Two years ago I began to blog on an occasional basis, two months ago I changed my approach to publish a new blog each day. In total I have written 178 blogs and I genuinely think that todays topic is one of the most shocking of all. I have been alerted by the Ekklesia daily e-news that the Department for Work and Pensions has decided to stop recording the number of people who die whilst in receipt of disability benefits.

It is inevitable that all Governments record far too many statistics and some of these are of no value whatsoever. My Uncle who is 86 used to work for the civil service and yesterday as we chatted, told me that he regularly received a phone call at around 4.45 in the afternoon with a request for a new measure to be provided by the following morning tht had purportedly arrived from No 10 Downing Street. As he got older and he came closer to retirement and more confident about his own position he found different ways of pointing out the cost of doing the work and tried to offer alternative suggestions to counting the specific measure. It doesn’t matter if the average waiting time at A&E is 4hrs or 16hrs, if you happen to be sitting in one of the plastic chairs with pains or other symptons. All that matters is how long you will have to wait.

The number of people who die while receiving disability benefits might be a measure that is not needed if the provision of such benefits was unchanged and other factors were also in a steady state. However the moment when a major change is underway is not the time to stop counting this particular measure when immense change is impacting this part of our society. Having revealed that my Uncle was a Civil Servant who dealt with requests from No 10, I need to also mention that I am closely related to someone who is in the midst of being assessed for disability benefits via the much reviled ATOS assessors. The impact on my other relative tells me that the system for assessment is as incoherent as any other in the health and social care field that I have experienced or has been relayed to me. This is not a private sector, efficient and effective process that is simply too ruthless. It is delayed and cancelled appointments, endless pieces of documentation and a total lack of compassion as the agency seeks to decide if the people concerned are entitled to be treated as disabled or not, and if so at what level. The stress levels impacting a group of people who are already unwell and suffering cannot be overstated. The threat of a loss of financial support at the end of the process hangs over the people concerned just as much as the outcome of a life changing court case where other people will make decisions about us.

It would be laughable if this was not such a desperately sad and demeaning matter. If the Government wanted to help people take a step from dependency then they need to be supported and assisted, not made to feel demoralised, diminished and dismissed. In an ideal world the analysis of people going through this process would be measured with a great deal more granularity than to count if they are alive. However it is a gross failure of the DWP to stop measuring mortality of this very vulnerable group whilst the whole cohort is being subjected to such a stressful form of assessment. It is impossible to see this as anything other than cynical and manipulative. This is a decision that must be reversed as a matter of urgency, our MPs need to be challenged to get this measure reinstated ASAP.