://twitter.com/sean_gittins/status/36100718737756160 sean gittins

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
http://twitter.com/quarridors/status/36106214865633281 Quarries & Corridors

Media propaganda or ignorance? RT: @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun & Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v
http://twitter.com/press_not_sorry/status/36112740401549312 Press Not Sorry

RT @BrokenOfBritain: RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v #Pro …
http://twitter.com/nickbloke/status/36113771009155072 Nick H.

RT @BrokenOfBritain: RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v #Pro …
http://twitter.com/extraditiongame/status/36117099214536704 Extradition Game

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
http://twitter.com/brokenofbritain/status/36118238525915136 Broken OfBritain

http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/02/right-wing-press-wrong-on-incapacity-benefit-again/
http://twitter.com/j_g_shute/status/36118608367190016 JEFF SHUTE

RT @BrokenOfBritain: http://fb.me/Axu6w01l
http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com Sue Marsh

Thanks for this article.
I particularly love this “When four national newspapers converge on the same misinterpretation of the evidence, some responsibility surely lies with those providing the figures.”
I hope that after being fobbed off by the parliamentary standards commission, Broken of Britain don’t let this issue go.
http://twitter.com/banana_the_poet/status/36146480616050688 Michele Brenton

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun &Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v
Declan

Thanks Sue. They certainly shouldn’t let it go- the ‘anything goes’ attitude to evidence exemplified by these stories needs to be constantly challenged.
http://twitter.com/lisybabe/status/36149027875586048 Lisa E

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
http://twitter.com/barbmilne/status/36150769296220160 barb milne

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
http://twitter.com/sph1984/status/36164581965434880 Simon Hughes

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ma.rathfelder/ Martin Rathfelder

The question of whether a person is capable of work is not an objective question. If Steven Hawking can hold down a job, than there are not many people physically incapable of working. A person incapable of movement could work in a call centre – in fact could do such a job from their own bed. But is it reasonable to expect such people to work? Whether a person is in fact employable is a very different question, and one which the Work Capability Assessment is not well suited for. For example if a person has a mental illness which means they ” Occasionally has uncontrollable episodes of aggressive or disinhibited behaviour that would be unreasonable in any workplace.” but has no other problems then they would be found fit for work.
Mr. Sensible

Why am I not surprised by the conduct of the press, again?
http://twitter.com/postpolionews/status/36240500042240002 Chris Salter

RT @BrokenOfBritain: RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v #Pro …
http://twitter.com/4alldigitalpr/status/36267077639602176 Yssel & Son’s

Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/gv7c5u
http://bit.ly/eLwJ9p Tacitus

The reality is simple. Iain Duncan Smith will do all he can to reduce the unemployment statistics – but don’t expect the way it is done to be caring, supportive or empathic.

IDS is a past-master of manipulating the media – and there is no surer way to do it than to feed them a story about ‘social security scroungers’ – they love it, because it sells papers.

we should not be surprised by these reports, but we do need to be far more vociferous in our support of IB claimants who are being wrongly assessed.
http://twitter.com/idlevic/status/36395306652274688 Victoria F

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
Lepus Felix

In my own understanding of things, which does not (yet) reflect reality at all, even the most severely disabled of people should be able to use skills they have to contribute something to society. Penalising people based on whether they have paid employment or not is absolutely wrong. Stigmatising people based on their employment status is also absolutely wrong.

