Employment Minister in town as Incapacity Benefit crackdown launched in Burnley

That was the emphatic message from Employment Minister Chris Grayling when he visited the town yesterday to launch an historic pilot project aimed at getting more claimants back into the workplace as part of a nationwide benefits shake-up.

The move is aimed at targeting those people who exist as part of the so-called “benefits culture” but also ensuring those claimants who want to work and are able get the chance to do so.

Mr Grayling was speaking at the Fernandes Centre in North Street, Daneshouse, the base of Community Restart, a multi-agency organisation which helps people with physical and mental health disabilities to get back into a job, where he took part in a question and answer session with claimants.

If successful, the scheme, which is also being piloted in Aberdeen, Scotland, will be rolled out across the UK in the spring.

Currently 6,410 people in Burnley are on incapacity benefit – 11.8% of the population. The Government has also given agencies in Burnley £50,000 funding to help support the people involved.

Under the reform, 850 Burnley claimants will undergo re-assessment based on their disability.

Tests will include walking, sitting, concentration levels and memory.

Mr Grayling said: “Anybody who is genuinely not able to work has nothing to fear by this. We will go out of our way to make sure people don’t end up on the wrong side of the dividing line. We will be looking very carefully at the experiences of Burnley people.”

He also stressed people found to be unable to work will receive more financial support than is currently available.

Burnley Borough Council chief executive Mr Steve Rumbelow said the re-assessment was “the right thing to do.”

“It’s making a positive difference to people’s lives. Clearly it’s got to be done sensitively to make sure some people’s worst fears are not realised.”

He added that employment opportunities are available in Burnley but said the town would need ongoing support from Central Government.

Managing director of Vedas Recruitment, which is working in partnership with the council to get people back into work, Mrs Lesley Burrows, said she hoped the Burnley scheme would become a “flagship” from which others could learn.