:00:05. > :00:07.Hello and welcome to a brand new series of Inside Out. Here's what's
:00:07. > :00:14.coming up tonight. Boozy Britain. Are our teenagers drinking
:00:14. > :00:19.themselves to an early death? really scary and tragically, every
:00:19. > :00:25.year, we sometimes fail to keep somebody alive. Radio 1's Scott
:00:25. > :00:31.Mills has his last tipple, and turns all teetotal on us. Cheers!
:00:31. > :00:35.Just the one? Just the one! And is the government crackdown on
:00:35. > :00:39.disability benefits ONLY hitting the fraudsters? I mean there are
:00:39. > :00:43.some people, yeah, that's mucking around. But a lot of people aren't
:00:43. > :00:47.and we're the ones that seem to be suffering. Or do the new medical
:00:47. > :00:50.assessments let down the needy? are so worried about what's
:00:50. > :01:00.happening to people. They become destitute in many cases. I'm John
:01:00. > :01:09.
:01:09. > :01:13.Cuthill and this is Inside Out First tonight, if you've been
:01:13. > :01:16.battling the January sales, chances are, you'll need a stiff drink. But
:01:16. > :01:26.that's together with the 500 other pints each adult has on average
:01:26. > :01:27.
:01:27. > :01:30.throughout the year. And it's doing our livers no good at all. But we
:01:30. > :01:35.can all give up, can't we? That's the challenge we set Radio One's
:01:35. > :01:39.Scott Mills. BBC Radio One. Ten minutes from BBC Radio 1Xtra live
:01:39. > :01:42.in London. As I come off air, the team wants to know why I've gone
:01:42. > :01:50.all Peter Andre, with cameras following my every move. I am doing
:01:50. > :01:58.a film, for the BBC. I am today giving up alcohol for a month.
:01:58. > :02:08.what are you going to do? Are you just going to go out and? Drink.
:02:08. > :02:09.
:02:09. > :02:13.And then not drink for a month. Over Christmas? And New Year?
:02:13. > :02:16.Don't look at the film crew as if to say don't come round on
:02:16. > :02:19.Christmas day because you'll have a little sherry. Could you not come
:02:19. > :02:23.round on Christmas day? Yeah, do spirits count, or what? Well, I'm
:02:23. > :02:28.not allowed to drink. Tonight's my last one. Are you coming out for a
:02:28. > :02:34.bevvy? Hi, guys. Mohitos. Oh, my, gosh! Help yourself. Thank you.
:02:34. > :02:37.Thank you so much. I know how this looks but I want you all to know
:02:37. > :02:40.that we don't go out and drink cocktails every night. Yes! Wooh!
:02:40. > :02:43.Now, I don't know what that is. I've done my share of drinking, but
:02:43. > :02:47.don't drink half as much as I used to. Current government guidelines
:02:47. > :02:49.say blokes shouldn't go over three to four units a day, women two to
:02:49. > :02:52.three. But they're looking to tighten those to rein in the
:02:52. > :02:56.estimated ten million of us who regulary go well over these amounts.
:02:56. > :02:59.This is my mate, Chris, who is on my show on Radio One. We were just
:02:59. > :03:04.talking earlier. He's actually got experience of one of his mates, how
:03:04. > :03:07.old is he? 24. 24, and what's happened to him? He's just, his
:03:07. > :03:11.stomach's pretty screwed up from booze. It's kind of wierd because
:03:11. > :03:14.he's quite a close mate of mine and it's just a bit wierd because I
:03:14. > :03:18.don't think he drinks much more than I do. Right. Last week he was
:03:18. > :03:21.in hospital all week and this has been going on for six months now.