Therefore, it is my view that people with limited or diminished capability to undertake or sustain paid employment AS WE KNOW IT should not be treated unfairly at all. They (or rather we, as I am considered disabled myself) should not have to endure any of the media stigmatisation that is so routinely shoved down our throats, and neither should we be expected to conform to the current conditions of what is defined as a working employment market. Employment should be regarded as employment, whether paid or otherwise, and all input into society in general should be recognised as work related activity. ‘Fit for work’ is such a subjective term at the moment. I regard myself as fully fit for work, because I am both willing and able to work. I may be disabled, but I do not consider my disability as an impediment to my working potential. What does impede it, however, is the inflexibility of the working society to the challenges I may face in the workplace.
http://twitter.com/mentalhealth_uk/status/36519373636255744 Catherine

#whatstigma – Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit. http://fb.me/H3OfKQNO
http://twitter.com/pottersby/status/36520169396379648 Pottersby

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v
http://twitter.com/dizzyingcrest/status/36566125869277185 Dizzying Crest

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v
http://twitter.com/paulsandars/status/36566211382738944 Paul Sandars

RT @Dizzyingcrest: RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v
http://twitter.com/yorkierosie/status/36567282641539072 yorkierosie

“@Dizzyingcrest: RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun, Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v”. #pressreform
http://twitter.com/mailwatch/status/36570604899409920 Daily Mail Watch

RT @press_not_sorry: RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun, Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v”
http://twitter.com/expresswatch/status/36570748051005440 Express Watch (UK)

RT @press_not_sorry: RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun, Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v”
http://twitter.com/the_sun_lies/status/36570994126622721 The Sun-Tabloid Lies

RT @press_not_sorry: RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun, Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v”
http://twitter.com/rchrisp/status/36571404778340353 Rachael Chrisp

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit http://bit.ly/fHOH6v
http://Facebook June Helm

My partner has prostate cancer and plural plaque. His doctor has been trying to get him to go on the sick for over a year. When he finally realised he could no longer work he was put on ESA and has to go for assessments to see if there any jobs he could do. He is never going to get better and in fact will only get worse. This is a constant worry to him, even the evaluators think he should not have to go through this. And it does not help when you get Tory papers insinuating that the majority of claimants should not be on it.

When are the Tory press going to stop hounding benefit claimants and start chasing the people that cost the country the most money TAX DODGERS. We know they won’t because the MAJORITY of their shareholders, owners etc., have some sort of tax fiddle going on.
http://twitter.com/rolanddale/status/36590463284674561 Roland Dale

Ugh. http://bit.ly/gIbV7g
http://twitter.com/cityalan/status/36700177637052417 Alan Simpson

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
mike cobley

As long as we have a bought-and-paid-for press in this country, they will NEVER stop stigmatising the poor and the helpless in order to maximise the elite’s control.
Steve Smith

Like all of you I am a left wing man, however don’t you think that it’s a bit of a wild statment to say that EVERY Tory paper would bend this information, plus their is already info to show(supplied by labour)that their are less people on tax fraud and more on benefit fraud. Plus their are people refusing to work because of “obesity” which we we can all agree is an unfair reason to be off work.
http://twitter.com/thebodmass/status/36761985378942976 Rod Boyle

A deliberate lie on Incapacity claimants being 'fit for work' spreads through the tabloids: http://bit.ly/gIbV7g by @leftfootfwd
http://twitter.com/actionforme/status/37112358274867200 Action for M.E.

Daily Express, Daily Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit statistics http://tinyurl.com/6jqd8lr
Linda

This is typical of Tory influence on the press, masters of mis-information and manipulating figures to justify their very dubious actions. Any figures they come up with have to be scrutinised as we discovered under Thatcher when job seekers were put into sick pay as it was an an effective effort to manipultate unemployment figures
http://twitter.com/cysglyd/status/37270741028175872 cysglyd

RT @actionforme: Daily Express, Daily Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit statistics http://tinyurl.com/6jqd8lr
http://twitter.com/me_cfs/status/37459390852235264 M.E. Chronic Fatigue

RT @actionforme: Daily Express, Daily Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit statistics http://tinyurl.com/6jqd8lr
http://twitter.com/charlysez/status/37471347982598144 Charlotte Abraham

RT @leftfootfwd: Today's Express, Mail, Sun and Telegraph all wrong on Incapacity Benefit: http://bit.ly/h1b2IG reports Declan Gaffney
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