Summary
By 2015, the Department for Work and Pensions aims to lower the number of people claiming incapacity benefits by one million, as ‘Support to Incapacity Benefits Claimants Through Pathways to Work’ (HC 21) reports.
The report suggests that the Department’s Pathways to Work scheme has had a limited effect on reducing the number of claimants and has turned out to provide poor value for money.
The report found that:
- The volume of claimants has remained in excess of 2.5 million for over a decade.
- The contribution of the programme to a recent reduction of 125,000 in the number of people claiming incapacity benefits is not clear.
- The reduction is likely to be due to the earlier medical assessment to determine benefit entitlement.
- Other elements of Pathways employment support - at an estimated cost of £94 million in 2008-09 - appear to have had no impact on claimants with new claimants just as likely to move into employment without Pathways support as they are with it.
The new benefit called the Employment and Support Allowance which incorporates a new medical assessment to determine eligibility is expected to be a key instrument in reducing the number of incapacity benefit claimants in the future.
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