Delivering the undeliverable

The Government is set to announce a “radical” Green Paper on health-related benefit reform this Spring, and more immediate benefit cuts are expected ahead of the Spring Statement on 26 March. The backdrop is fast-rising spending on working-age health-related benefits: spending is set to rise by £32bn between 2019-20 and 2029-30, from 1.3% to 2.2% of GDP.

We set out five principles to guide policy makers through reforming incapacity and disability benefits:

1. Recognise that many of the drivers of rising spend sit outside of the benefits system – and so too will the solutions
2. 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
3. There should be more focus on rebalancing entitlements within the benefits system
4. More action is needed to improve health-related benefit off-flow rates
5. Ultimately, the Government should prioritise long-term improvements to the health-related benefits system over short-term cuts