Disgrace Behind Governments Fitness For Work Assessments

Since the Conservative Party bought in their welfare reform in 2013, campaigners, MPs and charities have repeatedly warned that disabled people are dying as a result of the way the Government now assess disabled people's fitness to work. 
Occasionally we hear stories of Government incompetence and cold-heartedness such as the person with Down’s syndrome being asked when 'they had caught it' and the young woman who was told that her mental health problems couldn't be that bad because she hadn't killed herself yet.
The United Nations has even dubbed the UK’s treatment of disabled people 'a human catastrophe' and while over 70% of disability benefit rejections are overturned at tribunal, that process can take up to a year which brings us to Stephen Smith.
The name may not be instantly recognisable but his photo is hard to forget, 64-year old Smith, who had just had his disability benefits stopped, sitting in a hospital gown, his bones protruding from his withered six stone frame, wracked with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, osteoarthritis and an enlarged prostate that left him barely able to walk but had just been found 'fit for work' and told to look for a job.
It took a year for Smith’s case to be heard at Tribunal and the decision to be overturned and his benefits to be reinstated after the tribunal judge saw he could barely walk down the street to the court let alone hold down a job and the DWP issued a statement that said: 'We are sorry for the experience Mr Smith has had and we are committed to ensuring that people with health conditions get the support they're entitled to'.
Stephen Smith died last week and it is shameful that he spent the last months of his life fighting to regain the benefits he needed to live on, and that he was put under incredible strain while severely ill by this incompetent and inhumane government.
Some people put it down to the ongoing austerity measures, this being the eleventh year of such drastic cuts, but the Government have been targeting the poorest and sickest in society for all of those years.
The Conservative's are truly the nasty party and the 'fit for work' assessments are a national disgrace but no Government Minister will be held responsible or be held to account for what is an ideological disgrace.