Two million 'wrongly get benefit'

[Morris Onions]

Fewer than a third of the 2.7 million or so people claiming incapacity benefit are legitimate claimants, a government welfare adviser has said.

David Freud, an investment banker, said up to 185,000 claimants work illegally while on the benefit.

He told the Daily Telegraph it was "ludicrous" that medical checks were carried out by a claimant's own GP.

Tory Chris Grayling said "it is time" for every claimant to have an independent medical check.

The shadow work and pensions secretary added: "Those fit to work should have their Incapacity Benefit withdrawn immediately and those with the potential to work should get proper support to help them back into employment."

Mr Freud, who was hired by Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell, said the system was "a recipe for getting people on to IB".

Mr Freud, whose report on welfare last year was highly influential on the reforms set out by Mr Purnell this week, has recommended that private firms be paid "bounties" to get claimants off incapacity benefit and into jobs.


...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7223687.stm

[Henny Penny]

1. I remember hearing some time ago that the govt.

had made it more and more difficult to get onto unemployment benefit whilst making it easier and easier to get on the "disability" as a means of massaging the unemployment figures. Now it seems they can't afford to pay these benefits because running multiple "foreign adventures" whilst simultaneously indulging in who knows how many secret bank rescues is going to cost an awful a lot.

[fedsron2us]

2. Actually it was the blessed Maggie Thatchers government

in the 1980s that started that little scam. They encouraged the transfer of people for unemployment and supplementary benefit to invalidity benefit as a way of keeping the dole figures down as they soared to over 3 million. As far as I am aware incapacity benefit claimants can be subject to assessment by medical panels. Certainly, this was the case with claimants of invalidity benefit (later replaced by incapacity benefit) under the Major government. It is no surprise that the areas with the highest levels of incapacity benefit claimants are also the areas with the highest levels of unemployment such as Easington in Durham or Blaenau Gwent. While the government is obviously keen to chase some of these people back to work the fact is that many probably will not be able to find jobs. Now that it looks likely that unemployment is going to soar because of the bust that has inevitably followed the ludicrous credit boom of the last decade then I expect we will see a lot more stories emanating from the politicians and their lackeys in the press claiming that somehow it is 'benefit' claimants (ie the poor) who are responsible for the country's dire state rather than crooked bankers, corporations and their lick spittle political puppets. Given the recent evidence of Tory MPs abusing their positions to siphon off large sums of money from the public purse to feather their family nests they are hardly in a position to give lectures to the rest of the population about the iniquities of living on state handouts.

[mr blur]

3. Of course, Investment Bankers know all about living on benefits.

:sarcasm: