Tony Blair has said that responsibility should be placed at the heart of the benefits system.

Linking welfare reform with the "bigger picture" of wider plans for community regeneration and an end to anti-social behaviour, the prime minister said his plans were "all about fairness and mutual respect for other people".

Alan Johnson, work and pensions secretary, has said that reform of incapacity benefit will form the centrepiece of the overhaul of the welfare system.

Government Response: Department for Work and Pensions

Alan Johnson, secretary of state for work and pensions, said: "We know that a million people on incapacity benefits want to work. So we must end the stifling of ambition caused by a system which for too long has assumed that all people with health conditions and disabilities are condemned not to work and instead live in isolation as passive recipients of benefits.