AN OUTSIDE VIEW

This is one of those subjects the right-wing tabloids like to run. "People pretending to be sick living at the expense of hard-working families" is the line taken. But as an article in the FT magazine explained, the figures will not stack up. Many, possibly most, of the people on Incapacity Benefit are capable of doing some kind of work. But most of them are genuinely in ill health, sometimes intermittently, and the the whole structure of the benefits system makes them reluctant to look for work because if their health deteriorated, they would have to go through the whole business of having to apply for the benefit again. Scrutiny of those on Incapacity Benefit may well result in getting the claimants onto the Jobseekers' Allowance instead, especially if, as has apparently happened, people capable of turning up on time for their medical examination are deemed fit for work! But what happens then? There were 678,000 job vacancies in Britain in February and 795,000 on the J...

The government is proposing yet another initiative to get the long-term unemployed and disabled back to work, with skills audits, training schemes and the like. It is all very worthy, but the problem is that, while the benefits do not exactly permit people to live a life of luxury, the shape of the tax and benefits system makes it costly to employ them whilst leaving them any better off. This is a consequence of targeting benefits. People move into the target area and stay there. Who can blame them? And this is why these schemes have had a marginal effect over the years. With recession on the way, and no policies which would help to get the economy on the way to recovery when it comes, where are the jobs for these people newly equipped with skills?