:03:21. > :03:25.He's got to do tablets everyday. But the worst thing is, we all go
:03:25. > :03:30.out, to be honest, get quite drunk. He can't really do that as much as
:03:30. > :03:36.he used to be able to. So he feels left out. Yeah, it is a massive
:03:36. > :03:41.social thing. It's rubbish, it's rubbish. So I wanted to see for
:03:41. > :03:46.myself just how drink is affecting young people. At the age of 21,
:03:46. > :03:51.Matt Maden from Bournemouth woke up from an alcohol induced coma. Years
:03:51. > :03:54.of excessive drinking had finally caught up with him. I started
:03:54. > :03:59.dabbling I suppose, experimenting with drink from a very early age.
:03:59. > :04:05.From about 10/12 onwards. I would maybe have the odd glass of wine at
:04:05. > :04:10.Christmas and that would be about it. Then my life sort of changed.
:04:10. > :04:14.From the age of 15 my life revolved around social events. For example,
:04:14. > :04:17.at a party I could drink, say, eight cans of lager and get drunk
:04:17. > :04:23.on one occasion and then a year down the line it would take maybe
:04:23. > :04:28.double that. Little did I know that alcohol in the end would actually
:04:28. > :04:31.turn on me and that in effect it would start to control me. It went
:04:31. > :04:39.from one point where I actually could control it and it gave me
:04:39. > :04:44.confidence. But towards the end, it started to control me. Every month
:04:44. > :04:51.Matt has to go to Kings College Hospital in London, for check ups.
:04:51. > :04:54.His liver is shot to pieces and his only hope is a new one. When you
:04:54. > :05:00.come and see me it's already too late because you've already really
:05:00. > :05:03.damaged your liver. The problem is, if you had heart disease, for
:05:03. > :05:06.example. Every time you get a little bit of damage from the
:05:06. > :05:08.furred up blood vessels in your heart, you feel pain. You feel
:05:08. > :05:11.shortness of breath, you know something's wrong. The trouble with
:05:11. > :05:14.your liver is it keeps grinding away doing all this stuff and then
:05:14. > :05:17.suddenly stops. Then you get very jaundiced, you get very sick, you
:05:17. > :05:22.get fluid. But by that stage, you've knocked out 98% of your
:05:22. > :05:24.liver. Kings has the biggest liver transplant centre in Europe.
:05:24. > :05:32.Unfortunately, business is booming. With more and more patients in
:05:32. > :05:34.their twenties. It's actually really upsetting coming here and
:05:34. > :05:40.seeing what people look like. I actually couldn't look left and
:05:40. > :05:43.right then, it was too horrific. But he was saying this is just the
:05:43. > :05:53.tip of the iceberg and we probably are facing an epidemic and there's
:05:53. > :05:57.just not enough organs. You're 24 now? Yeah. How much do you reckon
:05:57. > :06:01.you drink a week? You know how much I drink a week, that's it. But I
:06:01. > :06:07.don't think I'll be drinking the amount I drink now in 15 years time.
:06:07. > :06:10.I think it's something that will eventually wear out and I'll be
:06:10. > :06:14.fine. But experts say that any period of excessive drinking can
:06:14. > :06:18.cause health problems. I tried giving up, remember? And that
:06:18. > :06:22.didn't really. Didn't work. He'll come in and be, "Oh, I'm giving up
:06:22. > :06:26.booze." Then the next day he'll have gone out and had a pint. Do
:06:26. > :06:29.you drink every day? I don't drink every day but I tend to say I'm
:06:29. > :06:33.going to give up booze when I am hungover and that's probably not
:06:33. > :06:42.the best time to decide to give up booze. Never drinking again. It's
:06:42. > :06:47.because people are drinking more heavily and in more eratic patterns.
:06:47. > :06:49.And clearly drinking more alcohol. And it's a very complex argument.
:06:49. > :06:52.It's about availability, pricing, all those other things. There's no
:06:52. > :06:55.question that culturally, as a country, we don't treat alcohol
:06:55. > :06:58.with respect. And we don't use it in a sensible way. I'd never call
:06:58. > :07:01.it an epidemic because an epidemic is something that happens to you.
