Panorama - disability and back to work

Disabled or faking it?

BBC Panorama investigates the government's plans to end the so-called 'sick note culture' and their attempts to get millions of people off disability benefits and into work. In Britain's modern welfare state, millions are being paid to private companies to assess sick and disabled claimants but is the system working? Or are new tests wrongly victimising those who deserve support the most?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Npuh4im0jY

The great disability scam?

Only half of all people with a disability are in work. Panorama investigates if one of the government's most ambitious welfare reforms, costing billions of pounds, can solve the problem of disability unemployment. Reporter Sam Poling reveals the private companies who are getting rich from the new reforms despite only being able to get a small fraction of disabled people back to work, and speaks to the charities who feel the most vulnerable in our society are being failed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8g57CMMLjs

Panorama - disabled or faking it?

Panorama investigates the government's plans to end the so-called 'sick note culture' and their attempts to get millions of people off disability benefits and into work. In Britain's modern welfare state, millions are being paid to private companies to assess sick and disabled claimants but is the system working? Or are new tests wrongly victimising those who deserve support the most?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lldrc

Sickness and disability benefits

A hat-tip to Ollie for this interesting article on sickness and disability benefits -http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/07/the-three-things-cameron-should-know-about-sickness-and-disability-benefits/
 

Why mental illness puts some employers off

The government is unveiling plans to get thousands of people - including many with mental illnesses - off incapacity benefit and into work.Ministers hope the changes will improve lives as well as save money, but how easy will it be for mentally ill people to find work?

Bruce Murray says he would love to get a job but has been unable to get off incapacity benefit because of the mental illness he has suffered from for more than 20 years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4641222.stm

Q&A about who can apply for Incapacity Benefit and how

BBC article about the process of claiming Incapacity Benefit.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4225991.stm

Government unveils a new Incapacity Benefit shake-up

Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton has unveiled plans to get one million incapacity benefit claimants back into work, saving £7bn a year.(Jan 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4641588.stm

Examples of Disability/Incapacity Benefit fraud

A man who admitted in court to falsely claiming more than £100,000 in disability benefits has changed his plea to not guilty.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7906828.stm

A mayor from Pembroke has pleaded guilty to benefit fraud after claiming disability living allowance while refereeing football matches at weekends.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7358878.stm

A former mayor of Sefton and his wife have been convicted of fraudulently claiming more than £30,000 in disability benefits.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7070000/newsid_7074100/7074107.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&nol_storyid=7074107&bbcws=1

A man has lost an appeal to have disability benefits reinstated after completing a charity bike ride.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7300000/newsid_7307800/7307833.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&nol_storyid=7307833&bbcws=1

A Nottinghamshire man who ran marathons while claiming disability benefit has been jailed. Paul Appleby, 47, from Mansfield, was jailed for 10 months after defrauding the government of £23,000.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6280000/newsid_6280900/6280901.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&nol_storyid=6280901&bbcws=1

A man caught working as a tyre fitter while claiming disability benefits has been sentenced to 240 hours' community service. James Kirwin, 41, of Speke said he had had constant back pain, but he was filmed working as a tyre fitter.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_4580000/newsid_4584400/4584464.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&nol_storyid=4584464&bbcws=1

A man who fraudulently claimed disability benefit won the title of Cornwall's Strongest Man while supposedly being unable to work.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6669593.stm

Invalidity benefits v Working 20 hours per week

Department of Work and Pensions comparing the level of income being on Invalidity Benefit to working 20 hours per week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/19_05_08_dwp_sick.pdf

Panorama - Britain on the sick

The government claims that work is good for your health and it's aiming to get a million people off benefit and into work by 2015.But what will it take to get the long-term incapacity benefit claimants off the sofa and into a job? Panorama investigates why 2.6 million people are 'on the sick' and how the government plans to shift a third of them into jobs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7402474.stm

Transcript - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7402474.stm

Govt aims to get more disabled back to work

A shake-up of the benefits system aimed at getting one million sick or disabled people into jobs has been published.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_5140000/newsid_5143700?redirect=5143782.stm&news=1&nbwm=1&nbram=1&bbwm=1&bbram=1&asb=1

Getting the disabled back to work

Providing disabled people with the skills to compete in the job market could deliver significant economic growth, according to a new report.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6734729.stm

Work - getting a million sick people back to work

Shelley Jofre investigates whether the Government can really hope to achieve its aim of getting a million people off the sick and back into work within the next eight years.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7410000/newsid_7410100?redirect=7410104.stm&news=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1&nbram=1&bbwm=1

Work - getting a million sick people back to work

Shelley Jofre investigates whether the Government can really hope to achieve its aim of getting a million people off the sick and back into work within the next eight years.

video - http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7410000/newsid_7410100?redirect=7410104.stm&news=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1&nbram=1&bbwm=1