News figures reveal only 7% of current claimants assessed for incapacity benefit qualify to receive the handout in the long term.
Having been assessed by the latest Government model, only 1 in 14 claimants are considered too ill to work and is therefore entitled to claim the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). 17% are able to work with the appropriate support.
Steve Webb, Minister for Work and Pension 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.”
Under a scheme setup by the Labour government in 2008, those who considered themselves too ill to work were assessed for their work capability to check whether they could do a job. Now officials are checking whether new claimants qualify for ESA, previously known as incapacity benefits.
Under the new model, successful applicants are judged unfit for work and qualify for the benfefits. Those judged as able to work are informed that they must resubmit an apllication for benefits but for Jobseeker’s Allowance instead. Another category also exists for those deemed fit to work if they were givent the appropritate support.
Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, said: “The new incapacity benefit assessment is a much tougher test than previously and is designed to save the Government money by excluding more people. It is therefore unsurprising that more disabled people have been declared fit for work. These figures certainly don’t suggest that thousands of disabled people are suddenly ‘trying it on’ .”
Prime Minister David Cameron said: “For too long in this country we have left people on welfare for year after year when those people, with help and with assistance, could work, and so we’re producing a much better system where we really put people through their paces and say that if you can work, you should work.”
Alice Maynard, spokeswoman for the charity Scope, said: “If the Government’s aim is to get more people working, feeding negative assumptions about disabled people won’t help achieve this. Rather than expending energy smearing claimants, the Government needs to re-think its Work Capability Assessment, so that it captures the multiple, complex barriers to finding jobs and points people towards the right kind of support.”
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