The work and pensions secretary has announced the main measures of a forthcoming reform of incapacity benefit (IB). IB is due to the sick, the handicapped and people in incapacity: the government wants to put back to work 1 million of the 2,7 million recipients of the incapacity benefit (IB) in order to save 7 billion Pounds (more than 10 billion euros) per year. The total cost of social security benefits is 12,5 billion Pounds per year (more than 18 billion euros). (Ref. 0664)
Studies show that even if fraud does not exceed 10 %, only 20% of IB recipients are in a real incapacity to work. And those who have not returned to work within two years, i.e. 32%, are more likely to retire than to work again one day.
“The diagnosis must develop a person’s capacities and potentialities on the labour market rather than focusing on its percentage of handicap”, said John Hutton. In line with this, he promised to reform the medical tests which condition the granting of the allowan
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