:07:01. > :07:05.Getting drunk is something you do to yourself. You didn't catch it
:07:05. > :07:12.from anybody. You made a decision to go out and get very drunk.
:07:12. > :07:15.it's so widespread with young people. It is. So, why are we
:07:15. > :07:18.drinking to excess? Whether we're young or older, there is a cultural
:07:18. > :07:22.problem we've got to get over. I think with young people a lot of it
:07:22. > :07:26.is due to low self esteem, low confidence. We have an odd
:07:26. > :07:32.relationship with alcohol. We define a good night out by getting
:07:32. > :07:38.drunk. Pretty much every young person in my view, from what I see,
:07:38. > :07:42.is out there every weekend to get smashed. So you're a Radio One DJ
:07:42. > :07:48.and you know better than me. How do we persuade young people that not
:07:48. > :07:54.drinking is as cool as drinking? Meanwhile, my last night of
:07:54. > :07:58.drinking is going well. I've had two cocktails in about 15 minutes.
:07:58. > :08:02.Which is quite good going. I'm not sure what to drink next. They don't
:08:02. > :08:11.do cocktails in here, surprisingly! In our local, it's time to fess up
:08:11. > :08:16.to what we really drink. Big night out? Probably... This is really
:08:16. > :08:19.hard to say. If any of my mates are watching I feel like I need to
:08:19. > :08:24.round up a little bit, isn't that sad? I'd probably have four or five
:08:24. > :08:29.pints. And although these regulars say they rarely drink at home, they
:08:29. > :08:34.do meet here about four times a week. Probably a couple of pints a
:08:34. > :08:37.night. Five, six of these a night. I try to drink about 15 pints on a
:08:37. > :08:43.Thursday night but only get through about five. Do you know what,
:08:43. > :08:49.thought? I don't think it's so bad if you're not drinking every night.
:08:49. > :08:58.But that's probably wrong. Yeah, that is wrong. There's a bit of
:08:58. > :09:01.fluid there. As Matt knows only too well. So what I can hear is really
:09:02. > :09:05.you're not getting a lot of air into the base of your lungs. And
:09:05. > :09:07.that's because you've still got fluid here. You've had to have it
:09:07. > :09:11.drained once from this side and you couldn't breathe properly. There's
:09:11. > :09:14.still some there even though the shunt is actually doing a lot of
:09:14. > :09:17.the work. That's just a sign of the fact your liver's still damaged.
:09:17. > :09:20.And with his liver barely working, other crucial organs are struggling
:09:20. > :09:23.his stomach, heart and lungs. He's had a little plastic tube, a shunt,
:09:23. > :09:27.put into his liver. To release the pressure from all the veins in his
:09:27. > :09:30.stomach. They pop and he bleeds. He has bled three or four times. They
:09:30. > :09:33.are life threatening bleeds. You can literally bleed to death in 30
:09:33. > :09:36.minutes. He's had that three or four times already. I'm in my 30's
:09:36. > :09:42.and don't consider myself a big drinker these days. But now seems
:09:42. > :09:45.like the right time and place to get my liver checked. So, what josh
:09:45. > :09:48.is doing, Scott, is he's putting the probe between your ribs. That's
:09:48. > :09:55.where your liver is, inside. Then fire off pulses and see how bendy
:09:55. > :09:58.your liver is. So, do I want a bendy liver? You want a bendy liver.
:09:58. > :10:02.And what kind of period of time would you have to be drinking
:10:02. > :10:05.heavily for, for that to happen? Well, we used to be told it takes
:10:05. > :10:08.10/20 years. We are now seeing patients who are in their twenties
:10:08. > :10:11.with hard knobbly livers. Cirrosis. Life threatening complications.
