by René Lavanchy
GOVERNMENT policies encouraging the sick and disabled to get into work are not likely to reduce benefit figures and could leave people worse off than before, according to unpublished new research by an expert in public health policy.
From this week, people applying for incapacitybenefit will be put onto the new employment support allowance.
They will have to be medically assessed and, if deemed able to work, will be forced to attend “work focused interviews” and will receive back-to-work support from private sector contractors.
But a Durham University study into a recent Government project to reduce the number of IB claimants has found that they mostly failed to get jobs despite being offered advice and training.
The results, which are under review, cast doubt on Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell’s target to reduce sickness benefit claimants by one million by 2015.
Clare Bambra, who carried out the research, told Tribune: “They’d raised people’s expectations and confidence. At the end of the process, they didn’t get a job and afterwards that had a knock-on effect on how people felt. They seemed to feel worse than they had beforehand.”
The findings have come to light amid rising unemployment figures – expected to reach two million by the end of the year – that are already reportedly putting extra pressure on the benefits system.
Dr Bambra added: “The Government is saying this is empowering people. I say there are problems sometimes with this kid of empowerment. You make it all about the individual and then they can’t get a job because there aren’t any.”
The research focused on the Easington and Sedgefield areas of County Durham, where unemployment and long-term illness is among the highest in Britain. Claimants were offered help with their CVs and skills training – just as contractors will offer to ESA claimants.
Both Labour and the Conservatives are committed to reducing the number of sickness benefit claimants, currently about 2.6 million, partly by tackling benefit cheats.
But Dr Bambra said research she published last year found that claimants tend to be genuinely unwell.
A Department for Work and pensions spokesperson said: “It’s at times like this that welfare reform is more important. In the nineties people were left without support.
“Although unemployment is rising, there are still jobs out there. No-one will have their benefits cut if there’s no job for them.”
The Government remained committed to its target of reducing benefit claimants, he added.
