Disabled or Faking It? Panorama

This man is about to have a Work Capability Assessment to see if he

can stay on disability benefits or More than two million claimants

have to take this test. Its aim? To weed out bogus

claimants and get those who can work back into employment. But has

it gone too far? I think the people who are genuinely unwell, have not

done anything wrong in their lives that have to do this test is

despicable. The Government pays ATOS Healthcare to run the system.

Yet thousands of disabled people say it is pushing them to the brink.

Our client has taken several overdoses and the assessor said

"why aren't you dead?". Government's troubleshooter thinks

it needs to change. People will The welfare state is expensive. �13

billion of taxes is spent on incapacity benefits. Now the

Government says the system needs to be tightened up and introduced the

Welfare Reform Act to do that. Almost �1 in every three spent by

the Government is spent on welfare. We need a welfare system that the

country can properly afford. Disability benefits is one of the

areas target. Nearly 7% of the working age population in the UK

claim benefits because they're too ill to work. Some, are simply lying.

The man in the white T-shirt told benefit officials he couldn't walk

without a stick, but he was capable of doing this, attacking passers by

and the police. Then there's this man who claimed disability benefits

but still managed to run the London Marathon. Last week, this Lottery

millionaire was jailed for benefit fraud. The outright cheats are a

minority. Less than half a per cent of incapacity claims are said to be

fraudulent. The real issue is not the scamers but those who are fit

enough to work if given help. The Government's man in charge denies

that. It is not a financial exercise, it is about saying it is

a huge waste of life, for so many people to be left at home on

benefits doing nothing. Nothing asked the question do you have the

potential to return to work. I passionately believe, if we can

help people back in work, they are we are off than stranded at home on

benefits for the rest of their lives. It was the last Labour

Government which began to reform the capacity benefit system in 2008.

For the new benefit, claimant support allowance, claimants would

be tested to come off the benefit and do some sort of work. The test

was called a Work Capability Assessment. The current Government

picked up the ball and kept running. They enhanced the test and now

everyone who is on benefits because they're too ill to work has to be

assessed. Four years since the assessment yaes introduction, a

third of those claiming Incapacity Benefit have been found fit for

work. Is it just weeding out the undeserving. I want to meet the

people at the sharp end. Chris Davies is one of them. Can we stop

for a minute. Are you OK? Yeah. Chris worked all his life in the

steel industry and then as a lorry driver.

I enjoyed the job. It was long hours. Early morning starts, but I

enjoyed it. In 2009 he became seriously ill with a chest

infection that wouldn't go away. It turned out to be the chronic lunge

disease emphysema. One morning his breathing was so laboured he was

rushed to hospital. One of the doctors called us in the office and

she told me he had two days to live, she said I would advise you look

through the holiday snaps and remember all the good times. And

prepare for his funeral. Chris pulled through but returninging to

work was out of the question. He was assessed. Found unfit for work

and given Employment Support Allowance under �90 a week. He

settled into a life, coping with his illness. For Chris, climbing

the stairs can be a challenge can't walk far. 50, metres before I

have to stop. I have to lean against something, catch my breath.

Last year he was called in for another Work Capability Assessment.

It is a point-based system. The more points you get the less able

you are to work. You need 15 points or more to keep your benefits.

In May, I received a letter saying I hadn't passed the medical

assessment, and I was fit for work. I was shocked, because there was no

way I could work, not physically. And, according to my doctor I was

unfit for work. The assessment was clear, Chris received no points. He

was fit for work. When they turned around they were stopping my

benefits altogether, I thought, what are we going to do? He could

still claim Job Seekers' Allowance, only if he is well enough to

actively seek work. Some groups running the work programme told

Panorama, that many people they're asked to deal with, are clearly

unfit for work. Chris appealed and went to a tribunal. It caused me a

lot of stress, because I was thinking, if I go to the tribunal

and lose that, I wouldn't get any money at all. I wouldn't be able to

work. Chris won. His benefits were

restored and back dated. His case is far from unique. More than

176,000 case go to tribunal cases, costing the taxpayer millions of

pounds. The figures suggest about 30% of the cases are being

overturned. Welfare rights adviser, Neil Bateman says his success vait

higher. I think I've won all of them so far. Other advisers are

getting very similar success rates, 80-90% with advisers is common,

which is ridiculous, that we're getting a fantastic success rate.

