Monday, November 19, 2007

Number Crunching

20,000 - Peter Hain's target for reducting incapacity benefit claimants thanks to "tougher work tests".

2,400,000 - Incapacity benefit claimants in the UK.

3 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

Spot on!

Although this says 2.64 million claimants.

Anonymous said...

Less than 1% would be taken off disability benefit by Hain's proposal, under ideal conditions. Problem is, every "client" taken off benefit then writes to his/her MP who automatically objects. Next, an appeal is launched to a tribunal of Labour apointees, who reinstate the benefit. This is widely known as joined up NuLabour government, and it maintains a maximum voter base (especially in Wales and Scotland) and delivers a total muslim vote direct from tribal elders responsable for completing postal votes.

Snafu said...

Anonymous, not quite sure how the Muslim vote impacts this!

Mind you, such 'tests' will create opportunities for more non-jobs.

Merely reducing the benefits after one year and associated council tax benefits would have a far greater incentive on the work shy. The only problem is that such a course of action does not employ any more civil servants!