The government is aiming to cut the number of people on Incapacity Benefit by over half a million and will increase the rate of testing existing claimants to do so.

More than 2.6 million, nearly half of whom are aged 50+, currently claim Incapacity Benefit, or its successor, the Employment and Support Allowance.  The annual cost of these two benefits is around £12.5 billion.

Approximately 10,000 current Incapacity Benefit claimants are tested each month to assess whether they are capable of doing some kind of work.  But according to the BBC, the Government has plans to raise the figure significantly – trebling it to 30,000. 

People who are judged ‘fit to work’ are moved onto Jobseeker’s Allowance, and those who are not, then go onto Employment and Support Allowance.

The Chancellor George Osborne has identified Housing Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance as areas where cuts may be made.

Following the government’s emergency Budget last week, the Chancellor said there would be a “trade-off” which could see savings in the benefit costs used to cushion the impact of cuts of as much as 25 per cent in budgets for public services such as the police, defence and schools.

He said he wanted to protect “those with genuine needs” while encouraging those who could work to get a job.

The government is looking for ways to reduce the cost of the welfare bill in time for the Spending Review on 20 October.