What does that tell but the system? It is badly thraued the assessment

process, the way they gather the evidence and quality of the

decision-making is badly wrong. If you have 176,000 appeals a year,

and a third of them are successful, that can't be right? I think you

have to look at why the appeals are successful. I wish the judges

looked beyond the first impression and thought is it really the case,

that the people could not return to any form of work. All over Britain,

we've been hearing from people, who are appealing. I've been diagnose

with the inflamatory arthritis, which is causing constant joint

pain. I used to be a freelance photographer, however, I developed

a severe case of depression, for which I am receiving a high doesage

of medication. The decision about whether someone is fit to work,

will be taken by officials at the Department of Work and Pensions,

based just here. But a significant, factor in making that decision,

will be the initial assessment, carried out at ATOS Healthcare,

which is a private company. It is this case that has come in for huge

criticism and the advisers helping them overturn the decisions made.

They'll ask you things like can you move an empty cardboard box. And

that's because one of the activities is your ability to reach

and move things around. But I can't think of a job, that involves

moving empty cardboard boxes. Government admits there's room for

improvement. Two years ago, they appointed, Professor Malcolm

Harrington to independently review the system. He believes the test on

its own has serious limitations. you rely entirely on the computer

programme, yes it won't work. And I think it is now shown not to work.

You have to involve human beings, looking at all the information that

is available, because they're dealing with human beings. We've

also spoken to five people who have carried out the test. Like all ATOS

Healthcare assessors, they're medically qualified. Most were

afraid to go on the record, because they signed confidentiality

agreements. One gave their permission to use the statement and

told us the system are rigid. are people you would like to award

ESA to, and can't. If you're doing it honestly, they don't get the

points and that's it, they're stuffed. We've decide today follow

two people, going through the assessment process. This is Marie

Aldridge from Hertfordshire. She's 21, and has a condition called fieb

fieb, - fibromyalgia which means her joints can dislocate. I left

school at 16, I had various jobs, mainly customer service call type

things, but I lost a few of them, down to my fibromyalgia. So, I gave

in. And I pride for ESA. This will be Marie's first ESA assessment and

she's agreed for it to be secretly filmed.

Can you lift the arms? Put them to the neck and keep them straight.

the same day in North Wales, Chris Davies is attending his third

assessment, despite previously winning an appeal, which made it

Will these assessments help reveal why some disabled people are denied

This doctor doesn't ask him for more detail about his breathing or

medical evidence. But then that's not his job. He's here to conduct

the assessment as it is designed and follows procedures properly.

But it is very different from how Chris's own doctors monitor his

condition. They can't tell us by listening to it. The consultant,

every time he sends me for an X-ray, and takes blood samples as well.

Marie's assessment, takes 20 minutes.

ATOS insiders told us they're pressed for time, because of the

amount of paperwork they have to do, for each examination. We're under

pressure to see eight people a day, even if it is impossible to do. I'd

like to think the quality of my work is consistent. But the time

pressure doesn't help, and, working for ATOS is one of the least

popular things for health care professionals, it is pressurised

and being put on performance reviews. We wanted to ask ATOS

whether assessors had enough time to consider all relevant

information. They refused to be interviewed but told us their staff,

carry out thousands of assessments, in accordance with the detailed

guidelines with the Department of Work and Pensions. Any serious

suggestion that our work has fallen short of the high standards we set

ourselves is investigated as a matter of course. Two years in,

what does the Government's independent reviewer, think of the

assessment? It is better than it was.

Is it fit for purpose? If it is properly done along the

recommendations I made, it will be fit for purpose. Do you believe it

is fit for purpose right across the country? Noifplt it is patchy.

There will be people, who because we're in the interim period, who

will suffer, and I don't like that. Some GPs believe they're left to

pick up the pieces when patients fail assessments. I think people

who come to me distressed, having been on long-term benefits, for

some time with clear unresolveable physical problems, whereby they're

going for cursery examinations, very rapidly, and having previously

passed happily, are failing the tests and now deemed fit to work,

when they're clearly not. Far from saving money, Johnston says the

tests are adding to NHS costness poor areas. We're busy at the best

of times, and we're now having to fit in more people, whose

appointments are more for benefits than the health. The by question is

not whether the assessment process is failing sick and disabled people

but consequences for some of the people when the decision is wrong.