:10:11. > :10:15.Some of those people have only been drinking seriously for four, five,
:10:15. > :10:21.six years. It may be that we are beginning to see that you can screw
:10:21. > :10:24.up your liver quite quickly if you go for it. In the end this and
:10:24. > :10:28.other tests show I do have a springy liver, which begs the
:10:28. > :10:31.question, is it worth me giving up drinking at all? If you were to
:10:31. > :10:34.give up drinking for an amount of time, even weeks, could your liver
:10:34. > :10:39.improve? Even with really bad damage, you can improve by stopping
:10:39. > :10:43.drinking. By stopping poisoning your liver. In someone like you,
:10:43. > :10:49.who I assume is fit and healthy, we might not be able to pick up any
:10:49. > :10:53.differences, but without any doubt, your liver will be grateful. Even
:10:53. > :10:58.though Matt has not had a drink in four and a half years, his future
:10:58. > :11:01.is still really incertain. The grim fact is for Matt, when I meet him
:11:01. > :11:04.and say we've listed him for transplantation, we quote a one in
:11:04. > :11:08.five chance that you'll never get to having a transplant. There's a
:11:08. > :11:12.one in five chance you'll die on the waiting list. Bleeding
:11:12. > :11:14.complications. The coma that comes out of liver disease. Serious
:11:14. > :11:18.infections are a real problem in patients with this, your immune
:11:18. > :11:20.system doesn't work properly. And of course, this fluid. The
:11:20. > :11:26.shortness of breath and fluid accumulating in the belly, those
:11:26. > :11:29.are horrible things and really life threatening. We're one week into my
:11:29. > :11:32.no drinking experiment. It's easy at the moment because there have
:11:32. > :11:35.been no Christmas parties. I've stayed in all week. However, as the
:11:35. > :11:42.weeks go by I know that I've got things planned where I could easily
:11:42. > :11:46.crack and have a drink. So, let's see what happens. It's now been
:11:46. > :11:50.three weeks since I had a drink. I've lost weight, I'm sleeping
:11:50. > :11:53.better. But generally I'm doing all right. It's OK. But that's not
:11:53. > :11:57.what's happening on the street. It's Christmas week and everybody's
:11:57. > :12:00.going for it. Pubs and clubs, obviously they're still busy, but
:12:00. > :12:07.the supermarkets in the High Street are doing a roaring trade in cheap
:12:07. > :12:11.booze so young people tank up before hitting the town. As well as
:12:11. > :12:15.the long term damage to our health, there's also the cost to the NHS to
:12:15. > :12:23.consider. 2.7 billion a year in mopping up the casualties of a
:12:23. > :12:26.night out. And they reckon 50 billion per year to the economy. In
:12:26. > :12:33.Guildford's A&E yound drinkers make up a large number of the
:12:33. > :12:35.emergencies. There was an intoxicated female, 15-year-old. I
:12:35. > :12:41.assume these people get alcohol from, from parents, from friends,
:12:41. > :12:43.or older friends. I think that's the problem with parents these days.
:12:43. > :12:47.They're both out working, nobody's bringing up the kids. So, alcohol
:12:47. > :12:54.brings them up, doesn't it? What's your name? I'm Mark, one of the A&E
:12:54. > :12:57.doctors. Don't want to talk to me, huh? The very busiest times, it's
:12:57. > :13:07.probably the case that the majority of people coming in have had
:13:07. > :13:15.
:13:15. > :13:18.Domestic violence. There are mental health problems as possible
:13:18. > :13:21.consequences of alcohol. So a dangerous drug from our point of
:13:22. > :13:29.view. Getting patched-up, a 20-year-old
:13:29. > :13:34.student. It is going to hurt a bit. I fell over getting into a taxi and
:13:34. > :13:41.cut my leg. I've never been in A&E before. The funny thing is I have
:13:41. > :13:44.been more drunk than this. It was unfortunate today that I fell over.
:13:44. > :13:54.I saw some data a short while ago which suggested an adult could get
:13:54. > :13:55.
