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Revealed: The one million people who are fit-to-work



One million people who are fit to work have been claiming out-of-work benefits for three of the last four years, according to figures released today.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith says that more than four out of ten work-related benefits are claimed by the long-term unemployed.

His new report, released today, will fuel controversy about welfare spending at a time when the Tories are imposing restrictions on what people can claim in state handouts.



Welfare spending: More than four out of ten work-related benefits are claimed by the long-term unemployed, according to a report due to be published today

It will reinforce Mr Duncan Smith’s claims that longterm worklessness is major contributor to social breakdown and poverty.

Ministers have come under fire from Labour for capping total benefits at £26,000 a year per household and forcing those on Incapacity Benefit and its replacement Employment Support Allowance to undergo health tests to assess their readiness for work.


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The report says: ‘On 31st March 2012, there were 2.3 million claims for benefits that indicate a capacity for work or work-related activity.

‘One million of those were from people who had been claiming one or more of the main working-age benefits for at least three out of the preceding four years.’



Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said the figures showed that bringing in charities and private firms to help families with little history of work and to assess people for their fitness to work was the right move

According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, social security spending will rise from £180billion this year to nearly £198billion in 2017/18.

The report, published to mark the first anniversary of the Government’s social justice strategy, also lays bare shocking figures about family breakdown.

HIGH COURT REJECTS CHALLENGE TO DISABLED BENEFIT CUTS


Five disabled people have lost their High Court challenge over the Government’s decision to abolish a scheme that helps them live independently.

Their lawyers asked Mr Justice Blake, sitting in London, to declare 'unlawful' the consultation process that led to the proposed axing of the £320m Independent Living Fund (ILF).

Bur the judge dismissed the application, insisting the consultation process had been lawful.


The five are among 19,000 people who currently receive money from the ILF, which the Government plans to scrap in 2015.


The average payout is £300 a week per recipient. The money enables them to employ personal assistants to help them with their personal needs and, they say, to 'go out and have a full life'.


Two out of three children aged 12 to 16 in low-income households are no longer living with both their birth parents.


By contrast, more than six out of ten children in middle to high income households are living with their parents, while just 39 per cent are not.

The figures highlight the scale of entrenched social breakdown that has taken hold across Britain over the last decade, particularly in households living on benefits.

In total, around a third of all children are not living with both birth parents.

The report said that of the 2.3 million benefit claimants capable of some work-related activity, around one million had been 'stuck' on a working-age benefit for at least three of the past four years.

'Nothing illustrates more clearly than these statistics that we must continue focusing our efforts on families and communities where worklessness has become a way of life,' the report said.

'By reforming the benefits system we will transform the way people think about work, incentivising them to take the step into employment, knowing they will be better off compared to remaining on benefits.'


The report concludes: ‘Children growing up in low income households are twice as likely not to be living with both birth parents as children in middle to high income households.’

The study – Social Justice: Transforming Lives – also says that thousands of parents who fear family breakdown have used couples counselling.

The DWP says local authorities have already turned around the lives of 1,675 troubled families.


The report also looks at the gap in educational attainment between rich and poor pupils. In 2011-2012, 16.8 per cent fewer pupils on free school meals achieved good grades than those who were better off.

The social justice strategy set out a series of targets to tackle the root causes of disadvantage, including family stability, worklessness and drug and alcohol addiction.


The clampdown on out-of-work benefits is part of a raft of changes the government is introducing to curb steep rises in the UK's benefits bill


More than half of the 56,000 families affected by the benefits cap have four or more children, according to estimates by the Department for Work and Pensions

Mr Duncan Smith said the new figures showed that bringing in charities and private firms to help families with little history of work and to assess people for their fitness to work was the right move.

He added: ‘This approach starts with the family, the foundation of our society. Prioritising children’s formative years, we are taking action to prevent social problems from arising in the first place, supporting the strong relationships which we know offer children the best start in life.

‘We are prioritising children’s formative years and supporting strong, stable family relationships which we know offer children the best start in life.’

Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne said the findings should be a 'wake-up call' to ministers.

He added: 'This new report is a damning verdict on this Government's disastrous economic policies and Iain Duncan Smith's abject failure to get a grip of unemployment. His own figures in his own report have proved this Government is useless.

'In the three years since the election, unemployment hasn't gone down, its gone up and the welfare bill with it. Across Britain, long term unemployment has spiralled as the work programme has proved worse than doing nothing and universal credit is hit by delay after delay.

We need to get these people off benefits and into jobs. We cannot stand by and watch another generation dumped on the scrap-heap like the 1980s. We must act and act now to get people into work.'

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: 'It’s tragic to see the Work and Pensions Secretary once again peddling myths about benefits in order to provide cover for more austerity and his own failure to tackle rising unemployment.

'The fact is that the majority of the million benefit claimants that he believes are ‘fit to work’ have either been declared not-yet fit-to-work by his own department, or are lone parents with children below school age, who will struggle to find work given the high cost of childcare.'The Work and Pensions Secretary should spend less time wasting taxpayers’ money on bogus benefits propaganda and more time getting to grips with the real issue of rising unemployment, particularly the one million young people currently struggling for work.'

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