Blitz on Britain’s benefits madness
BRITAIN'S benefits culture was laid bare yesterday as figures showed nearly a million people have been on sickness handouts for a decade.
They include more than 22,000 who are deemed too fat to work or are addicted to drink or drugs.
This group alone has cost hardworking taxpayers up to £1billion. There are nearly 500 ailments claimants can use to get handouts, including spots, indigestion and sunburn.
Last night critics said the figures proved a crackdown was overdue.
Charlotte Linacre, of campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The benefits system urgently needs reforming. The welfare bill has become unaffordable and when some people are there because of lifestyle or bad habits it doesn’t seem fair to those paying into the system.”
Tory MP Philip Davies joined the outcry, saying: “People are sick to the back teeth of being taken for a ride by people sponging and scrounging and abusing the system. The Government is absolutely right about this issue and they are right to be robust.
People are sick to the back teeth of being taken for a ride by people sponging and scrounging and abusing the system
“Nobody minds there being a welfare state that acts as a safety net for people who are genuinely incapacitated or have fallen on hard times.”
Ministers unveiled the figures as their new crackdown on abuses in the system carries on.
All existing Incapacity Benefit claimants are being reassessed. Those deemed genuinely too ill to work will receive unconditional state support under the Employment and Support Allowance which replaced Incapacity Benefit for new claimants in 2008.
Those ruled able to work straight away will be moved on to Jobseeker’s Allowance while a third group will be helped to prepare for the workplace if deemed able at some point in the future to hold down a job.
The latest breakdown of the reasons people first started claiming Incapacity Benefit or the Associated Severe Disability Allowance was published by the Department for Work and Pensions. It detailed the basis of nearly 2.1 million claims being paid as of August last year, of which 902,000 had lasted for 10 years or more, and 581,000 for between five and 10 years.
They included 42,360 people who started claiming because they were unable to work due to alcoholism, of whom 12,880 have been claiming benefit for more than 10 years.
Nearly 37,500 claimed as drug addicts, 9,200 for more than 10 years, and 1,830 morbidly obese people, 660 of whom had claimed for more than 10 years.
A total of 81,690 people were claiming the benefit for one of those three conditions – 22,740 for 10 years or more – costing taxpayers more than £1billion, assuming they were on the highest rate, and more than £108million in the past year alone.
Incapacity Benefit is paid at £68.95 a week for 28 weeks, then rises to £81.60 a week and finally to £91.40 a week after a year.
Taking all the listed conditions into account, the benefits bill for the 902,300 on benefits for 10 years or more would come to nearly £82.5million a week, or £4.3billion a year if they all got the highest rate. It all adds up to a total bill of some £7billion a year.
Ministers say it is time to overhaul a discredited system that has left people languishing on benefits for years.
Employment minister Chris Grayling said: “It’s not fair on anyone.
“Far from being the safety net it should be, the benefits system has trapped thousands of people in a cycle of addiction and welfare dependency.
“We are putting an end to this. We won’t allow people to be left on benefits and forgotten about.
“That’s why we have already started reassessing everyone on Incapacity Benefit and will support people with addictions to help them back into work.”
The first nationwide reassessments of existing claimants began this month.
Ms Linacre said: “It’s right that anyone who is genuinely ill is helped but those who have fallen into a life without work must be given a chance at returning to work.
“We will wait to see how effective the details of the project are but big changes are long overdue.”
