Government announces incapacity benefit reforms

28/10/2008

Incapacity benefits rules are to be overhauled, in order to encourage more people into work.

New guidelines from the Department for Work and Pensions will test new claimants who are ill or have disabilities over what kind of jobs they are still capable of doing.

The requirement to attend meetings with job advisors will also be toughened up - and the benefit itself is to be renamed as the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

Around 2.6 million Britons currently claim incapacity benefits - and the government hopes to reduce this number by one million before 2015.

Meanwhile, unemployment is on the rise due to the current economic slowdown - and is expected to increase to two million before the end of the year.

Work and pensions secretary James Purnell said that these reforms would help to boost employment, by targeting the assistance more effectively.

"In the 1990s people were written off on incapacity benefit with no help to overcome their problems or support to get them into work," he commented.

"It is even more important during an economic downturn that we increase support for people, not take it away."

Tags; Income Worries and Debt, Young Family Finances, Recent Graduate Debt,

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