treatment of disabled

• Treatment of Disabled People

  • Some people argue that health inequalities exist because the way that disabled people are treated by the government is making their health worse
  • The UK government has prioritised getting disabled people into work rather than supporting them
  • The test used by the government to declare people 'fit for work, the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is forcing ill people into work that has led to increased ill health and even death
• Impact of the WCA

  • In 2019 images of Stephen Smith went viral, who at the time was 64 years old and suffered from lung disease and osteoarthritis which meant he weighed 6 stone, he had been declared 'fit to work' by the department for work in pensions in 2017 and had to be given a pass to leave hospital to fight his case in court after his out of work sickness benefits stopped. Sadly, a few months after winning the case he passed away, his benefits were used to pay for his funeral
  • Since 2013, 66% of people who were found 'fit to work' had the verdict reversed on appeal
• Changes to the benefits system

  Do not adversely affect 'real' disabled people, and only have an impact on fit and healthy people who are pretending to be disabled in order to get money for nothing
• The political party UKIP claimed in 2013 that "75% of incapacity benefit claimants are fit and healthy"