The government began to phase out Incapacity Benefit in 2008 by making it unavailable to new claimants, and later moved almost all the remaining long-term recipients onto Employment and Support Allowance.
[1] In 1995, the Conservative Secretary of State for Social Security, Peter Lilley, abolished Invalidity Benefit for fresh claims and replaced it with Incapacity Benefit after the Prime Minister of the day, John Major, had complained about the burgeoning caseload, saying: "Frankly, it beggars belief that so many more people have suddenly become invalids, especially at a time when the health of the population has improved".
After 2000, some recipients underwent a Personal Capability Assessment to establish whether their condition had improved: if it had, benefit payments could be withdrawn; otherwise, a Capability Report was drawn up by the examining doctor and used by Job Centre staff to plan ways to boost recipients' employability, in the hope of returning them to work.
In late 2008, Gordon Brown’s Labour government replaced Incapacity Benefit with Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for new claims and brought in another gateway health test largely carried out by nurses: the Work Capability Assessment.
[5] David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s coalition government decided to implement the plan to reassess most remaining Incapacity Benefit recipients.
[11][12] A report written by academics from Sheffield Hallam University argued that Incapacity Benefit had been used to give the appearance that unemployment levels were lower than they genuinely were.
[18] In 2011, out-of-work sickness benefits had an annual cost of £13 billion: the Chancellor, George Osborne, called this "a very large budget".
This figure that had been arrived at by combining the number of claimants who withdrew their claim during the assessment phase, those who were found fit for work after the WCA and those who were placed in the work-related activity group.