DWP Press Office has released figures alleging that thousands of those found "fit for work" as part of the transfer to Employment and Support Allowance (disputable - see post below) have been on sickness related benefits for years: www.dwp.gov.uk/newsroom/press-releases/2012/may-2012/dwp047-12.shtml
Aside from the usual misleading nature of this, the timing is interesting. It comes on the same day that the Daily Telegraph headlined on their front page how 500,000 people will lose entitlement to Disability Living Allowance as a result of changes and the introduction of Personal Independence Payment starting in 2013 (www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9263453/500000-to-lose-disability-benefit.html). This was as a result of an interview with IDS himself.
Most members of the public will not have sufficient knowledge to distinguish between DLA and ESA and are likely to think that the changes to DLA are being brought in to deal with people who are not "really disabled" and are fit for work. Indeed, there is a scent of this in the Telegraph article.
So one must wonder why the DWP chose to issue this press release today after the Telegraph article. Was it incompetence or a desire to deliberately conflate the issues in the minds of the wider public? We need to know.
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