:13:55. > :14:00.through their weekly recommended level of alcohol for �4 or �5.
:14:00. > :14:04.And a teenager could drink so much that their life is at risk, for
:14:04. > :14:06.just �7. We met this guy called Matt who his
:14:06. > :14:10.26 and he is on the waiting-list for a liver transplant. Surely
:14:10. > :14:13.these policies are just tinkering around the edges? The thought that
:14:13. > :14:22.a 26-year-old can drink so much, that is a huge amount of alcohol,
:14:22. > :14:25.to be on liver transplant waiting list is an incredible tragedy. It
:14:25. > :14:33.is a tragedy to me as a parent that someone of 26 thinks so little
:14:33. > :14:35.about themselves that they can drink that much. There's also a
:14:35. > :14:38.thing there about culture changing and personal responsibility so we
:14:38. > :14:43.will be publishing a plan on what we're going to do about alcohol in
:14:43. > :14:49.the next few months. It is a licensing and a justice issue. It
:14:49. > :14:57.is a health issue. It is an education issue. It is something we
:14:57. > :15:02.have to tackle all together but we also need people like yourself. You
:15:02. > :15:05.have reach into an audience that I need to talk to. How do I persuade
:15:05. > :15:07.young people that when they go out on a Friday night, I don't want to
:15:07. > :15:11.stop people having fun, but they have to take responsibility for
:15:11. > :15:15.keeping safe. So we've spoken to the government.
:15:15. > :15:19.What would you do about it? I think we've got to look at the minimum
:15:19. > :15:25.price per unit of alcohol. Because those cheap drinks are designed for
:15:25. > :15:28.people to get drunk on. Not for normal drinkers. And if we brought
:15:28. > :15:35.in a minimum price for alcohol we know that that would reduce the
:15:35. > :15:37.level of harmful drinking in the country.
:15:37. > :15:47.I'm at my Christmas do with my mates and it is hard, there's no
:15:47. > :15:48.
:15:48. > :15:51.drinking. I'm on water. Cheers. It has been a drink free December
:15:51. > :16:01.for me which has been an interesting experiment. I've been
:16:01. > :16:03.
:16:03. > :16:06.able to give up so I'm one of the lucky ones, I guess. But it is New
:16:06. > :16:08.year's Eve, I'm about to go out so I'm going to have a cheeky half.
:16:08. > :16:11.Cheers. The people we are talking to are young people drinking huge
:16:11. > :16:14.amounts of alcohol and that is a complex thing but I think part of
:16:14. > :16:18.it is ease of access to alcohol. Part of it is how cheap it is. Part
:16:18. > :16:20.of it is the culture that we create where it is good to go out and get
:16:20. > :16:23.hammered. And there's something wrong with telling young people or
:16:23. > :16:28.making young people feel that the only way they can have fun is to go
:16:28. > :16:30.out and get totally blitzed. I did not grow up like that. I like
:16:30. > :16:35.alcohol in moderation but it is not something where I choose to get
:16:36. > :16:38.blitzed. Meanwhile Matt lives day-to-day
:16:38. > :16:41.with his phone constantly by his side hoping to get the call from
:16:41. > :16:46.his transplant team which could save his life.
:16:46. > :16:52.I know I can't change the past. It is what I do today and for the
:16:53. > :16:58.future, you know. I try and be a bit more selfless as opposed to
:16:58. > :17:00.being selfish. I reckon they are more millions of
:17:00. > :17:05.people who are part of the way through the journey that Matt has
:17:05. > :17:09.described. How many kids do you know who drink socially and then
:17:09. > :17:11.use it for confidence? That's really common. All he has done is
:17:11. > :17:15.kept going up that pathway and I think there are millions of people
:17:15. > :17:19.like that. Details of the BBC help line on
:17:19. > :17:22.alcohol coming up at the end of the show.
