CANCER patients and people who had suffered broken backs are being told to return to work because of a “demonisation” of benefit claim-ants, it was suggested last night.

The Oxfordshire Community Work Agency said changes to the benefits system were putting new claimants in impossible positions by declaring them fit to work.

The Barton-based group said it had won more than 90 per cent of cases it had taken to tribunal in the past 12 months.

It comes as the Government prepares for a fresh attack on benefit scroungers.

Manager Suzy Drohan, said: “We have horrific stories about these new tests for incapacity. Only last week, a 28-year-old woman with an inoperable brain tumour came in and said she had been declared fit for work.”

She said the agency had already won 93 out of 100 cases it took to tribunal in Birmingham.

Anyone who is declared unfit to work can claim the new employment and support allowance, which was introduced in 2008 and can total up to £96.85 a week.

The Department for Work and Pensions said 890 people in Oxford and 3,110 around the county had been tested under the new rules and were receiving the benefit.

But there are 12,490 people in Oxfordshire claiming other incapacity-related benefits, which the Government is also keen to change.

A work capability assessment means people have to be seen by a doctor, but Mrs Drohan said this should not be the only view taken into account.

Mrs Drohan said: “It should then also include evidence from the client and their doctors, but in reality the Government are just rubberstamping single assessments.

“So, you are getting cases where the evidence of top specialists is being ignored in favour of a doctor who spent maybe 20 minutes looking at someone.”

Mark Davey, 50, who broke his back when he slipped a year-and-a-half ago, has recently won a claim.

The accident left the handyman with a broken spine, house-bound and barely able to walk.

But he was declared fit to work after a 15-minute assessment, which cut his benefits for more than a year.

He said: “It was like being victimised. I was not fit, but I was being constantly told by the Government that I was.”

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith, a former Work and Pensions Secretary, agreed assessments needed more care and sensitivity.

He said: “I have always stressed too the importance of help and training for people who want to work. No-one should assume that just because someone is disabled that they don’t want to work.

“Like other aspects of policing benefits, though, there do have to be proper checks in order to catch those who are working the system.

“But those who are genuinely ill or incapable of work should be treated with dignity, and shouldn’t be penalised because of the cheats.”

A DWP spokesman said: “The work capability assessment is designed to determine if people with a health problem or disability are able to work, while ensuring that those too sick to work get the help they need.

“If someone disagrees with their assessment, they have the right to appeal.”