At last, Grayling takes on the Ancien Regime

dirtbox

Excellent, destroy the welfare culture and get them back to work with the rest of us. Let's hope that somewhere in Abu Dhabi or Scotland Mr Brown is being forced to watch this.

oldtimer

Let us hope he makes better progress than some of his colleagues who have run into difficulties at the courts.

Concerning which, Lord Heseltine was interviewed on the Daily Politics about the legisation that enabled the sale of council houses back in the early 1980s. Before he tabled the Bill he asked a leading QC to work out how he would frustrate it in the Courts once it was enacted. The QC came backwith an answer. Heseltine asked him to rewrite the Bill so it could not be so frustrated. This revised Bill was the basis for the Act. It was, he believes, the reason why he was able to get the sale of council houses through Labour local authorities, despite their hostility.

TomTom

"Grayling is to re-assess 2.2 million claimants – that’s the equivalent of the population of Slovenia"

Is Slovenia really relevant in this context ? You might add that we have had 150% population of Slovenia IMMIGRATE to Britain in the past decade, but you don't.

Tron

I wish I had your faith, Fraser. If you were running the country it might happen but David "I love the BBC" Cameron and the Limp Dems ? I think not.
They said they would get rid of regulation and Red Tape. I've heard this for 40 years,it never happens.
The whole country ,led by the BBC, love public spending. The only people who don't are Fat Cat, Posh, Baby Eating, Bankers and their friends in the Nasty Party. Don't you listen to phone-ins on the radio?

In2minds

IB claimants -

"30 percent were fit for work, 40 percent genuinely incapacitated and the rest capable of some work".

We should also consider how the fit, the 30%, get wrongly classified. Often a GP will make the assessment. So is this 'mistake' a measure of their skills?

Michael

"Before he tabled the Bill he asked a leading QC to work out how he would frustrate it in the Courts once it was enacted."

The problem now being that all the 'leading' QCs who could offer this advice are now hard lefties themselves and would leave backdoors open...

AF

In2minds,
Is this'mistake'a measure of GPs skills.
More likely fear of getting it wrong and throwing away a career,or being bullied.

justathought

The government intends to start by assessing 7,000 people a week: a staggering amount."

Really, is that all? Why is the productivity rate so low? The country is facing a financial crisis and is hemorrhaging money, lets be a little bit more ambitious in the rate of revision of these claimants.

ians12

The above rhetoric is to be expected from those that have no need of any state benefits, who no doubt fund their own private doctors and the schools their children attend. The vast majority of us though will be dependant at some time on the state "National Insurance" that many of us have paid into for numerous years whilst employed. Under the new rules anyone unfortunate enough to have an accident or suffer from stress in the workplace will only be able to claim the new ESA (sickness benefit) for a LIFETIME TOTAL of 12 months. Once you have used that up that's it, you get nowt. Strangely enough this curtailing of benefits which we have paid into the system for coincides with a major US insurance companies plans to offer out of work insurance in the UK. Any bets on which MPs and Peers have connections with this company?

Mozza

I suggest you read the comments from Prof Paul Gregg in the Guardain before you begin quoting evidence from the two IB pilots that demonstrated that the quoted figures were entirely bogus with countless numbers of genuine disabled people being wrongly calssified by countless admin errors. Chronically sick and disabled people are becoming more and more sick and tired of able bodied, well paid professionals believing government fantasy without any detailed information. Check out Citizens Advice, Macmillan, Arthritis Care or any other frontline charity's reports before you accept a word from any government Minister.

D.H.Boater

It's all very well all these Politicians saying that we must get the unemployed back into work,which I do agree with,but and it is a very big BUT,how on Earth can we do this when they are still letting immigration get out of hand?

emale

What every unemployed man and woman needs is an employer willing to exchange his cash for their skill and time. It may be difficult to find many who are willing to fork out £5.93 per hour plus another £0.82 for Employers NI and a minimum of 28 days paid holiday worth another 12% on top of that.

Dr Crackles

@ Ians12

No, the fact remains that working people do not wish to fund those who refuse to work and cheat the system. The welfare state was never set-up for 'parasites', but those that had worked and fought for the freedom we now enjoy. The have passed into history and so should the current welfare-system.

ians12

The funny thing about those "immigrants" is they (mostly) come from EU countries and so are welcome here as EU citizens. Its also significant that almost none of them are disabled in any way. Why do you think that is?

Will J

Grayling's scheme will be better than its predecessor, but it will still fail because it still involves central government trying to micro-manage what is essentially a local government function. Welfare does not need to be run centrally and does not benefit from it. As Hannan and Carswell have argued: devolve it!

ollie

It is a battle against entrenched left wing dogma that must be won. The Tories will take all the tough decsions, and Labour will, sadly, win the next election with the God awful Miliband as PM.

Fergus Pickering

Now Mozza, why would I read anything in The Guardian? And any damn fool can be a professor, don't you know?

Martin Cole

"Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce." Ayn Rand

Read Ayn Rand or see the movie of Atlas Shrugged, when it is released this month, if you are able to find it!

The politicians, the looters, depend upon the moochers, welfare recipients, to rob and defraud those who produce. 'Going Galt' is now the only way it can be stopped, as things have reached such a dreadful state.

Iain Hill

i had direct experience of the test, assisting a friend. It was narrowly conceived, and designed to give the answer "fit". There was no opportunity to include information on a whole range of disabilities, nor to include a doctor's assessment. The test would not have withstood any level of independent professional scrutiny. It was only my friend's inability to face a tribunal which prevented him from mounting a challenge, which he would easily have won. I urge anyone facing this test to challenge it, and expose its inability to deal with serious disability.

Incidentally, you are wrong about Purnell and Brown. The system, was implemented here in Glasgow, and my friend lost 2 years' benefit before retiring age. Not a "scrounger", he had worked and paid all his life..

lola

Not just IB, but all the 'ill health' early retirees from PS pension schemes.

As a business owner with asthma, hay fever, stomach ulcers, heart problems, back issues etc, that works 24/7 and pays his own way (and shed loads of tax) and sees IB claims and PS pension 'ill health' early retirements granted to people less 'incapacitated' than I am I have increasing reduced sympathy. Plus if you do get out on these official scams you also get a lot of other benefits as well.

lola

Ollie. I fear you are right. But why? IMHO the 'not new labour' parties are utterly failing to make the sound arguments for the small state, liberty and responsibility. There is in effect no opposition to a cod-Keynsianistic consensus. They all love the Big State and the culture of the unaccounatble functionary. Again IMHO if you do the sums and start reducing the problem to the fundamentals you end up with a major prerequisite, and that is to get out of the EU. Once you've done that and installed sound money and low tax policies the rest should follow.

Fat chance.

justathought

The system needs to recognize that most incapacity claimants and DLR while under some genuine form of disability feel they are stigmatized by being deemed unfit for work.

The reality is the sick and disabled want the dignity that employment brings and are keen to find some suitable employment within their ability.

I agree that the new ESA should be limited as to do otherwise is to disenfranchise and isolate those most in need of assistance back into work. On a personal note my experience with working with disabled is that they were the most reliable and long term employees.

Certainly unemployment benefit should be limited to 5 years in a lifetime for the same reasons.

Keith

With luck the money saved by the nation on benefit payments can be used to increase our aid to Pakistan.