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1 April 2008

Tags:
Cuts & Reduction of Welfare Services
Disability Assessments
Government and Media StigmatisationJames Purnell
Work and pensions secretary (of the Blair administration) announces plans to get tough on “scroungers” by retesting everyone on Incapacity Benefit through the new Work Capability Assessment.

What: James Purnell, Peter Hain’s successor as work and pensions secretary, tells the Liverpool Echo: “People who scrounge from the system take money away from legitimate [IB] claimants. Clearly we want to stop that.”

Why significant: Purnell was talking here about eventually retesting everyone on Incapacity Benefit through the new Work Capability Assessment – to be introduced for new claimants in October 2008. A further high-profile example of so-called benefit scrounger rhetoric from the highest levels of government.

Citations

'Get-tough tests face the sick on benefit', Hunt, 2008