Incapacity benefit

Tougher tests for all Incapacity Benefit (IB) claimants are being brought in from 2010. In October this year IB will be replaced by the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for new claims, together with a 13-week Work Capability Assessment (WCA).

Claimants will then be catergorised according to their ability to work. But chancellor Alistair Darling unveiled plans in the Budget for all 2.6 million IB claimants to take the WCA from 2010.

The Disability Alliance charity said it would be “dishonest” to use the tougher tests simply to reduce the number of claimants. (See next month’s Labour Research for an analysis of the IB changes.)