23 November 2007
Parents of up to 1 million children living in disability-related poverty will be subjected to tougher benefit tests next year, under plans to get 20,000 incapacitated people back into work.
Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain announced a new disability test that will accompany the introduction of the Employment Support Allowance from next October. It will replace the personal capability assessment and will assess what claimants can do, rather than what they cannot. Up to half of those tested are likely to fail, the government estimates.
The aim, Hain said, is to direct people with minor disabilities towards employment or jobseekers' payments, and not longer-term disability benefits.
'We want to assess whether people can work, not whether they can't, and the current system which has operated now for decades is really about whether you can't… walk 400 metres or climb 12 steps and so on. There are lots of jobs people can do now which do not involve that kind of physical test.'
Hain's plan followed publication of figures showing that almost 2,000 people claim benefits because they are classed as too overweight to work, at an annual cost to the taxpayer of £4.4m.
But the Child Poverty Action Group warned Hain not to apply criteria that are too strict – or face plunging thousands of children living in households containing disabled parents into poverty.
Paula Twigg, head of the citizens rights office at CPAG, said: 'There are a million children below the poverty line affected by disability. We are concerned that thousands more families than before will not qualify for the new benefit.'
She urged Hain to focus on tailored support for people with disabilities to help them back into employment, and on tackling employer prejudice against disabled workers.
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