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Social Justice > Published by Alex Hern, February 6th 2012 at 11:59 am

The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm

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Six leading disability charities have spoken out against the government’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric on welfare cuts, saying it fuels abuse of disabled people.

Iain-Duncan-Smith-nasty

The Guardian reports:

While the charities speaking out - ScopeMencapLeonard Cheshire Disability, the National Autistic SocietyRoyal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), and Disability Alliance - say inflammatory media coverage has played a role in this, they primarily blame ministers and civil servants for repeatedly highlighting the supposed mass abuse of the disability benefits system, much of which is unfounded

Scope’s regular polling of people with disabilities shows that in September two-thirds said they had experienced recent hostility or taunts, up from 41 per cent four months before. In the last poll almost half said attitudes towards them had deteriorated in the past year.

Left Foot Forward reported about the tabloid attacks on disabled people back in June last year, following the results of an appalling survey carried out by Scope which revealed that half of London respondents said they experienced discrimination on a daily or weekly basis, and that 63 per cent of people with disabilities in London thought others did not believe they were disabled.

Dominic Browne wrote:

Many journalists cultivate the perception that if you are on a disability benefit you are either, a drug addict, a cheat, have to be forced into work, or should stop moaning because disability can be good for you. The second to last link, taken from the Mail, has a picture caption reading:

“Feet up: Claimants will lose their disability benefits as the public spending cuts bite (Posed by model).”

For an article about disabled people having their benefits cut we have a completely staged photo of a able-bodied man sitting on a sofa smoking a cigarette.

And of course just last week, Left Foot Forward reported on Rod Liddle’s disgusting – if unsurprising – attack on the ‘fake disabled’, in which he wrote:

My New Year’s resolution for 2012 was to become disabled. Nothing too serious, maybe just a bit of a bad back or one of those newly invented illnesses which make you a bit peaky for decades – fibromyalgia, or M.E…

Just the day after, James Dellingpole joined in the attack, blaming “the fake disabled” for “crippling our economy”.

But although the tabloids are doing the dirty work, the DWP is not innocent in this peddling of slurs. They routinely misrepresent their own statistics in a manner guaranteed to generate negative coverage of disabled people – and, surely coincidentally, ease the passage of their legislation.

As Steve Griffiths wrote for us last month:

The DWP press release opens with a mis-statement of the legislation:

‘The figures also show that a further 17 per cent can do some work with the right help and support’.

This interprets those assessed as belonging to the ESA work related activity group are as having been found ‘fit for work’. Yet the legislation states clearly that people qualify for ESA, including the work related activity group, because it is ‘unreasonable to expect them to work’ because of their ‘physical or mental condition’.

It is a misrepresentation that goes unchallenged almost daily.

Secondly, the 36 per cent whose claim was ‘abandoned’ before their assessment was complete are routinely represented as found ‘fit for work’.

Peddling the scrounger myth was only ever going to have one result. The DWP will have seen this coming, and the fact that they did it anyway is a disgrace.

See also:

Look Left – The hate-filled Right hone in on their next target: Disabled peopleShamik Das, January 27th 2012

Liddle’s latest outrage shouldn’t surprise usAlex Hern, January 26th 2012

It’s nearly time for the DWP’s quarterly love-in with the tabloidsSteve Griffiths, January 20th 2012

Aggression is a fact of life for the disabled in London, as the tabloids continue to attackDominic Browne, June 13th 2011

Society and the media are failing the sick and disabledSue Marsh, May 13th 2011

  • http://twitter.com/GilesBradshaw Giles Bradshaw

    Have they ever actually used the word ‘scrounger’? Or are you just putting it in quotes to make it seem as if they have?

  • Selohesra

    What are govt expected to do with abuses in disability claims – brush it under the carpet like labour or try and do something about it so the limited resources for disability benefit can be focussed on the most needy?

  • Anonymous

    You are still not addressing the fraud issue.

    Not the claimant fraud, but the government fraud.

    Disabled had grown from 1 million to 2.5 million.

    Why? It’s hidden unemployment. Change the label and the unemployment figure goes down.

    That’s the fraud, and its being addressed.

  • Grev

    Trolls getting in early, I see. I was a fraud officer working in this area. Claims that disability benefits have been used to massage unemployment figures or that the issue of fraud has been brushed under the carpet are entirely bogus. Anecdotes do not equal data. But don’t take my word for it, published statistics show an extraordinarily low rate of fraud in the system. It is dwarfed by official error rates. The comments below betray an alarming cynicism, an astonishing lack of knowledge and, frankly, a very nasty streak … which is exactly what this article addresses.