:17:22. > :17:27.Next, it was designed to weed out benefit cheats, but it is causing
:17:27. > :17:29.real problems for some of those people who desperately need it.
:17:29. > :17:35.The test to see if you're fit enough to work is causing real
:17:35. > :17:38.concerns for some welfare charities. There are all sorts of cases that
:17:38. > :17:43.have hit the headlines. This is Clare Jones, tandem skydiver and
:17:43. > :17:48.disability benefit cheat. This is Paul Appleby, unable to
:17:48. > :17:50.walk without two sticks and largely confined to a wheelchair.
:17:50. > :17:56.This man was filmed on the golf course after claiming he could
:17:56. > :17:59.barely walk a few yards. And only some caught on camera.
:17:59. > :18:03.This footage of a Manchester dance contest was captured by fraud
:18:03. > :18:08.investigators. Mr Reid told benefits officials he could barely
:18:08. > :18:14.walk due to crippling arthritis. The government crackdown is part of
:18:14. > :18:17.the huge drive to get people off sickness benefits and back to work.
:18:17. > :18:20.Ending the something for nothing culture. Promised made, promise
:18:20. > :18:22.delivered. But while cheats are being
:18:22. > :18:24.prosecuted, some major charities are raising concerns that many
:18:24. > :18:31.claimants are being declared fit for work when they have genuine
:18:31. > :18:34.disabilities. We fully appreciate that the
:18:34. > :18:44.benefits bill is a huge one for the country and that the issue has to
:18:44. > :18:49.
:18:49. > :18:52.be addressed. We have seen quite a lot in the media recently about
:18:52. > :18:54.people having yachts, but that is not our experience. We are seeing
:18:54. > :18:55.people would real health problems and disabilities and their benefits
:18:55. > :18:57.being stopped. The problems came to light when a
:18:58. > :19:05.new benefit called the employment support allowance was introduced to
:19:05. > :19:07.replace the old incapacity benefit. In order to get it, the majority of
:19:08. > :19:13.people have to have an independent medical assessment and score at
:19:13. > :19:15.least 15 points to qualify. This is all about taking some of
:19:15. > :19:22.the 1.6 million people we're going to be reassessing and helping them
:19:22. > :19:25.make something more of their lives. We are faced with a binary choice -
:19:25. > :19:28.either we leave people on benefits for the rest of the lives or we try
:19:28. > :19:31.to help them back into work. It may be different what they did before,
:19:31. > :19:34.maybe somebody with a back problem who can no longer do a manual job
:19:34. > :19:37.could do something else. Tony Hind, a plumber from Gosport,
:19:37. > :19:40.did not need to be reassessed as he never claimed sickness benefits
:19:40. > :19:45.before. But when he developed severe back problems he decided to
:19:46. > :19:53.go on benefits to tide him over until the got better.
:19:53. > :19:58.I couldn't bend and I was literally climbing up the stairs on all fours.
:19:58. > :20:07.I could not lift toilets, basins, baths. Boilers, radiators. Couldn't
:20:07. > :20:13.do it. So in the end in January I went to the doctor and I had the
:20:13. > :20:15.physio, scans, which all proved I had three prolapsed discs.
:20:15. > :20:19.Unable to continue working, Tony applied for employment support
:20:19. > :20:22.allowance. That meant going for an independent medical. He was not
:20:23. > :20:29.impressed with the things he was asked.
:20:29. > :20:35.A lot of questions about nothing, really. How were you able to take
:20:35. > :20:40.your dog for a walk! I told them the park was four minutes from me.
