The results of new research published today in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health are absolutely startling, showing a possible direct link between the Tory Government's vicious Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and a rise in suicides, mental health problems and anti depressant prescribing.
Between 2010 and 2013, more than one million people claiming disability benefit were reassessed using the WCA, including a higher proportion of people living in areas of deprivation. The researchers analysed statistics in 149 English local authority areas which showed that in those with higher rates of reassessment, there was a corresponding increase in suicides, mental health issues and antidepressant prescribing...
For every additional 10,000 people reassessed in each area there were an additional six suicides, 2,700 cases of reported mental health problems, and the prescribing of an additional 7,020 antidepressant items.
Nationally, the WCA disability reassessment was associated with an additional 590 suicides, 279,000 additional cases of self-reported mental health problems and the prescribing of an additional 725,000 antidepressant items
"To put this into perspective of overall levels of these outcomes, this is equivalent to 5% of the total number of suicides, 11% of prevalent cases of self-reported mental health problems and 0.5% of the total number of antidepressant items prescribed in
England" states the study.
While those familiar with anyone who has been reassessed will know about the stress caused by the likes of ATOS, this research is the first showing a link between WCA and the dire affects it has on people's lives.
"This study was looking at whether there was an association between people going through the assessment process in an area, and increases in suicides and other measures of mental health problems" researcher Dr Ben Barr, from the Department of Public Health and Policy at the University of Liverpool, told the Salford Star.
"There's plenty of reports showing how stressful the reassessment process is, and how it has adversely affected people; but what we looked at was how closely the trend in suicides and other mental health problems match with how local areas were affected by policy, and we found a very close correlation" he adds "Then we looked at whether that could be explained by other alternative factors and found nothing else that can explain that pattern of increased suicides. It seems a quite likely explanation."
In Salford, between 2011 and 2013, 8,030 claimants of Incapacity Benefit went through the WCA reassessments, and 1,740 people were found to be fit for work. During this period there were 63 suicides in Salford, although it's hard to pinpoint which of those may or may not be related to the WCA.
"When the recession struck the number of people with mental health problems, including suicides, started rising but what is surprising is that those measures of mental health have continued to get worse right up to 2013, and there hasn't been any recovery in mental health, alongside the economic recovery" explains Dr Barr "The question is; `Why have things continued to get worse despite the economic recovery?', and one of the potential reasons is the austerity policies and welfare reforms - and this one in particular seems to be an explanation into why things have continued to get worse.
"We hope that the Government does think again about the reassessment process" he concludes "There's growing evidence that putting people through this process has been having an adverse effect on their health. Several charities, including MIND, have been calling for the Government to redesign its system of reassessing people for benefits – this evidence supports that case."
To read the full report – click here
Photos show Disabled People Against The Cuts protests at the Tory Party Conference last month
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