  • Anonymous

    The first three comments do not address the issue at all. Well-respected charities have observed an increase in disability hate crime, and misleading and unrepresentative press releases from the DWP. Talk about that. Ignoring it won’t make it go away.

  • Godfather1013

    It seems like things are the same the world over. The extreme right always beats up on the less fortunate in society.

  • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

    No, the fraud is your 1%’s looting.

    The crime is your incitement of hatred against the disabled, criminal.

  • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

    Not spend massive amounts of cash on a 0.5% fraud rate when far more is lost to departmental inefficiencies alone, before the issue that putting more people on tax collection would generate revenue by helping to close the tax gap.

    No, better in your world to encourage thugs to beat up disabled people than see your 1% criminals pay their tax.

  • Selohesra

    keep taking the tablets Leon :)

  • Louise
  • Nigelwootton421

    The real scroungers are Goebbels Grayling and Insidious Dole Snatcher, who pump so much hate propaganda against the disabled and those without work into the right-wing press. Benefit fraud, mostly conducted by criminal syndicates and DWP insiders, amounts to a fraction of the cost of tax-dodging (£1 billion versus £140 billion per annum).

  • http://twitter.com/yrotitna/status/166566660541652992 Yrotitna

    “@leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm, writes @AlexHern: http://t.co/ax6eS0zk” It's meant to, it's a Tory govt.

  • http://twitter.com/chaostocosmos/status/166578808403656704 Pamela Heywood

    The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/SS6vSLy7

  • Anonymous

    Newsbot is angry because he’s going to lose his gold plated pension.

    Given a choice, his pension or the disabled, I know which I would choose.

    He doesn’t like the answer.

  • http://twitter.com/ruggiera/status/166593144044003328 ruggiera

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/UK1JYjOU

  • http://twitter.com/2hay/status/166598543317008385 hay

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/UK1JYjOU

  • http://twitter.com/ruggiera/status/166605945382768640 ruggiera

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/UK1JYjOU + THAT priceless IDS underclass/disability pic.

  • http://twitter.com/rosenamc/status/166606905958080512 Rosena McKeown

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/UK1JYjOU + THAT priceless IDS underclass/disability pic.

  • http://twitter.com/williamtheb/status/166607829514452992 Abaris

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/UK1JYjOU + THAT priceless IDS underclass/disability pic.

  • GKH

    “Aebeit Macht Frei”!
    Now-days “the Final solution” can be sought in your own home. In Germany (rightly or wrongly -?-), to deny “The Shoah” is a criminal offence.

  • GKH

    “Arbeit Macht Frei”!
    Now-days “the Final solution” can be sought in your own home. In Germany (rightly or wrongly -?-), to deny “The Shoah” is a criminal offence.

    (…aaahhhhh ! -there was no one left……-)

  • Anonymous

    I’m disabled nope really i swear to god, I’m classed by the DWP yes the DWP not my GP as being Paraplegic, but to be honest it’s shocking of late, I have been spate at, and I have been pushed, I sat down to have a coffee yes in a wheelchair, and a young lady accused me of being a scrounger then another two one saying he saw me jogging, I got spate at and my coffee knocked over.

    The police arrived and asked me, and this is no joke if I could prove i was disabled, I had to prove to them , which I did, but it was felt no charges should be sought because people felt angry about welfare reforms. ah well never mind.

    Work makes one free or in the real language…………….”Arbeit macht frei

  • http://twitter.com/davidh7426/status/166624746014908418 David V Humphreys

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/UK1JYjOU + THAT priceless IDS underclass/disability pic.

  • Arecbalrin

    Virtually all of that increase happened between 1989 and 1995, correlating with the period when disabled people were being transitioned from residential units where they didn’t receive Invalidity Benefit and then those units closed. Putting them on benefits was cost-saving; it’s cheaper to pay someone benefits each week then it is to keep them in care for a day.

    This is publicly available information that has been widely disseminated, yet the Right choose not to listen and instead want to make out that a substantial increase happened between 1997 and 2010 when the reality is that Incapacity Benefit peaked in 2005 and then began falling even before ESA was introduced to replace it. New Labour were harsher on claimants than any other government that came before them since 1948 and I don’t say that as praise.

    Mason Dixon, Autistic.

