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New Incapacity Benefit ignores health issues, says expert

The government’s replacement of Incapacity Benefit fails to recognise the health issues that claimants face, according to a public health expert at Durham University.

Incapacity Benefit is being replaced today by ‘Employment Support Allowance’, a benefit which focuses on the ‘fitness’ of people for employment.

A year ago, the Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain said he intended to “tear up sick note Britain”, by introducing measures to help get people off Incapacity Benefit (IB). Under the new scheme, claimants will be classed according to their employability.

But Dr Clare Bambra, a lecturer in public health policy at the Wolfson Research Institute at Durham University says: “The reforms are designed to get IB claimants back to work via compulsory vocational training, but without a focus on health improvement or job creation, in areas of high IB claims it seems unlikely that these measures will improve the employment or life circumstances of individuals and families.”

Under the new rules, people deemed to be sick but able to work will receive an “employment support allowance” at a basic level. Those judged by medics to be unable to work or with limited capacity will receive a higher level of benefit with no conditions.

According to the government, there are over 2.6 million people in receipt of Incapacity Benefit and nine out of ten new claimants say that they want to return to work.

Clare Bambra says: “The vast majority of people are off work because they are genuinely sick. A vicious circle exists for many people on IB in areas where there are a high percentage of incapacity benefit claimants - this appears to be linked to poorer health facilities and job opportunities.

“In some geographic areas there are particularly high percentages of sickness claims, in Easington, County Durham, for example, 1 in 5 people are on Incapacity Benefit.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .