I am a consultant physician currently off work with depression (Benefit deaths fuel alarm over welfare regime, 28 August). I have just had my employment support allowance (ESA) withdrawn following a work capability assessment (WCA). I have a job, I’m just not well enough at the moment to do it – if I can’t decide which biscuits to buy, would you want me making decisions about how much morphine to give your mother?
In medical diagnostic tests we talk about sensitivity – the ability of the test to give a true positive result – and specificity – the ability to give a true negative result. If four out of 10 ESA claimants have their benefits reinstated on appeal, then the WCA has an abysmal specificity. Imagine the scandal if a test for cancer subsequently showed that 40% of people previously given the all-clear were found to have the disease. I will be appealing on principle, as well as to enable us to eat and pay our mortgage.
Dr Becky Hirst
Sheffield
• Statisticians may argue over the meaning of the detailed figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions on the deaths of people judged to be “fit for work”. However, ministers must have recognised that they were shameful – why else has it taken more than four months since the information commissioner instructed that data be released? The Labour leadership election and the silly season have offered perfect cover, but parliament reassembles in a few weeks and this will provide an opportunity to judge whether either government or opposition are fit for purpose.
Les Bright
Exeter
• Nearly 90 people a month dying after being declared “fit for work”. Is this what Iain Duncan Smith means by “behavioural change”?
Bruce Ross-Smith
Oxford