  • Arecbalrin

    Pejorative labels like ‘scroungers’ are used routinely in certain newspapers as synonyms for anyone claiming benefits. Whilst ministers themselves avoid using them, those ministers never speak out pro-actively against newspapers using them and those ministers never fail to provide a quote knowing full-well how such articles usually turn out in print. They shouldn’t be lending their names to them along with what tiny credibility they have.

    But it’s worse than that: whilst ministers routinely insist they have no influence on what those newspapers publish, much of what those newspapers publish are simply what those ministers themselves provided as secret briefings. Early on the National Audit Office demanded to know why ‘press releases’ were being sent to selected newspapers and the Coalition had to give in and publish all future briefings on the DWP website. Only they changed the format from press releases to ‘research’ and labeled the page ‘Ad Hoc Analysis’ to hide what their purpose was and refused to release the past briefings showing clearly what they were doing. This page on the DWP website contains papers which are of no real value for in-house research or policy-making; they exist purely to generate news stories.

    Ministers are culpable for what the newspapers print as a result of those ‘reports’ and for the blatant misuse of departmental resources for partisan political purposes.

    Mason Dixon, Autistic.

  • Anonymous

    Not at all.

    http://ehis.ebscohost.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=c6ccc516-7322-4d33-9d06-be1484237f58%40sessionmgr11&vid=4&hid=6

    [If the link works. If not the reference is]

    MCVICAR, D. (2008) Why have UK disability benefit rolls grown so much? Journal of
    Economic Surveys, 22, 1, 114-139.

    Lots of research.

    Unfortunately for many, they have been a victim of fraud. Labelled as disabled, they haven’t done as well as those in work.

    Now, the government is stopping the hidden unemployment fraud (its fault), and those wrongly labeled, are going to have to rejoin the market place for work.

    There is a lot of other research out there on why the disabled have grown from 1 million to 2.5, and its not that people are being crippled.

    However, if you think the 0.5% fraud rates by claimants is correct, explain why so many who are currently claiming don’t want to be tested. Obvious explanation, they might not want to be tested because they would be found out.

  • Anonymous

    It’s government fraud hiding the unemployed.

    What should be done about that?

    Deny the 1 million genuine claimants, so you can have your gold plated pension?

  • http://twitter.com/psychvictim/status/166707564749393920 MARY HALL

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/UK1JYjOU

  • http://twitter.com/liverpool_fi/status/166786113468514304 Fiona

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/UK1JYjOU

  • Davidsonp45

    Hello People. So the hard working Tax payer is being taunted to shift the blame yet again. Now let’s go back in time in my life and the causes of some of my disabilities which as a Media Volunteer I have well documented. at 3 years old flung in to a smouldering fire. At 7 year a banger dropped down the back of my T.Shirt at 10 years a shooting starrocket was fire close range in to my throat. so even at 10 years A meaningful life was never to be for me Inever asked to be so horrificly abused. I also endured so much violent and emotional abuse in all my school years even in the home. I was taunted picked on at school because I looked and acted differently an easy target for those wishing to vent their anger of sort’s their frustration’s our were they all just plain bad. but all were members of the public. picking on a vulnerable helpless withdrawn child in deep deep trauma P.T.S.D. Even as a teenager I had my back slashed several times for no reason other than they saw an easy target. and as an adult I endured many more violent attack’s mocking taunt’s around a physical disability I have had all my life this by so called friend’s members of the public and those I worked with. When I lost my baby son in 1998 All my traumas shot to the front of my mind in one go that led me to scream loud inthe street’s for years. Non of these traumas were of my making they just happened yet while in trauma over the loss of my son I would feel the need to jump off various Bridges if only you had of witnessed the various taunt’s of Go on then ”JUMP’). They were not aware I had disabilities they just asumed I was Mad in some way and thought I should die and they had a right to abuse me.

    So being a Media Campaigner I tried so hard to help change attitudes. with over 20 Media Interview’s behind me I hoped I at least made a little difference. And I sure critisized Peter Haine. Remember Him Folk’s and his comment’s. (I lovemy sofa me ). But not the ogonising pain that makes me lounge about on it all day. Even when Mr Blair was in Power I would complain about Govwrnment rhetoric that demonised the undeserving unwaged. So it’s no surprise to me it has esculated with the present Government Winsconsin Style with their own particular venomous zeal. Jo Public Beware they dont need ”YOU” if and when YOU” Become the damned sick note Jo.

