David Cameron is stuck in a timewarp on disability benefits | Declan Gaffney

Expecting to reduce benefit caseloads without taking on board the changes that have taken place since the 90s is unrealistic This week’s press stories on employment support allowance (ESA) show that politicians and the media are stuck in a mid-1990s timewarp when it comes to sickness and disability benefits. Far from representing the immobile bloc of long-term worklessness so often assumed in public discussion, the sickness and disability benefit caseload has changed dramatically over the last 15 years, driven by tumbling rates of receipt coupled with increases in severity of impairment. Failure to recognise the scale of these changes has led both the previous and the current government to indulge in undisciplined and unrealistic expectations about the potential for caseload reductions.

 

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David Cameron is stuck in a timewarp on disability benefits | Declan Gaffney