Mental health professionals and charities have said they fear those deemed fit to undertake limited amounts of work under a controversial assessment process could suffer further harm to their health if the plans go ahead. […] The policy could mean that those on employment and support allowance who have been placed in the work-related activity group (Wrag) could be compelled to undertake work experience for charities, public bodies and high-street retailers. The Wrag group includes those who have been diagnosed with terminal cancer but have more than six months to live; accident and stroke victims; and some of those with mental health issues.

Neil Bateman of the National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers said: “This proposal is very worrying. There are completely inadequate legal and medical safeguards – bearing in mind that these are people with long-term health problems and disabilities, often serious ones. Compulsory, unpaid work may worsen some people’s health, with the consequences of the DWP’s savings being passed on to the NHS at greater cost. If jobs are there to be done, people should get the rate for the job, instead of being part of a growing, publicly funded, unpaid workforce which, apart from being immoral, actually destroys paid jobs.”

This is some straight-up moustache-twirling Arthur Pendragon-style unicorn-killing tie-you-to-the-train-tracks cartoon villainy.