News

The government's proposals to change incapacity benefit have not brought the uproar everyone expected. In fact, the plans have received a cautious welcome from many observers.

But there are some areas of concern. The new regime will distinguish between people with severe conditions and those with more "manageable" problems. While those at the extreme end of the spectrum will automatically receive more money, the remaining 80 per cent will be financially penalised if they do not co-operate with return-to-work programmes.

The problem is that the arbiters of who is co-operating, and who is not, will be JobCentre staff. Given that a third of incapacity benefit claimants get it because of mental health problems, benefits staff could easily label fearful, distressed or uncertain clients as uncooperative. This ill-informed judgement could result in someone losing up to a third of their -Êalready meagre - income.

There are better ways of reforming incapacity benefit. The government acknowledges that fraud in disability benefits is "extremely limited" and that at least one million recipients wish to return to work. So what is needed is a genuinely appealing carrot, without the clumsily wielded stick.