Long-term unemployed thrown on the job heap

In a reversal of trends, up to a million long-termed unemployed receiving incapacity benefit will find they are thrown on the job heap if they fail pass a new fitness for work test.

If the test – introduced today – finds they are fit for work, they will lose incapacity benefit and shift to jobseeker’s allowance or other benefits, depending on the level of financial support a computer score decides they need.

The final decision over who has to look for work and who continues to receive benefits for their incapacity is made by a computer that allocates points depending on results of tests designed to asses physical functions, like motor ability.

For many, their disability profile becomes as personally and financially important as their credit profile.

The winners or losers – take your pick for which term applies to those now seeking work – will also have to compete with the nation’s 2 million unemployed for the 500,000 mainly part time vacancies the latest government figures suggest are available for those seeking work.

Many are questioning if disabled people on incapacity benefit who are now reclassified as fit to work will find themselves at a major disadvantage when pitted against candidates that are more able-bodied.

In the end, the real issue is not the label applied to someone who claims benefit but the affect the change has on their lives.

After all, whatever incapacity led to a person being deemed as unable to work is still there – it’s just the definition of what ‘unable to work’ means that has changed and how that definition affects the benefit that is paid.

Long term, introducing the test and pushing incapacity benefit claimants in to the job market is akin to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

The underlying challenge remains for the government and society to decide how much money the country wants to invest in the less able in a time of economic stress.