Enough about the the , the and the wretched . Here's some good news: the state will no longer incentivise sickness. Between 1971, when Invalidity Benefit was introduced, and the mid-1980s,Mulberry uk, there were typically around 700,000 claimants,lunettes oakley. Today, there are 2.6 million (the name was changed to Incapacity Benefit in 1995). We have, tragically, encouraged some people to arrange their affairs around qualifying for the allowance.
Those who suffer most are not the grumbling taxpayers – they have to grumble about – but the people who have been trapped in the squalor of dependency. Before you rage about scroungers,Air Max 90, imagine you would feel if you relied – relied – upon a weekly handout of ?91.40 (the maximum long-term rate). I can imagine how I would feel: impoverished, demotivated, resentful and enervated. If I lived that way for long enough,sac chanel, I might well become genuinely incapacitated through clinical depression,sac gucci.
The grimly efficient Chris Grayling aims to rescue millions from this wretched state. Pilot tests run under the last government yielded astonishing results,air max Australia. When claimants were reassessed in Aberdeen and Burnley, 30 per cent of them were passed fit for work,Mulberry outlet, and another 30 per cent classified as capable of some work.
To understand the magnitude of the task he faces, though, the minister should read by Richard Littlejohn (you have to scroll down to the penultimate entry). A woman from Essex was shifted from Jobseekers' Allowance to Incapacity Benefit three years ago because she is allergic to rubber. The Department of Work and Pensions argued that such a condition needn't preclude all forms of employment. According to the DWP lawyer: "Her allergy, although inconvenient, has not prevented her from leading a relatively normal life �� shopping, socialising, travelling on public transport." The judges,oakley custom, however, ruled in favour of the claimant: a decision that may encourage others to challenge their reassessment in court,chanel.
Just as David Cameron's has yet to percolate down to the armies of racism awareness counsellors, council interpreters and diversity outreach workers who bloat the public sector,sac chanel pas cher, so Chris Grayling will find that the biggest obstacle to reform is not the benefits claimants themselves, but the bureaucracy that has grown up to service them. If he wants a primer on how to tackle that problem, I suggest .
