Published on August 4th, 2012 | by Kirsty McKellar
Image © [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="566"] The paralympic games could provide a vital opportunity to change peoples' attitudes towards disability. © Addihockey10[/caption]   We are used to seeing stories of ‘benefits scroungers’ and ‘frauds’ dominating the headlines, and it appears that this type of coverage is beginning to take its toll on disabled people across the country as they are lumped into the same pile as cheats and spongers. An influential disability charity, Scope, is now calling for an end to government ‘negativity’ about incapacity benefits claimants after a ComRes poll showed that it is exactly this kind of coverage that leads to discrimination and changing attitudes towards people with disabilities. This week, Channel 4’s Dispatches revealed that Atos, the company commissioned by the government to test 11,000 claimants every week, has reinforced a ‘target culture’ to ensure people are being taken off benefits. It seems that the government is focusing on the minority of fraudulent cases in its efforts to push through radical benefit reforms. The ComRes poll, which interviewed 500 disabled people and carers, revealed that almost three-quarters had experienced the assumption that they didn’t work, and many had been confronted by strangers questioning their right to benefits support. The Chief Executive of Scope, Richard Hawkes, stated that it is ‘shocking’ that in 2012 almost half of disabled people feel that attitudes towards them have got worse and many have experienced hostility. The government is currently passing a range of disability benefit reforms, including work capability assessments. The current system is increasingly scrutinised as flawed. It is claimed that it is largely a box-ticking enterprise that is too simplistic and driven by financial targets rather than helping those who are capable of going back into work. These faults were highlighted in a Panorama programme (‘Disabled or Faking it’), which unveiled that people who were too sick to work were being forced to go back to work under the government’s scheme. It also brought to light the shocking case of Stephen Hill, who was diagnosed with heart failure and died 39 days after being found ‘fit for work’ by government assessors. Back in 2010, the government appointed Professor Malcolm Harrington to undertake an independent review of the assessment system. He concluded that the process was ‘patchy’, and warned that it would not work if decisions about the claimants health continued to be based upon a questionnaire. Harrington believed that the system could work if his recommendations were put into place and ‘done properly’. However this has clearly not happened as people are being pushed off benefits and into work. Even when they are not forced to work they are then simply seen as ‘benefit scrounging scum’, with the help of the media and politicians that is. Employment Minister, Chris Grayling, insists that there is evidence that ‘a substantial proportion can return to some form of work’. Showing the attitude of the government to those on incapacity benefits, it has now emerged that Grayling attempted to censor a Ministry of Justice courts service information video that helps those who are appealing against decisions to remove their disability and sickness benefit. According to The Guardian, he wanted to remove parts of the video that gave advice on how to be more successful within the appeals process. The video has now been taken down but the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) insists that concerns were only over ‘factual inaccuracies’. Hundreds of thousands of people have appealed against benefit decisions over recent years, of which about 30% are successful, showing that wrong decisions are made. Like many others, former Labour Treasury Minister, Stephen Timms, believes that the government is ‘ignoring the needs of disabled people’. Statistics from the Department of Work and Pensions itself show that fewer than 0.5% of incapacity claims are fraudulent, and more money is lost to error than it is to fraud. This tells us that reform may well be needed, but not necessarily where politicians would lead us to think. Hence campaigners are planning a week of protests against Atos Healthcare at the upcoming Paralympic Games in an attempt to fight the government’s handling of welfare cuts. However Atos hold that they are ‘very aware that work capability assessments can be stressful for those involved, and this is why [they] strive to make sure the assessment service that [they] provide is as highly professional and compassionate as it can be’, and government officials have strenuously denied that there are financial imperatives behind the assessment system. Many commentators believe that the Paralympic Games will provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show positive stories that change the attitudes people have towards disability. This is of vital importance, and is encouraged by Scope in order to quash discrimination. On the other hand it may add fuel to the fire of those who believe disabled people are more than able to work; the Daily Mail states that ‘the Paralympics will show just how much disabled people can achieve, and shame despicable benefits cheats’. Lets hope this type of coverage does not encourage further discrimination or generalised typecasting of benefit recipients.