Category Archives: links

Data: the “shambles” of Employment and Support Allowance appeals

Over on his Social Policy blog, Paul Spicker has a brief dissection of the most recent statistical release (January) for the review of Employment and Support Allowance:

“The implication is that we are likely to see over 320,000 successful appeals before this process is finished – about a fifth of all the former claimants of Incapacity Benefit. This will not be the total of wrong decisions, because a proportion of people who have been wrongly excluded will also be denied benefit; it will only be the decisions that have been proven to be wrong, after the DWP and claimants have been forced through an expensive and time-consuming appeal process to set things right. This is a shambles.”

If you need help investigating this further, let us know.

UPDATE: In the comments Paul adds the following:

“While I’m pleased by the widespread circulation of this posting, this was only a quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation, and I cannot hold to it with any degree of confidence. In particular,
* the rate of decision-making has slowed
* the statistical information in the tables does not cover the same time periods, and none of the information is fully up to date
* the level of new appeals seems to be falling
* the success rate seems to be falling, and
* large numbers of appeals appear to be disappearing from the process without explanation.
“That does not undermine the general point, that very large numbers of cases are proving to have been wrongly decided.”

Benefits Cap Forced and Reinforced…

After the last few days of parlaying in the House of Lords, it has emerged that, after reversing some early defeats, a majority of 82 voted in favour of drastic Welfare Reform and a £26,000 benefits cap per UK household come 2013.

With an estimated £600m being saved for the taxpayer, the cost-cutting measures being introduced look set to shake things up for those who have come to rely most on benefits, particularly, as the article above explains, those in high-cost housing;

“The Department of Work and Pensions says 67,000 households will have their benefits reduced in 2013-14, losing £83 a week on average, while 75,000 will see a reduction in 2014-15″

(Large families will also be effected because “it is also argued that the £26,000 cap takes no account of how many children there are in a family”).

There are also whispers of a ‘couple penalty’ being created, because of how beneficial it will be financially to live seperately from a spouse or partner. There are also predictions of families living in smaller houses in increasingly surburbanised areas in order to decrease outgoings and survive on lower publically-funded financial support.

With such a relatively quick turn-around, there are great opportunities for public-driven data journalism to show the effects of the benefit cap, and this is something we’re, inevitably, very excited about.

Data: Welfare spending breakdown

The Labour blog Left Foot Forward provides a useful breakdown of UK welfare spend that demonstrates where most of the money is going, and how that might be shaping government policy.

Despite the spin on unemployment and immigration, for example:

“Almost half our welfare expenditure, all £78.4 billion of it, is spent on our ageing population. And the number of people drawing a state pension is ever-growing”

Benefit and tax credit expenditure, 2009-2010

Next, “A breakdown of [the 22.08 per cent of welfare expenditure that goes to workers on low incomes] shows an enormous focus on housing, which explains the increased attention on housing benefit:”

Welfare expenditure for people on low incomes, 2009-2010

Simple, but useful. Sadly, there’s no link to the raw data. Interestingly, in looking for that I found this website on UK public spending – created by left wing blogger Christopher Cantrill. As both of these sources have a self-declared political orientation, it’s worth tracking the source of the data, declared here.

(By the way, regarding political bias: if a source has declared it, that doesn’t mean their information is not valid, only that you need to check the information. If a source has not declared a bias, you should always assume they have one, and still check the information.)

Can you add anything more?

Links: The DWP Examinations forums and YouTube channel

Just thought I’d welcome visitors to this site coming from the DWPexaminations message boards. The boards feature a number of threads that may be of interest if you’re looking into Atos medical assessment centres and the stories of those who’ve been through them.

In addition there’s a YouTube channel aggregating videos from a message from Michael Moore to a Guardian film of a protest against Atos (embedded above).

If you know of any other communities discussing Atos or other welfare-related issues, please let us know.