date: Tuesday 5 October 2004 embargo: 00:01 hrs Thursday 7 October 2004

Attention: Industrial, employment, social affairs, business correspondents. disability and public sector media

Welfare cuts would hurt genuine claimants

The TUC has told the government not to believe the myth that there are easy savings to be made by cracking down on invalidity benefit claimants. A new TUC report published today (Thursday) says that the vast majority of the 1.5 million who receive invalidity benefit are either too ill to work without suffering real pain and fatigue, or want to work but cannot find a job, often due to employer prejudice.

‘Defending Incapacity Benefit’, which has been sent to the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Alan Johnson MP who is currently examining welfare reform, challenges the myth that Incapacity Benefit supports millions of people who have chosen not to work.

Less than half the number of people receive Incapacity Benefit than recent press reports suggest, and these 1.5 million disabled and ill people receive an average of only £85 per week. The benefit has fallen in value to less than a fifth of average earnings, the numbers of claimants has been falling consistently for the past decade and it is estimated that less than one in a hundred claims are fraudulent.

The government’s own research shows that Incapacity Benefit claimants are out of the job market either because they cannot work without making their condition worse or cannot get work because they are discriminated against. The TUC would rather build on government pilot projects that help rather than force claimants back into work, which have doubled the number of job placements. If the programme were rolled out nationally, as the TUC is suggesting, it would fill 110,000 jobs a year and save £110 million annually.

Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary, said:

'People claiming Incapacity Benefit are not swinging the lead or ‘work-shy spongers’. You cannot force people into jobs that would cause them real pain or exhaustion. But you can encourage and support disabled people to find and get jobs, as well as tackle the discrimination among employers that is condemning too many workers to benefits. There are no easy savings here.'

Key findings in ‘Defending Incapacity Benefit’

Incapacity Benefit, paid to people unable to work due to illness or disability, is not ‘generous’. Its three rates go from £55.90 to £74.15 per week, which can be increased by additional allowances, and the average total Incapacity Benefit payment is £84.51. As a proportion of average earnings Incapacity Benefit paid to a single person fell from 17.4 percent in April 1995 to 15.2 percent in April 2003.

There were 2.7 million Incapacity Benefit claimants in May 2004, only 1.478 million of these people actually receive payments and this number has fallen by nearly 400,000 since 1995.

Forty per cent of Incapacity Benefit claimants say they want a job but are prevented from working either by the practical requirements associated with their disability or employer discrimination. Government research shows that nearly half (45%) of Incapacity Benefit claimants who had moved on to Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) were still on benefit a year later, compared to an average of less than a third (28%) for all claimants.

Incapacity Benefit fraud is so low it is almost impossible to measure accurately but it is estimated to account for overpayment making up less than 0.3 per cent of total Incapacity Benefit payments.

‘Pathways to Work’ pilots that combine mandatory work focussed interviews with expert personal advisers with a £40 per week Return to Work Credit and other measures are getting twice as many Incapacity Benefit claimants back to work than in other areas and six times as many taking positive steps to get back to work. With these results a nationwide programme could reduce by 110,000 a year the numbers claiming Incapacity Benefit, saving over £110 million a year.

Rolling out ‘Pathways to Work’ nationally would take considerable resources but currently the UK invests five times less than the EU average into labour market programmes for disabled people and twenty times less than in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- Media interviews with people receiving Incapacity Benefit or disabled people who have been helped back into work can be arranged by the TUC Press Office.

- The full report ‘Defending Incapacity Benefit’ is available pre-embargo at: http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-8754-f0.cfm

Contacts:

Media enquiries : Ben Hurley T: 020 7467 1248; Pager: 07699 713182 ; E: bhurley@tuc.org.uk

Press release (800 words) issued 7 Oct 2004