Work and Pensions Secretary David Blunkett is embarking on the biggest reform of the state benefits system for sixty years. A Green paper due to be published later this month will go much further than the proposals to reform disability benefits manifesto at the General
Blunkett has claimed that his aim is "to simplity the system and maintain fairness" (Independent, September 12).
While there is doubt that the present system, with its twentynine different benefits and 272 separate rates, is ripe for simplification, the idea that it is currently based on fairness is certainly open to challenge.
As well as the most obvious points - that the basic level of benefits does not provide a living income for anyone, let alone the reduced levels given to asylum seekers - there are other issues.
Well before this round of reforms, there have been measures aimed at reducing the numbers of those claiming for sickness and disability payments.
The most hated measure was the introduction of regular medicals, conducted by a government appointed doctor in front of whom people have to prove their pain and impairment levels. A fair system? I don't think so.
Despite these attempts at a crackdown. around 2.7 millior people are today claiming either incapacity benefit or severe development benefit.
This number has been pretty static for the last eight years while unemployment figures have fallen by 600,000. Blunkett's position is that about half of these claimants are "capable of working" (Guardian, September 15).
Disability activists, claimants groups and the unions need to gear up now tor a campaign against the crackdown that the Green Paper will doubtless promise.