UK spent £440m fighting disability claims as system designed to 'block getting benefits' | ITV News

The government has spent £443.5m fighting disabled people who decided to appeal after being turned down for two key benefits, freedom of information data has revealed.

The research, carried out by the charity Scope and shared exclusively with ITV News, finds that £200m of the total was spent resisting genuine cases, in which the initial rejection was later overturned.

Altogether, more than 1.2 million decisions concerning Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and Employment Support Allowance were found to be wrong between 2013 and 2021.

The figures come as two whistleblowers - who both worked as PIP assessors - claimed the system was to blame - arguing it was "not designed to help disabled people but to try to block them from getting benefits".

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