Caroline: it’s a scandal that fit for work assessments are more likely to be inaccurate in Brighton

Caroline Lucas today said it was a scandal that assessments for Employment and Support Allowance are more likely to be inaccurate in Brighton and Hove than elsewhere in the country.

Figures from the DWP obtained by Caroline show that 54% of appeals against fit for work decisions for new Employment and Support Allowance claims in Brighton and Hove between October 2008 and May 2012 were successful.   This compares with 37% nationally.

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, said:

 “It’s a scandal that it’s harder to get help you’re legally entitled to in Brighton and Hove than elsewhere.

“I raised this issue with the DWP two years ago. They said they were improving the Work Capability Assessment, and that it would become ‘fairer and more effective.’ Yet two years on, very high numbers of people in Brighton and Hove are still being wrongly assessed.

“People are still coming to me to express real anxiety about Atos and their poor assessments.  Ministers know what’s going on but have been totally ineffective in sorting it out.  In the meantime, people who are ill are still going through the worry and stress of having to appeal to get the help they need, and to which they are legally entitled, possibly becoming more ill as a result.”

Note to editors

View Caroline’s question and DWP’s answer:  http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2013-11-04a.172208.h&s=speaker%3A24910#g172208.q0