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Work and pensions secretary Peter Hain, speaking on BBC Breakfast, stated that the new test for employment support allowance (ESA) was about helping rather than penalising people who are sick or disabled.
"It is not about punishing people. I think those from the disability lobby - who are entitled to put their point of view, and I welcome that - are wrong to think that we are doing this as a form of punishment.”
"We want to assess whether people can work, not whether they can't, and the current system which has operated now for decades is really about whether you can't work, if you can't walk 400 metres, if you can't climb 12 steps without the help of a banister and so on, whereas actually there are lots of jobs people can do now which do not involve that kind of physical test."
People on benefits are costing the country £12.5bn, he said, which was money that could go on supporting those in work and investing in frontline services.
It is estimated half of those claiming ESA would fail the proposed new test, meaning 20,000 fewer claimants each year.
ESA will be introduced in October 2008, but will only apply to new claimants, not those currently on incapacity benefit and income support on grounds of incapacity.
Disability Alliance has expressed its misgivings about the proposed new medical test for ESA in the Response of Disability Alliance to the Transformation of the Personal Capability Assessment paper.
You can find out more about ESA, Peter Hain's comments and the proposed new test from the links below.
