900,000 choose to come off sickness benefit ahead of UK tests

Telegraph (UK) ^ | 9:00PM GMT 30 Mar 2013 | By Patrick Hennessy

[Izzy Dunne]

Nice catch. From the article:

As well as the 878,300 who chose to drop their claims, another 837,000 who did take the a medical test were found to be fit to work immediately, while a further 367,300 were judged able to some level of work.

Only 232,000 (one in eight of those tested) were classified by doctors to be too ill to do any sort of job.

So, 878k bailed without taking the test, and another 1.4 million people were tested, with 232k found truly unable.

[riri]

In Sweden, they routinely do what they call "hitting the wall". Then they take a year, two or more off. It's completely socially acceptable and no one bats an eye to hear of it.

After, they return to their same jobs as the company as to take them back.

Sometimes, they hit the wall for a while, go back to work for a while, hit the wall again, vacation time again. You get the picture.

[bert]

it also keeps lawyers rich

[Marcella]

Then, there is the other side: I didn't know my (now deceased) husband when he went on disability when he was in his mid 30s. He had ankolosing spondalitis, which is a bone disease but didn't know that until it destroyed his bone system. He was an engineer and one day at work, fell to the floor and never worked with a company again. His spine had collapsed, breaking in numerous places. He underwent back bone surgeries, then both his hip bones died. He was in a wheelchair for months until they discovered the hips bones had died, then had both hips replaced.

During that time, he filed for disability. Someone told him that only black people manage to get disability. That made him mad and determined to get it. He was sent to numerous doctors to determine if he could ever get better. One of these “doctors” told him to hop on one leg down the floor. He refused (because he had artificial hips put in not long ago). That doctor listed him as “uncooperative”.

That doctor's report made a hearing necessary. While my husband was with that doctor, he noted he did not see any doctor license or certificate on the wall anywhere. The hearing happened and my husband told the hearing panel he didn't think that man was licensed in this state. Sure enough, he wasn't. The doctor's report was thrown out and he got the disability. He had to go through hell to get that but he absolutely could not work. He had to give up his career and that was hard.

The doctors also said he would be dead by his early forties as the disease would stop his breathing and he would have to be put in “an iron lung” (that is what was used in those days). This man was determined not to die from that disease. He lived until age 66 until he died of brain cancer.

Back when he had to fight for disability it wasn't easy to get, and I don't know if it was true black people had an easier time getting it.

Years after that happened to him (and I still didn't know him), I psychologically tested people for Social Security disability or SSI disability. They had to bring all their medicines to me to list on the documents I had to complete about them. My report I wrote was usually 10 pages long, single spaced. At the end, I made a recommendation whether or not, in my opinion, based on the testing and personal interview, this person qualified for disability. The Social Security Administration would never see this person so I wanted to be sure I gave them enough information to know this person.

I saw people in terrible physical condition. I also saw one that I didn't recommend for disability payments. She was turned down and called my office. I told her all the records were owned by Social Security and she would have to contact them as they made the final decision. I also found out she had been turned down before.

I know I did my job thoroughly back then. I don't know how these matters are decided now.

[GeronL]

Maybe we need a test here

[GeronL]

only 1 n 8 were really disabled? wow

[nascarnation]

Well we can’t use a pulse test, because in a lot of urban locations, dead people receive benefits and vote, LOL.

[Bob]

In percentage terms - Of the 2,314,600 people on disability, only 232,000 (10.023%) were found to be disabled with another 367,300 (15.9%) partially disabled. That’s a 75% fraud rate (assuming that the partial disability claims are genuine).

[Squawk 8888]

Including scams that are perfectly legal; many disability programs include “addiction”. In my neighbourhood there are a lot of able-bodied drunks and crackheads collecting benefits. The state as enabler.

[wbill]

Many, many moons ago, my mom worked for the state in one of the welfare programs. At that time, she figured about 3 in 4 people in her caseload were working the system. She had 600-ish cases, do the math.

Of course, she is more conservative than me, so they gave her the hardest ones. Still, three in four checks with your stats.

[dennisw]

shocker! problem here is those who would administer such tests are 3rd worlders and will give the stamp of approval to their own kind and their family and neighbors who bribe them

[RetiredTexasVet]

It’s already here and it’s 2 or 3 times the 15/20 percent that you cited.

[tbw2]

This is a rare thing for me to say, but we need to follow the British example in this case. Require a strict medical assessment for those on disability, kick off those who can work.

[DeaconBenjamin]

Not agreeing as to third worlders, but I did hear from an interpreter in a neighboring county that no hispanics could expect to receive welfare benefits in that county because all that money belonged to people who shared the race of the Department of Human Services workers.