News

A report published yesterday by a university team previously supportive of changes to incapacity benefit warns that 600,000 could be forced off incapacity benefit by the government'​s welfare reform programme. The study by Sheffield Hallam University found that many of those likely to be forced off benefits would have to rely on friends and family for support.

One of the report'​s authors, Steve Fothergill, told the Guardian:

"​The estimates show that the coalition government is presiding over a national welfare reform that will impact principally on individuals and communities outside its own political heartlands.

"​In terms of the numbers affected and the scale and severity of the impact, the reforms to incapacity benefits that are underway are probably the most far-reaching changes to the benefits system for at least a generation. They will impoverish vast numbers of households and cause untold distress in countless more. The incapacity benefit numbers need to be brought down, but this is not the way."​

Read the full report in the Guardian.