  • http://twitter.com/keepdla/status/166996970697789440 lisa

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is http://t.co/UQFypaTB

  • http://twitter.com/tonethetree/status/167000042413101056 Les Tricoteuses

    The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm | Left Foot Forward http://t.co/fIZg7mEa

  • http://twitter.com/ligomersall/status/167000334118559744 liane gomersall

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/rnWtNPJz

  • Nia

    ‘They’ as you call us, have no problem with being tested. We do have a problem with being humiliated by being asked very, very personal questions and having to do this on a regular basis. For people like me, who were born with a severe, lifelong Disability, going for repeated assessments is one, a waste of time and two, a waste of taxpayers money.
    0.5% fraud rates are the statistics given by the DWP. If you’d rather take notice of some idiot Polititian then carry on but you are setting yourself up for a lot of dissapointment by hanging on to the words of these a*seholes.

  • Nia

    The fraud rates are 0.5%. I’d be very interested to know the fraud rates of Income Support etc.

  • Nia

    I’d like to just remind those who are so against Disabled people recieving the benefits that ensure they have a life worth living….any one of you could become Disabled tomorrow. You could have a Disabled child…your parents will probably become Disabled.
    Think about how you would feel then.

  • Anonymous

    That’s why I pointed out the same. For some disabilities it is obvious that nothing will improve, sadly. Hence periods between testing should be infrequent.

    The 0.5% is the detected fraud rate. Actual fraud rates will be higher. There is quite a bit of evidence for this, and its the numbers deciding not to turn up.

    However, the real fraud is on the other side. It’s the governments who have been hiding unemployed on the benefits list.

    As for them being arseholes, I’m in 100% agreement. They are crooks and fraudsters. It’s because of their fraud that people won’t get any help. They just left a steaming pile of shit in the form of debt. It’s worse that Greece in the long term.

    I fear that you will be targeted. There is no doubt that they won’t be able to fund even what you get now going forward.

    So don’t read into what I’m saying that because I say its going to happen that I think its a good thing either.

  • http://twitter.com/redandy123/status/167030523535958016 Andy Mayer

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/1ElYIRJE

  • Martin white

    Selohesra – the Tories aren’t attacking the disabled to reduce fraud, but simply to reduce costs. The rich in Britain are absolutely uncivilized and absolutely unwilling to contribute to the safety net that, until now, has made Britain a moderately civilized country in which to live. Why should they subsidise someone with an incurable illness or disability when they could be awarding themselves a tax break and buying a bigger yacht?

  • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

    “Actual fraud rates will be higher. There is quite a bit of evidence for this, and its the numbers deciding not to turn up.”

    I’M RIGHT AND NO NUMBERS CAN DETER ME! Yea, keep on being crazy.

  • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

    I don’t take any “tablets”.

    Keep on with the campaign of hatred against the disabled.

  • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

    I don’t take any “tablets”.

    Keep on with the campaign of hatred against the disabled.

  • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

    What pension would you be referring to?

    You keep on claiming that I have some mythical pension. I have under £3k in a private pension. Total. Keep on defending your 1% at all costs from the scourge of paying pensions to the 99%.

  • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

    What pension would you be referring to?

    You keep on claiming that I have some mythical pension. I have under £3k in a private pension. Total. Keep on defending your 1% at all costs from the scourge of paying pensions to the 99%.

  • Anonymous

    Ah yes. Fingers in the ears.

  • Anonymous

    Ah yes. Fingers in the ears.

  • Balletdancer

    Bad News for Disabled People: How the Newspapers are Reporting Disability

    by Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research and Glasgow Media Unit

    http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_214917_en.pdf

  • balletdancer

    Bad News for Disabled People: How the Newspapers are Reporting Disability

    by Strathclyde Centre for Disability and Glasgow Media Unit

    http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_214917_en.pdf

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  • http://twitter.com/rosiejanele/status/168632867470049280 Jane Leach

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/gFKgA5cK

  • http://twitter.com/ivanwhite48/status/168634169579159553 Ivan White

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/gFKgA5cK

  • http://twitter.com/southygirl1/status/168658661386883072 theresa jackson

    RT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is http://t.co/UQFypaTB

  • http://twitter.com/cllrkrichards/status/169108582082678786 Kevin Richards

    Nothing like kicking em when they're down- SO NOT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/2cm2d2Mh

  • http://twitter.com/votingred/status/169349622744088576 Paul Dunn

    Nothing like kicking em when they're down- SO NOT @leftfootfwd: The DWP’s ‘scrounger’ rhetoric is causing real harm http://t.co/2cm2d2Mh

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