Criticism for work interview proposal

Mental health campaigners have criticised plans in the welfare reform green paper to cut the benefits  of people who fail to take part in work-focused interviews.

In its submission to the consultation on the proposals, which closed last Friday, charity Mind said incapacity benefit claimants should receive extra money for taking part in the interviews, on top of an “adequate minimum benefit”.

The green paper proposes to replace incapacity benefit with an employment and support allowance.

Under the new scheme, people with more manageable conditions would be required to attend interviews, agree an action plan, and engage in work-related activity or face having their benefit reduced to the level of jobseekers allowance – about £55 a week.

People with more severe conditions would not have to carry out any activities and would receive more than the current long-term incapacity benefit rate of £74 a week.

Disability charity Scope said it was not against making the benefit conditional in principle but that exemptions from this should be decided individually, not by creating two groups of recipients.