Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Equality, diversity and inclusionDisabilityLatest NewsEconomics, government & businessDepartment for Work and Pensions

Green paper promised on Incapacity Benefit reform

by Michael Millar 16 Mar 2005
by Michael Millar 16 Mar 2005

The government is to publish plans in the summer to scrap Incapacity Benefit and replace it with a system focused on helping people into work, according to work and pensions minister Alan Johnson.

The government’s approach to tackling Incapacity Benefit was set out in a five-year strategy launched in February. It included plans to replace Incapacity Benefit with two new benefits – Rehabilitation Support Allowance and Disability and Sickness Allowance – and scrap the incremental increase in rates that was seen to be a disincentive to leaving the benefit.

Speaking at the New Beginnings Symposium, Johnson said the  plans would sweep aside a system that branded the 2.7 million recipients of the benefit as incapable and help claimants to focus on what they can do, rather than what they cannot.

A Green Paper in the summer will start a formal consultation about how the replacement benefit system will operate, the role of personal advisers and what people will be required to do in the future to access the higher rates of benefit. It will also explore what safeguards and appeals processes should be in the system.

“In the summer we will set out in detail in a Green Paper how we will radically change the benefit system so it reflects all that we have learned about the needs of those on Incapacity Benefit,” Johnson said.

“Together – working with employers, GPs, special interest groups and claimants themselves – we can replace the sicknote culture with one of hope and opportunity.” The annual bill for Incapacity Benefit is £7.7bn.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Johnson laid out four key areas for consideration:



  • Fairness – what should be the content of the “return to work activities” that we recognise as beneficial in helping people with health conditions to get back to work.
  • Security – how to minimise the risks people face when they want to move into work and ensure that they have every incentive possible to try out work.
  • Inclusion – how to ensure that the Disability Sickness Allowance does not mean that people are written off or have no interest in working but recognises the severity of their conditions.
  • Results for all – what features the system needs to ensure that it works effectively for people with mental health conditions.

To inform the Green Paper write with comments to:



Incapacity Benefit Reform Team
Room 220
Adelphi
1-11 John Adam Street
London
WC2N 6HT

Michael Millar

previous post
Three-quarters of councils are investors in people
next post
Union chief suspended in inquiry row

You may also like

Company director wins £15k after being told to...

4 Jul 2025

Skills shortfall in construction threatens housing target

4 Jul 2025

MPs demand Home Office tightens visas to protect...

4 Jul 2025

It’s all about the Monet: how art transforms...

3 Jul 2025

Stop chasing quick fixes: return to the office...

3 Jul 2025

Asda hails major upgrade in employees’ benefits

3 Jul 2025

100% success for latest large-scale four-day week trial

3 Jul 2025

NHS 10-year Health Plan sets out vision for...

3 Jul 2025

Microsoft to cut 9,000 jobs globally as role...

3 Jul 2025

Decline in workplace deaths: falls from height remain...

3 Jul 2025

  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+