Incapacity benefit tests defended

Ministers have defended plans to introduce eligibility tests for all incapacity benefits amid criticism from disability charities.

The government announced in yesterday's Budget that everyone on incapacity benefit would be required to complete a "work capability assessment" from April 2010

Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, work and pensions secretary James Purnell said the welfare reform programme would remove state support for claimants who do not "play by the rules".

"Welfare reform can help more children out of poverty," Purnell told MPs.

And he claimed that plans to require lone parents with older children to look for work would take 70,000 children out of poverty.

"We will develop a radical reform package to further extend and improve opportunities and incentives to work, lift even more children out of poverty and give independence, choice and control for disabled people," he said.

However, the Disability Alliance said the government should improve training rather than "throwing" people off benefits.

Policy director Paul Treloar told the BBC that "it does cause concern when people think there are intentions simply to throw them off benefits".

"When people have been on incapacity benefit for significant periods of time, simply moving them to the jobseekers' allowance is not going to help them back into work," he said.

Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman Danny Alexander said the government should "focus on providing more personalised support for claimants to get them back into long-term work".

"Disabled people are understandably cynical about proposals from a government that continually emphasises tough measures against benefit claimants, when what is needed is targeted support to get the millions of disabled people who want to work into jobs," he said.

"Undergoing the assessment could deliver benefits but it will not change the fact that many claimants need specialist help to overcome mental health problems and disabilities, which is still severely lacking."