Wellbeing and mental health· Welfare Delivering the undeliverable Five principles to guide policy makers through reforming incapacity and disability benefits 6 March 2025 Louise Murphy Context The Government is set to announce a Green Paper on health-related benefit reform £2bn health-related benefit cuts are baked into OBR forecasts and need to be specified The backdrop? Fast-rising spending on working-age health-related benefits; set to rise by £32bn between 2019-20 and 2029-30, from 1.3% to 2.2% of GD Five principles to guide policy makers through reforming incapacity and disability benefits: Recognise that many of the drivers of rising spend sit outside of the benefits system – and so too will the solutions Governments tend to focus on reducing health-related benefit in-flows by tightening eligibility criteria – but doing so concentrates large losses among a subset of claimants There should be more focus on rebalancing entitlements within the benefits system More action is needed to improve health-related benefit off-flow rates Ultimately, the Government should prioritise long-term improvements to the health-related benefits system over short-term cuts
