Work Programme’s ‘punitive approach’ makes mental health worse | PoliticsHome.com
Here’s a little ‘heads-up’ for anyone who is interested. This Blog will try to get the figures and see what they show.
Information on how well the Work Programme “helps” people with mental health programme will inform us about its effect on more than half the people in the Work Related Activity Group of Employment and Support Allowance.
Statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) due out [yesterday, September 17] will reveal the number of people with mental health problems who have been helped into a job by the Work Programme.
The data apply to people in the work related activity group (WRAG) of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).
We have yet to see them, but if they are anything like previous figures, they will show abysmal success rates – typically just eight per cent of people with mental health problems have found work through the scheme.
The Work Programme is the Government’s flagship back-to-work scheme – but it is failing people with mental health problems.
And if it isn’t working for this group, it’s failing overall, as around half of all ESA claimants are receiving this support primarily due to their mental health.
Source: Work Programme’s ‘punitive approach’ makes mental health worse | PoliticsHome.com
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What worries me is that the victims of depression could be sanctioned which would lead to suspension of free prescriptions that come with Income Support, JSA and ESA. Should a sanctioned claimant as well as an immediate claim for Housing Benefit they should fill in an HC1 form to claim free prescriptions and dental treatment. Any pharmacy, surgery or dentist have them.
I assume the stats mentioned are in here somewhere:-
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/461257/work-programme-statistics-to-june-2015.pdf
I think so. Have downloaded and started looking through, but there’s a LOT of waffle to wade through.
Hi Mike, I’d just popped into the comments (after reading the article) to offer you the same link! I downloaded them yesterday and had a quick look. I’m sure I read somewhere that the DWP have crowing about the results and spinning this as a massive ‘win’, but now cannot find any corresponding link (maybe it was a dream!). There was a brief Patrick Butler article in the G yesterday that’s worth reading between the lines on… Of course the DWP used their anonymous spokespipe (mixed in with comments from the acronymically-challenged ERSA), but there was one bit that seemed especially egregious. They said that ‘previous government back-to-work schemes had not done enough for disabled people or those with mental health problems’ (blah, blah, blah – all Labour’s fault!), but that the Work Programme provided, and I quote, “flexible support so they have the right skills for when they are ready to rejoin the workforce”. Course it does, Iain!
I didn’t actually manage to get around to my actual point the other day, Mike, which was my first impression when I downloaded and looked at the stats. Your mention of having to ‘wade though’ them suggests the same instinctual frustration. Looking at the document, it’s almost as if they’ve designed it to be as opaque as possible, that if anybody were to manage to draw any conclusions it will be over their dead bodies (figuratively speaking, of course…it would be terrible to imagine some sort of grisly misfortune being visited upon the quiet man, wouldn’t it?). Have they always been presented this way? Surely if one was going to be able to make comparisons there would have to be some sort of consistency in how the figures are presented, or is it the same tactic they have used against you, presenting them in a new (inscrutable) format? If there is no way of putting them in context then they are next to useless.
Thanks for not ‘approving’ my second post, Mike – I like it! I was struck this afternoon by an awful ‘did I leave the gas on?’ type feeling, worrying that after writing you that message, I’d managed to send it without including the actual link I’d been wittering on about.
Just in case… here it is again (or for the first time)
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/IDS+AND+LE+FASCIST%3B+Tory+leader+at+secret+meeting+with+French+racist.-a079940322
Blimey, the very act of pasting it in and seeing it sitting there makes me even more doubtful I sent it!
All the best, Mike!
I’m a little confused. I think I approved everything I received from you.
hum those 8percent might just be those who couldnt take anymore of this torture wouldnt rely on their figures has whot jobs did these poor souls take up the answer none i bet jeff3
A message for IDS and his subordinates:-
There is only one priority for people with mental health problems and this is being understood and helped by those whom they can trust and relate, otherwise intervention can have disastrous results and be extremely dangerous and detrimental to them.
More big stick treatment for the mentally ill of our nation, it’s no the wonder mental health problems have skyrocketed since these b*****ds got back into office, everybody is feeling depressed, anxious and distressed because of what these a**eholes are doing to everyone and it’s only going to get worse!