Sickness benefits 'being paid to almost two million people who may not still qualify'
According to Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) records, more than two thirds of claimants who should be reassessed have yet to be seen.It means that billions of pounds a year in sickness benefits are being paid to claimants whose eligibility has not been checked, the investigation by the Times has found.Around 2.8 million people receive the higher category of universal credit sickness benefit, which pays up to £430 a month. 2.5m are eligible for reassessment, but 1.8m are still waiting to be seen by the DWP.Read more: Russian efforts to meddle in Brexit vote were 'unsuccessful,' minister tells LBCRead more: Zelenskyy blindsided by Donald Trump's deal with Putin to halt attacks on energy infrastructureSince Covid, three in four assessments have been done over the phone and the DWP has admitted it has 'limited capacity' to carry out re-assessments because of the large numbers of new claims for sickness benefits.The DWP projects that four million working-age adults will be on sickness benefits by the end of the decade, a 60 per cent increase since the start of the pandemic.People on sickness benefits are statistically more likely to retire while claiming benefits than stop claiming and go back to work.A DWP spokesperson said: “We recognise the need to reform the Work Capability Assessment process, which has seen a surge in demand over some years.“We inherited low levels of face-to-face assessments, and our priority has been to increase these, with the proportion of Work Capability Assessments conducted face-to-face nearly doubling over the past two years.“We have rightly prioritised assessments for new claimants and people who notify us they have had a change in their circumstances.”
