Last month's COVER Focus on income protection (IP) mentioned October's introduction of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) as a prompt to the public to realise how little state support they would get if they were too ill to work.
The debate focused on the conditions for receiving ESA but missed out on the concept change. The White Paper on Welfare Reform was published in December and James Purnell chose, in making his statement to the Commons, to quote from Herbert Morrison in 1947: "We have no hands or brains to waste, and no resources to fritter away on those who don't contribute to our national effort." The Government's choice to pursue this vision despite the current downturn is hugely refreshing. Its implementation will involve a massive change for the 2.5 million invalidity benefit claimants. They will b...
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