Government announces benefits reforms
October 27, 2008
A while back I commented on the relationship between statistics of people on unemployment benefit and incapacity benefit (‘unemployment drops, but where are the figures shifting to?’ March 19). This post received a very informative comment by a HR Girl reader that said that the whole argument for helping people come off incapacity benefit is just a media numbers game to help the government show what they are doing towards the benefit claimant statistics. If you haven’t already seen this comment – have a look, it’s definitely food for thought.
Today brings news of reforms to the benefits system, aiming to make it harder for sick and disabled people to claim benefits, and will involve a ‘tough test’ to identify work that the individual should be able to do. Claimants will then have to show that they are trying to gain employment through applying for jobs and attending interviews. The government says this move aims to help around a million people on benefits due to ill health or disability to go back to work, and claims that the majority of these people want to do just that. However, campaigners argue that this move is just going to offer less support for many sick and disabled people, as they will find it harder to claim benefits but will be in no better position to find work – which will be made even harder with the rising unemployment the country is facing due to the economic downturn.
It does seem to me that the news today is focussing more on reducing numbers of people on benefits, and not on the ways in which people will be supported back to work, and as a spokesman for the charity The Disability Allowance said to the BBC: “The need for personalised, tailored, employment support that actively assists disabled people to overcome barriers to work will be key”. I await with interest the developments in this area to see exactly how claimants will be supported back to work.
What do you think? Is this a good move from the government or just another load of media spin to make the public think that the government is taking important action to reduce wastage of tax payers’ money?
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