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Press release: NHS Confederation report calls for NHS to be rewarded for tackling incapacity benefit

10 Oct 2005

In advance of the publication of the government's Green Paper on benefit reform, the NHS Confederation has today published a report, Incapacity benefit reform and the NHS, calling for the NHS to be rewarded for getting people off the benefit and back into work.

The report shows that the NHS could have a key role to play in helping many of the 2.6 million people currently on incapacity benefit to return to work, but calls for the health service to be incentivised through an 'invest to save' fund.

Currently, any savings made from getting people off incapacity benefit go back to the Department of Work and Pensions. 

Report author Joanna Clason, Stakeholder Relations Manager at the NHS Confederation, said:
'If the NHS and other local agencies are to step up and play a greater role in helping people to get off incapacity benefit, they must be able to benefit from some of the savings made. 

'We propose that a percentage of the savings made from getting people off incapacity benefit should be placed in an 'invest to save fund' and the NHS, social services, Jobcentre plus and others could bid for funding to pay for new health and social care services. "

The report highlights the shocking extent of the problem that must be tackled:

• 2.6 million people claim incapacity benefit - 40 per cent of whom have a mental health problem
• Incapacity benefit costs taxpayers £13 billion a year
• Once someone has been on incapacity benefit for two years, they are more likely to die or retire than get a job

The proposed 'invest to save' fund would be administered through local partnership arrangements which bring together different parts of the public sector and the private, business, community and voluntary sectors to make strategic decisions.

The NHS Confederation's proposal for a local partnership approach has won the backing of the Local Government Association (LGA).

Cllr David Rogers, who chairs the LGA's Community Well-being Board, said: "If the government's forthcoming review of incapacity benefit helps more people get back to work and independent living, then it will be most welcome.

"If we are serious about developing innovative solutions to tackle employment and skills needs, all local partners must have maximum flexibility when working together to create the best provision."
The NHS Confederation report also recommends:

• GPs should be released from policing the benefits system by signing their own patients onto incapacity benefit.  Instead, independent panels of doctors and other healthcare professionals should take on the role, freeing up individual GPs to focus on the health of their patients.
• The NHS - as the third largest employer in the world - should lead by example by positively encouraging disabled people to return to work and supporting staff with disabilities who work in the NHS.

ENDS

Notes for editors

1. The NHS Confederation represents more than 90 per cent of the organisations that make up the NHS throughout the UK. Its members include the majority of NHS trusts, foundation trusts, primary care trusts and health authorities in England; trusts and local health boards in Wales; NHS boards and special boards in Scotland; and health and social service trusts and boards in Northern Ireland.

Contact details

Contact Media Relations Manager Matt Akid on 020 7074 3306 or 07887 633344 or Media Officer Amy Darlington on 020 7074 3304 or 07767 770309 - out of hours please contact the on-call press officer on 07880 500726.

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