:20:40. > :20:45.Just because you have a bad back, it doesn't mean you can't walk. It
:20:45. > :20:49.was painful when I was walking, I was limping. People used to ask me
:20:49. > :20:52.how I was, they could see I was in a lot of pain. Tony answered his
:20:52. > :20:57.medical questions as best he could but failed to get enough points to
:20:57. > :20:59.qualify. He's not alone. Portsmouth CAB says in the last year around 20
:20:59. > :21:07.people a month have asked for their help saying that their assessments
:21:07. > :21:10.were wrong. What the clients are reporting back to us is that the
:21:10. > :21:16.way the assessment is administered is very much a sort of yes or no
:21:16. > :21:19.answer. And actually it is not as simple as that. If you think of
:21:19. > :21:22.someone who has had a stroke and the left side of their body is
:21:22. > :21:25.affected and they are asked questions about mobility. The
:21:25. > :21:28.answer for the right hand side of the body would be very different to
:21:29. > :21:33.the left-hand side of the body. And how do you express that in a simple
:21:33. > :21:35.format in a reply to questions on a form?
:21:35. > :21:38.When Pauline Bennett from Portsmouth retired from work for
:21:38. > :21:44.medical reasons and she hoped that the benefits system would help her
:21:44. > :21:49.out. I have night blindness, tunnel
:21:49. > :21:54.vision, so I cannot see anything from the top and bottom. My
:21:54. > :21:57.eyesight won't be getting any better, it will get worse. I had to
:21:57. > :22:01.retire from the Post Office because it was getting too dangerous for me.
:22:01. > :22:09.I was tripping over chairs and boxes. Being run over by metal
:22:09. > :22:14.cages. I had to go to ATOS to do my medical, to see how I was. And they
:22:14. > :22:20.classed me as permanently unfit for work. With just a small pension,
:22:20. > :22:23.Pauline needed benefits to get by. But for her assessment to get
:22:23. > :22:26.employment support allowance it was ATOS Healthcare had carried it out.
:22:26. > :22:34.The very same company who declared her unfit for work at the Post
:22:34. > :22:37.Office. And guess what? This time they said she was fit for work.
:22:37. > :22:39.I could not believe it, to be honest. They gave me 9 points and I
:22:39. > :22:44.could not understand it. It was almost as if I had got better
:22:44. > :22:50.without realising it! Without the required 15 points,
:22:50. > :22:57.Pauline did not qualify for the full �90 a week benefit. But she
:22:57. > :23:04.was not giving up. So I appealed. They then refused the appeal again
:23:04. > :23:09.and I had to go to a tribunal. And finally they agreed that I deserve
:23:09. > :23:14.the 15 points and that I could not see well enough to go to work. But
:23:14. > :23:19.it has taken since April for it to be sorted out. So why was Pauline
:23:19. > :23:21.declared unfit the first time but not the second? Well ATOS
:23:21. > :23:26.Healthcare told us they had different types of medical
:23:26. > :23:28.assessments with different objectives and criteria. The
:23:28. > :23:35.occupational health assessment is there to test someone's capability
:23:35. > :23:42.for a specific job or role. But the ESA assessment has been developed
:23:42. > :23:46.by the government to see if someone is capable of work in general. But
:23:46. > :23:49.of course it was Pauline's ESA assessment that was wrong. That was
:23:49. > :23:54.the one that was overturned at appeal. So are these independent
:23:54. > :23:59.medicals fit for purpose? Well, Tony also appealed to a
:23:59. > :24:05.tribunal and like Pauline, his assessment was overturned. Six
:24:05. > :24:09.months after his ESA medical, he finally got the full 15 points.
:24:09. > :24:12.It proved what I was saying all along. I think they're trying to
:24:12. > :24:16.get people off benefits, off these sickness benefits, but it is people
:24:16. > :24:23.maybe that need to come off and people who are genuine. They should
:24:23. > :24:25.not treat everyone the same. There are people who do go through what I
:24:25. > :24:33.went through and for them to turn around and disbelieve you and
:24:33. > :24:35.disbelieve your doctor, it is totally out of order.
:24:35. > :24:42.The government says it has listened to the critics and has recently
:24:42. > :24:45.brought in changes to improve the medical assessments.
