The cries of unfairness which have gone up in reaction to George Osborne’s assault on the £12.5 billion annual bill for disability benefits are a sign of just how ingrained the welfare culture has become among Britain’s workshy millions.
The cries of unfairness which have gone up in reaction to George Osborne’s assault on the £12.5 billion annual bill for disability benefits are a sign of just how ingrained the welfare culture has become among Britain’s workshy millions. They are also an indication of how hard the Chancellor will have to battle against the assortment of quangos and charities which stick up for their rights to taxpayer-funded lives of leisure.
It is a mark of just how absurd the incapacity benefit had become that even the Labour government at the height of its Keynesian spending splurge decided enough was enough. In October 2008 it replaced Incapacity Benefit with Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and subjected claimants to a tougher eligibility test called the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). For example, an inability to bend down on to your knees was no longer accepted as a reason why you can’t sit in an office chair.
The results were astounding. Out of 352,500 assessments carried out between October 2008 and May 2009, only 18,100 claimants, or 5 per cent, were judged to be incapable of working at all. Twelve per cent were judged to be capable of doing some work, and were put on a programme to help them find it. Thirty-eight per cent were judged to be fully fit for work, and were moved on to jobseeker’s allowance, and a further 38 per cent of claimants ceased claiming while being assessed — no doubt realising that their days of malingering were over.
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