Sometimes it can be financially crippling, sometimes

psychologically distressing. But across the country we've spoken to

some families who say the consequences for their loveed ones

The Hills have been a close family, living near each other. But one

person is missing from this picture. Steven Hill worked as a sandwich

delivery man, but he'd been having problems to his health. He blamed

the early starts, and that's why you're tired and struggling. When

he left work he was still tired and still struggling, that's when we

first knew. He was referred to tests on his heart, he stopped work

and applied for ESA, on his first Work Capability Assessment, wife

Denise was by his side. What happened at the first assessment?

They did his blood pressure, his heart a, and she says see a doctor

as soon as. Steve saw his consultant shortly afterwards,

within days he was diagnose with the heart failure. Then his ESA

results arrived. Remember it was the assessor who told Steve to seek

urgent medical help. He was passed fillet for work. How did you feel

when he was OK for work Shocked, because what she'd said, and like I

said to him, you have to appeal because you're not very well.

won his appeal, but the relief was short-lived. Within weeks he was

called back for another assessment, the progress was starting again.

got another letter for a medical. I can't couldn't believe it. He got

to go for a medical, when he was waiting for a heart operation, how

mad is that. The second assessor, seemed interested in Steve's knee

than anything else. I said what about his heart. She turned around

and said we're not here to talk business bi- his heart, we're here

to talk about his knee. The knee is nought aside from his heart. Once

again, Steve got zero points. In the report the assessor said

disability do you to cardiovascular problems seems unlikely. What

effect did that second assessment have on him? He was starting to get

to him then. He felt belittleed, he believed doctors are right, because

they're medical and professionals. He started thinking, I must be OK,

and fit for work, if they're telling me that I am. And moved the

car out, as he was taking the Hoover back in the house, that's

when he collapsed and had his heart attack and died.

Steven Hill died 39 days after found fit for work. I've lost my

best friend. A person I ka talk to. Tell me

- could talk to. He had to go on signing on and going to doctors, he

should have been here, relaxing for his operation, not worrying for

notes for this and that the. Between January and August last

year, an average of 32 people who the Department of Work and Pensions

ruled could be helped back to work, died every week. I have a

progressive disease. My brother ATOS Healthcare Government contract

is worth a billion pounds and runs until 2015, but much of it is

shrouded in mystery. We tried to get hold of the details of the

contract, but all they'd give us is a redackive version, they said it

was commercially confidentialal. But some people fear the reason so

many sick and disabled people failing the test, is because ATOS

is working to targets. Both ATOS and the Government strengthen with

usly deny any targets exist. Let's be absolutely clear, I do not have,

we do not have a financial target, for the reassessment people on

Incapacity Benefit or the level of new applications for ESA, which are

successful. Absolutely, categorically, unequivocally, there

is no financial target. Does ATOS have targets? No they don't. There

are no targets, anywhere in the system for numbers of people, to

move on to or off benefits. There may be no targets but there are

forecasts, showing how many people the DWP expect to come off benefits.

ATOS insiders confirmed numbers do seem to matter. If it is accepted

someone's too sick or disabled to work they're put into something the

support group, with full benefits of �96 a week. Three insiders told

us, there's internal pressure to avoid putting too many people in

that group. If you were support grouping more than whatever the

average is, about 20%, you're notified by your mentor, and if

you're castigateing doctors, nurses, phsyios for straying away from the

average, that kind of does have the feeling there are indeed targets.

Moving people off disability benefits when they've been living

on them for years isn't easy. The Government's answer is a work

programme, which includes something called the Work Related Activity

Group. It is for those, who with support, may be able to work again.