:24:45. > :24:52.None of the decisions that have been taken since we introduced
:24:52. > :24:54.these changes in the summer have yet come to appeal. So all the
:24:54. > :24:57.examples that you and others have come across where something appears
:24:57. > :25:00.to have gone wrong in the process, that is all a part of changes we
:25:00. > :25:02.introduced last summer. And I'm confident that when we see the
:25:02. > :25:05.impact of those changes, working their way through the system, that
:25:05. > :25:09.we will see we have made a big improvement in the quality of
:25:09. > :25:12.decision-making. Despite these assurances, the CAB say even now
:25:12. > :25:16.they are taking on new cases of people who are falling foul of the
:25:16. > :25:19.assessments. People like Andrew Pay, an
:25:19. > :25:23.epileptic who has spent most of his life out of work because he says
:25:23. > :25:27.employers will not take him on because of his fits. He's also
:25:27. > :25:32.asthmatic and suffers from depression and has anxiety attacks.
:25:32. > :25:38.And his assessment score? No points at all. None at all, I
:25:38. > :25:43.cannot believe it. None at all. what went on in the test? What did
:25:43. > :25:51.they ask? If I could raise a hand above my head, if I could make a
:25:51. > :25:58.cup of tea. If I could walk 100 metres and things like that. And of
:25:58. > :26:04.course I can. Of course I can. I was trying to explain to her, I
:26:04. > :26:09.said it is not physical, it's mental. It is in my head. I can't
:26:09. > :26:15.show it. They wanted me to have a seizure in front of them before
:26:15. > :26:21.they would accept it. And I can't do that. Is it quite upsetting?
:26:21. > :26:26.Very upsetting, very emotional. It is. It gets to me. And in terms of
:26:26. > :26:30.your day-to-day living, how much difference does it make? Big, I
:26:30. > :26:39.can't treat my daughter to an ice cream or anything like that. I
:26:39. > :26:42.can't afford it. Sorry. While Andrew waits for an appeal,
:26:42. > :26:47.the CAB say it is people like him with long-term health conditions
:26:47. > :26:50.who are suffering the most from the benefits clampdown.
:26:50. > :26:53.Some of the changes we have put in place are specifically designed to
:26:53. > :26:58.provide extra protection to people with mental health challenges. They
:26:58. > :27:00.must be the most difficult cases to deal with appropriately. We have to
:27:00. > :27:04.really understand the nature of that person's situation and make
:27:04. > :27:06.sure we get it right. We introduced changes that have led to an
:27:06. > :27:13.increase in the number of people with mental health conditions who
:27:13. > :27:16.are now receiving long-term unconditional support. So this is
:27:16. > :27:20.all about trying to do all we can to make sure we get the decisions
:27:20. > :27:24.right for people. So the government says things are
:27:24. > :27:28.getting better. And that the improvements are working their way
:27:28. > :27:31.through the system. But with the appeals process costing between �50
:27:31. > :27:41.and �80 million, all that has come at a high price in terms of time,
:27:41. > :27:51.
:27:51. > :28:01.in terms of money, and stress. Basically, I have been unfit for
:28:01. > :28:08.
:28:08. > :28:11.work. I have retired. I've been assessed as fit for work and now
:28:11. > :28:14.I've been told again that I'm not fit for work. All it has done, it
:28:14. > :28:17.has given me stress and panic and worry. And it has cost money and
:28:17. > :28:20.time. I'm sure they could have spent that on someone else. Do you
:28:20. > :28:24.feel let down? Very. Upset, very. Because all these years, and then
:28:24. > :28:27.they decide, oh, you are well. It is wrong. That is just about it for
:28:27. > :28:35.now but don't forget, if you've got any comments to make, you can email
:28:35. > :28:37.me. I'll see you next week. For details of organisations that
:28:37. > :28:47.can offer advice and support on alcohol, go online to
:28:47. > :28:49.