Statistics released this week by the UK Government found more than 40 per cent of those claiming incapacity benefit were judged to be fit for work.
However, the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice NI said the UK government figures were "misleading and are not a true representation of the thousands of people who are incorrectly found fit for work. Forty per cent of appeals against exclusion from this benefit are being upheld.”
Under the UK government's "new work programme", those ESA claimants found fit to work are moved on to job seekers allowance (JSA), where they are compelled to seek work. Successful ESA claimants will be asked to volunteer for the ‘Pathways to Work’ programme, a new approach developed to help those with health conditions and disabilities to consider their options for returning to work.
Steve Webb, the Work and Pensions minister, said the government's work programmes for the unemployed, which include placements with firms and voluntary groups in exchange for benefit payments, would give claimants the "help they need".
He said: "These figures show that many people are able to work with the right help. We have strengthened the support now available, tailoring it to individual needs so they can overcome whatever barriers they face."
The figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were based on medical assessments of the claimants carried out last year. Across the UK, 517,000 of the 1,342,100 people assessed were deemed to be fit enough to seek work.
Derek Alcorn, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice NI, claimed the figures did not reflect the true picture. He said many people who were genuinely too sick to work had been passed as fit under the ESA.
Labour MP Anne Begg, chair of the Commons work and pensions committee, warned against judging individual claimants harshly before knowing the full details of their case.
She said: "Once people come to the end of their six month's statutory sick pay there's nowhere else for them to go. If someone is put on to sick pay and they still have a sick note from their doctor signing them off, then they can't work, but the system doesn't take that into account.
"There's a problem, because a number of people found fit for work will still be signed off ill. They could be having chemotherapy tests or not have had their illness properly diagnosed yet."
The figures, which were published on Tuesday 26 July 2011, also included some people who had twice unsuccessfully applied for benefit.
The Commons work and pensions committee has already published a report criticising the benefits assessment firm, Atos Healthcare, which tests about 11,000 benefit claimants a week to determine how ill they are and whether they are eligible for benefit payments.
A committee report yesterday said Atos was causing "fear and anxiety" among vulnerable and disabled people, as well as providing a service that was "below the standard" expected.