Downing Street Says » Incapacity Benefit

Asked if there was not a lot of fraud in the incapacity benefit system, why had the numbers of people claiming gone up from 700,000 to 2.7 million over the past few decades, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) replied that what was important to realise was that we were now seeing one third less people joining the list than in 1997. If people looked at the rate of increase in 1997, if that had continued, then by this stage, there would have been approximately 4 million people claiming benefit, whereas there were now 2.7 million. Therefore, some of the measures that had been taken to help people were important. The basic root of our approach to incapacity benefit was that if people were on incapacity benefit for two years, it was highly unlikely that they would ever come off it as things stood at the moment.

The PMOS said that we did not believe that that was either healthy for individuals, or healthy for the overall state of the nation. We recognised that 90% of those people on incapacity benefit said that they wanted to return to work. We therefore believed that the best way forward was not to write people off, but rather to help them back to work. The PMOS said again that it was in their best interests, the best interests of the economy, and of the country as a whole.

The PMOS said that there were genuinely people who because of injuries, etc, were unable to go back to work, and we did recognise that, and the Green Paper did deal with the situation of those people.

Asked if there was an actual figure of people who could genuinely go back to work, as one million over ten years was "vague", the PMOS said it was not vague. That was a target, and the savings on that were substantial in terms of being able to use that money to help people in better ways. It was an ambitious target, but it was an achievable one, and because we had done the pilots for the Pathways Into Work, again, we had seen what works. What worked, therefore, was helping people back into work, and savings were made on that.

Asked out of the 2.7 million people, how many could go back into work, the PMOS replied that the target was one million, and the survey figure of those who said they wanted to get back into work was 90%.

Asked why that figure was not the target, the PMOS said because people had to recognise that historically, there was a problem of helping those who had been on benefit for a long time. What we believed was that the one million was a realistic figure in the next ten years. We remained ambitious beyond that time, but we should see what happened first.

Asked if there would be an interim target, so people could see by the time of the next election, whether any progress had been made, the PMOS replied that first of all, the fall in the number of applications already was real. Secondly, if people looked at how the New Deal had helped 1.5 million people into work, and virtually eradicated long term youth unemployment, that was also real. If people looked at what the creation of JobCentre Plus had done, that had delivered an extra 2.3 million people into work since 1997. The PMOS said there were real achievements already. Equally, people would be able to look at the incapacity benefit figure or the "Employment and Support allowance" figure, and see what had happened to it month on month, year on year.

Asked why had the name been changed, the PMOS said that what the title change was supposed to do was underline that this was about supporting people getting back to work. We recognised that there were some people who genuinely needed this kind of support, and the Green Paper would deal with that. What it was essentially about, however, was empowering people to get back to work.

3 Comments »

I am incapacity and want to go back to work I came up with a business idea and got customers the bank offered funds but i have to come up with another \xA34000 I have put \xA34000 in allready yet not one organisation has been able to help job centre or business link could any one suggest anything
Comment by John Phillips — 18 Jul 2007 on 10:17 pm | Link
I am incapacity and want to go back to work I came up with a business idea and got customers the bank offered funds but i have to come up with another \xA34000 I have put \xA34000 in allready yet not one organisation has been able to help job centre or business link could any one suggest anything
Comment by John Phillips — 18 Jul 2007 on 10:18 pm | Link
After working with lone parents and poverty affected families my overall impression is that “back to work” or even “into work” is totally impossible without far more accessible childcare options.So many parents queue up every monday at the jobcentre to get their benefits and their babies are being raised into a benefits system, groomed to be benefit users of the future!

I myself was told by a jobcentre advisor dont bother going back to work as benefits cover your needs and you get to stay with your children all the time. I have calculated that without Tax Credits I would be earning less than my childcare costs (1,200 per month)! this is ridiculous and not even taking into account my mortgage payments, bills and transport costs!

If childcare was free or subsidised life would be easier and many many many more mums and dads would chose work rather than telly.

It does seem however that the government should be targeting people in their twenties and thirties who literally leave school and enter the benefits system and claim to be “depressed” or ill through stress or anxiety or (a great problem..) addiction. This is not an illness, it is a choice. THESE are the people whose benefits should be stopped and reduced. They should be cleaning streets, cleaning garvitti, policing dog fouling and littering and doing valuable voluntary work rather than robbing each other, getting benefits “on the sick” and skiving.

Truly ill or disabled people should not be targeted as I am willing to bet they make efforts to volunteer and study as a way of “working”.
Comment by Lucy Woodhouse — 12 Jan 2008 on 7:15 pm | Link

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» Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Incapacity Benefit

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