Million may lose incapacity benefit

THE number of incapacity claimants is set to be cut by up to a million as a result of tougher medical tests, means tests and re-examining existing recipients, a report has claimed today.

The study by a Yorkshire university says that 600,000 people could be pushed out of the benefit system altogether by Government reforms which will lead to an increase in unemployment figures.

Sheffield Hallam academics believe that the numbers claiming incapacity benefit will be slashed by nearly one million by 2014 with “older industrial areas” in the North being the hardest hit.

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Most of these will be existing claimants who will lose their entitlement, according to the report by the university’s Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research.

There are currently more than 2.5 million men and women claiming incapacity benefit nationally. Academics warn this high number has been masking the true level of unemployment.

The report says some households will be impoverished by the biggest changes to the benefits system in a generation. It also predicts unemployment will rise by 300,000. Prof Steve Fothergill, co-author of the report, said: “The large numbers that will be pushed off incapacity benefits over the next two to three years are entirely the result of changes in benefit rules – the introduction of a new tougher medical test and, in particular, the more widespread application of means-testing from next April onwards.

“The reduction does not mean that there is currently widespread fraud, or that the health problems and disabilities are anything less than real.

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“Our estimates of the impact of the reforms are based on experience in the pilot areas and on the Department for Work and Pension’s own assumptions about the impact on benefit claimants.

“The estimates show that the coalition Government is presiding over a national welfare reform that will impact principally on individuals and communities outside its own political heartlands.

“In terms of the numbers affected and the scale and severity of the impact, the reforms to incapacity benefits that are under way are probably the most far-reaching changes to the benefits system for at least a generation. They will impoverish vast numbers of households and cause untold distress in countless more. The incapacity benefit numbers need to be brought down, but this is not the way.”

The report says that the impact of benefits reforms have yet to be felt but will “hit hard and in rapid succession.”

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The researchers also say that by far the largest impact will fall on the older industrial areas of the North, Scotland and Wales, where local economies have been struggling for years to cope with job loss and where the prospects of former claimants finding work are weakest. The report provides estimates of the impact of the reforms for every district in the country.

Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, Easington in County Durham, Liverpool and Glasgow look set to be hit 10 times harder than areas such as Kingston upon Thames in London or Wokingham in Berkshire.

It warns that in some areas of the country – including Barnsley – more than 10 per cent of the working age population claim incapacity benefit.

It said: “These changes will hit some individuals much harder than others but because incapacity benefit claimants are highly unevenly spread around the country they will also hit some places much more than others.”

The report also says that people claiming incapacity benefits rather than Job Seekers Allowance has suited past governments, businesses and claimants themselves.