Q&A: incapacity benefit

What is incapacity benefit?

It is a payment made to people who are signed off as sick by their doctors for more than six months and judged unable to work. It is currently initially worth £57.65 a week, but this can rise to £68.20 after six months and £76.45 after a year. Additional allowances can boost that amount, with the average beneficiary receiving £83.86 a week.

Who gets it?

At the moment, there are 2.7 million claimants, costing the government £12.5bn a year. The number claiming spiralled from the late 70s to the mid 90s, but has been relatively stable since.

The profile of claimants has changed dramatically, with the traditional image of "men in the north with bad backs" being increasingly overtaken by workers from the south-east - including many women - suffering from conditions such as stress.

Why does it need reforming?

The government says too many people are becoming "trapped" on incapacity benefit, despite wanting to overcome their problems and get back to work. Once on the benefit for a year, the average recipient will remain on it for another seven years.

Ministers say the system is entrenching poverty and dependency, with the worst pockets of deprivation being in the 100 constituencies with the highest numbers of incapacity benefit claimants. They believe this is partly down to "perverse incentives" that mean claimants would be worse off if they returned to work and could be penalised if they sought voluntary work or training to help them find employment.

Before his resignation last year, the former welfare secretary David Blunkett urged claimants to stop watching daytime TV and start looking for work.

What is the government proposing?

It wants to get 1 million people off benefits and back into work within a decade.

How will it do that?

Incapacity benefit will be replaced with an employment and support allowance (ESA). Claimants will be split into two groups - those assessed by as permanently incapable of work, and those assessed as capable of work with help.

How will the idea work?

ESA will be based on a "something for something" approach. In return for the benefit, claimants will get help to return to work. Those refusing help and deemed capable of work will face docked payments. This penalty will not apply to those judged incapable of working.

Who will monitor it? Controversially, doctors will be expected to work with employment advisers to encourage patients on benefit back into work, although the government has said GPs will not be paid for doing so. Patients in work who ask for a sicknote will be advised to find different jobs rather than go on benefit.

Will it work?

The work and pensions minister, John Hutton, admits that the target of getting 1 million claimants back into work will be a "huge challenge". However, he has been encouraged by the Pathways to Work scheme, piloted in seven areas, which gives claimants personal supervisors to help them find jobs.

Will parliament pass the measures?

The Conservatives are likely to back the plans, but welfare reform is a highly sensitive area for Labour's rank and file. Just seven months after Tony Blair's 1997 landslide victory, 47 of his MPs voted against plans to cut benefits to lone parents. Two years later, attempts to restrict incapacity benefit payments caused 67 to rebel.

Great efforts have been made to win over potential critics this time. Mr Hutton has written to the 100 MPs with the most claimants in their wards to attempt to persuade them of the case for reform.

What do interest groups say about the plans?

The mental health charity Sane warned that forcing claimants suffering stress and depression into work could lead to relapses and a need for hospital treatment.

The TUC agrees that there is a case for reform but says no one should be "coerced" into work. Doctors' leaders have questioned the scale of the problem, suggesting 90% of claimants are genuinely sick.

The Disability Alliance said reducing or restricting incapacity benefit "will only serve to push disabled people and their families further into poverty" and undermine the government's child poverty targets.