Work and Pensions written question – answered at on 13 March 2006.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
(1) pursuant to his oral statement of 24 January 2006, Official Report, columns 1305–12W, on the Welfare Reform Green Paper, what the baseline year is for measuring the target to reduce the number of people on incapacity benefit by one million over 10 years;
(2) what estimate he has made of the proportion of existing incapacity benefit claimants who will flow off benefit and into work following the introduction of the proposals outlined in the Green Paper A New Deal for Welfare: Empowering People to Work;
(3) whether he plans to set targets for existing incapacity benefit caseload reduction by geographical area;
(4) whether he plans to set a public service agreement target for the reduction of incapacity benefit claimants by one million by 2018;
(5) what impact he expects the measures proposed in the Green Paper A New Deal for Welfare: Empowering People to Work to have on the existing (a) incapacity benefit and (b) severe disablement allowance caseload.
The Green Paper set out our proposed measures to significantly reduce the number of people claiming and receiving incapacity benefits. These measures included improvements to workplace health, reform of the gateway, increased support for claimants and removing the perverse incentives in the system.
While it is difficult to model the precise impact of these measures at this early stage, the Green Paper set out our aspiration to reduce the number of claimants of incapacity benefits by one million over the course of a decade through the combined efforts of the Government, employers, local authorities and health professionals. More precise measures will be established in due course.
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