08 July 2005
The government should subsidise employers to hire Incapacity Benefit claimants to help raise the employment rate, a think-tank has claimed.
A Social Market Foundation study, published on July 6, claims that 'Incapacity Benefit reforms planned by the government fail to address the disincentives to hire IB claimants that employers face.'
SMF researchers say that plans to simply 'incentivise' claimants to go back to work are not enough. The SMF claims that the personal advisers earmarked by the government to help 1 million people get back to work should also be able to offer employers 'short-term subsidies to take on claimants'.
'This would be an extension of the New Deal approach of compensating for the risks in employing people from groups that are distanced from the labour market,' the study states.
This year plans to scrap IB from 2008 were announced. It will be replaced with two benefits and most current claimants, the 85% with minor conditions, will be paid less than those with serious conditions to encourage them back into work.
PFjul2005