One of its architects was Professor Paul Gregg. There are a lot of

people who want to work. The disability community as a whole has

been strong and sorrowcal in saying, disabled people shouldn't be shut

out of the world of work. ESA is hoping they'll move people off

benefits and back into work. He is concerned people may be wrongly put

into the work related group. There's a question mark, in the

sense are there people, who are, inappropriately put into this kind

of programme, who really, there is no serious hope or prospect for

moving into work. Sharon Thompson suffers from a degenerative disease

of the spine and severe osteopour rows sis and osteoarthritis. She's

on morphine to ease the pain A lot of people say you have good days

and bad days, I don't know, because I'm never out of pain. I was a

security officer on plg sites. Sharon's husband is now her full

time carer. Going back, nobody ever imagineed their life can change in,

a short space of time. After her ESA assessment, Sharon was put in

the Work Related Activity Group. What did you think. I was

gobsmacked, it wasn't because I didn't want to work. But what work

can they give me. When I go to the toilet, my husband has to help me

to pull everything down for me and everything back up. You know what I

mean, what job can I do with somebody doing that. There are

Government schemes which help pay for specialist support in the

workplace. But Sharon felt that was unrealistic. She appealed, and won.

Then, she was put in the work related group again. She appealed

again, and won again. It must seem like a never-ending night mare to

you? Terrible. Because it never goes away in your mind. Every week

you're waiting for another form to come through. We've had people who

had multiple appeals and assessment, that can't be right can it? It is

apparent to me, we were calling people back too regularly. I

instructed the officials who operate the system to make sure we

leave a more sensible interval between the two. What you can't do

is go away and we won't talk to you again. This was the problem with

the old system. Since ESA was spwre duced, 7,000 people appealed

successfully and moved into the support group where it is accepted

they're unlikely to work again. There's a perception within DWP

there are large amounts of people on disability benefits who just

shouldn't be there, and what they're doing is try to find them

and weed them out. What is not done enough is to worry about the impact

it is having on people's lives depg through the process. Because of the

terrible and chronic Fatih I felt, I had to give up work and was

medically retired. I used to work in IT. But I had to give it up,

because of MS. Now I need help getting out of pedestrian. Dealing

with someone's fis disabilities is one thing. But what if they have

mental health problems? Well that's something they know all about here

at the Maudsley Hospital in south London. In fact they say they're

picking up the tab for a system Andy King has buy polar disorder.

He was already feeling unwell when told he'd have to be reassessed for

ESA. This was a blow actually. I thought I might lose a big part of

my benefit, so that kind of was a body blow, and that's what resulted,

partially in me being admitted to the Maudely in mid-November. He was

catatonic and unable to speak. was told while I was in hospital,

they assessed me and put me in the work-related activity group around

about December. You were in hospital? Yeah. I was sectioned

under the Mental Health Act and they put me in the Work Related

Activity Group. The Maudsley has a dedicated welfare team. They appeal

the result and won. They say they're overwhelmed in helping

people like Andy fight wrong decisions. That's apart from the

cost of treating people, who feel they've been driven to the brink by

dealing with the system. We're having to call on the resources of

doctors and nurses and social workers to put everything

altogether to send off. This is all work you wouldn't have done before?

Wouldn't have done it before, no. Just going through the assessment

can be harrowing for many people with mental illness. We had a lady,

she had her care co-ordinator with her. They asked her many things

about her illness, our client had taken several overdoses and the

assessor said to them "well why aren't you dead?". So the client

became distraught at that point. Her care co-ordinator stopped the

interview. This is a lady with serious mental health problems?

They said if the interview was stopped, they would lose the

benefits. We asked the assessors. The Government says the system is

being improved. ATOS assessors are retrained and staff at the DWP will

rely less heavily on ATOS assessments alone. There's some way

to G according to the man who recommended that training. There

are areas where it is still not working and yes I'm sorry there are

people going through a system which I think still needs improvements

and they haven't reached their neck of the woods, or appropriately by

these people because they haven't finished their training.

Government says despite the difficulties, it is in the end, for

the good of people, who are sick and disabled. There are people who

don't believe they can work any more, or have options to return to

the workplace. We're pushing them through David Cameron described as

"tough love" because we believe she can. Remember Marie Aldridge, she's

placed in the Work Related Activity Group. Marie is delighted and hope

she'll get the support she needs to get back in work. Chris had his

assessment the same day, but he's waiting for a result. Last week, he

started coughing blood and is back in hospital. Meanwhile, up and down

the country, tens and thousands of people are struggling with a system

they believe is at best frustrating and worse seriously damaging to

their health. If a patient, it is awful. For people who have

genuinely unwell, have not done anything wrong in their lives to be

put through this is despicable. question is now whether the process

judging them is itself fit for purpose. Next week, rats, bedbugs