No Surprise There!

It is reported this morning that 75% of around 840,000 claimants for incapacity benefit were either found fit for work or withdrew their application before they were required to undergo new work capability assessments.

Is anyone surprised by this?
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Fit For (Some Form Of) Work

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Thirty-odd years ago a pension fund I knew about almost went out of business because so many of its members were being declared unfit to work and so entitled to full medical pensions.

The fund managers took a closer look at what was going on and quickly discovered that many of the folk being declared unfit for work were, in fact, perfectly fit and well for some or other forms of employment. At that point, they tightened their rules which limited full pensions to those who were wholly unfit for any form of further work.

The process must have been similar to that now being undertaken by the government who have said that medical assessment tests will be done on people receiving incapacity benefit. Those who are found ‘fit to work’ will be encouraged back into employment or, alternatively, placed on to Job Seekers Allowance.

The Work And Pensions Secretary says that the government hopes to save four billions by cutting long-term sickness benefit.

Assuming that some form of work is available in these economically-challenged times, he might find that more than four billions can be saved.
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Not In The Chorus!

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I am not part of the chorus of bleeding hearts protesting against government plans to stamp out benefit fraud by using the expertise of private agencies.

I pay my taxes and have no trouble whatsoever with private agencies having access to government databases of incapacity and housing benefit claimants thought to be fraudulent. I have no trouble with the prime minister’s call to members of the public to report suspected benefit cheats. And I definitely have no trouble at all with incapacity benefit claimants being required to undergo ‘fit to work’ medical checks, especially as it turns out that three out of four of them have been turned down since tougher rules were established in 2008.

An astonishing one in three of benefit claimants is suspected of making fraudulent claims at some point, and benefit fraud generally is currently estimated at costing the country in excess of five billion pounds. At the last count, there were around sixty-one million of us living in the United Kingdom. If we discount the six million people of working age who are claiming benefits, that’s £91 a year for every one of us who pay taxes. I’d rather save that rather than give it to fraudulent layabouts.

The prime minister also promises to crack down on the administrative errors that cost a further £1.5 billion. Good - that’s another £27 a year saved for each and every one of us!

One thing the government could do in my view is to put a cap on the benefits paid to families or those living together. That would put an immediate brake on such instances as the jobless Somerset couple with nine children who receive £3,500 each month in benefits. That’s a lot more than some families earn by working!

It is clear that the whole benefits system needs clearing up and simplifying. And, hopefully, this is the government that might be brave enough to do it.
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Benefit Reform

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The Department for Work and Pensions has admitted that the benefits system was ‘breaking’ and in need of urgent attention. I think we all knew that!

The department has disclosed that almost five million people were on unemployment benefits, 1.4 million of whom had been receiving support for nine or more of the last ten years and that, in addition, 1.4 million under-25s were neither working nor in full-time education.

Nearly 700,000 families receive more than £15,000 a year in benefits and around 50,000 households receive annual benefits of more than £26,000, As this last is more than the average pre-tax wage for full-time workers, it is no wonder that so many benefit recipients are reluctant to get out and seek work. The annual cost of all this is £13 billions.

When you also learn that housing benefit has risen by 40 per cent under Labour to more than £14 billion, with some families receiving an absurd £93,000 a year, you have to agree with the new Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, that something needs to be done. So the government proposes to introduce a new ‘work programme’ which will offer help to get the unemployed into work – with sanctions if they refuse.

The 2.6 million people on Incapacity Benefit will also be subject to new assessments of their ability to work. It is interesting that since new assessment standards were introduced at the end of 2008, nine out of ten people who claimed to be too sick to work were found to be actually fit to take a job!

It must be clear to everyone that the country cannot afford rising benefit costs and that those who are able to work should be encouraged to do so when work is available. At the same time, those who do attempt to return to work should somehow not be penalised financially by doing so.

It will be a difficult thing to arrange and the draft proposals have already drawn forth angry protest. On the other hand, the former Work and Pensions Secretary, John Hutton, welcomed the ‘exciting’ reform plans.

And he should know!
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