Toning down the rhetoric

By Ian Macrae

Disability is only one part of work and pensions secretary James Purnell’s brief, but it’s an area he seems keen to learn about and engage with. What’s less clear is whether this engagement will result in a shift in the welfare reform agenda to match the greater subtlety of approach.

There’s certainly an air of almost studied calm about him which contrasts sharply with the stormy waters which surrounded his predecessor Peter Hain, who defined parts of the benefits culture in terms of “Sicknote Britain” and under whose regime disability and fraud became unhelpfully entangled.

“We see fraud and disability policy as being in different boxes,” says Purnell. “Clearly, we want to tackle fraud and anybody who is defrauding the system takes money away from people who should be receiving it correctly. We’re very determined to crack down on people who need to be on a different benefit or should be working, whilst we’re giving more support to people who are disabled or lone parents, whatever category it might be.”

This is not to suggest that he’s rowing back on welfare or benefit reform. Plans to replace incapacity benefit with employment support allowance (ESA) go on apace. And he is clearly zealous in pushing through a back-to-work agenda. But it’s the presentation which is different; the steely solution couched in softer, more consensual terms.

“We definitely want to get a new consensus with the medical profession around the importance of work. Ten years ago, people might have thought that signing someone off sick was probably the most compassionate thing. But if you look at the medical evidence that can have bad results for people. It’s more likely that they’re going to become ill, get mental health issues.” An attempt to draw him on the question of the scale of benefit fraud is met with a straight answer. “I think there are definitely people who’re on IB who could and should be on job seeker’s allowance.” But he places the blame squarely on an outmoded benefit system, steering well clear of any allegations of widespread fraud by disabled claimants. “A system has evolved which is getting people further from realising their ambitions. That’s why we’re replacing it with ESA, developed in cooperation with the disability lobby, focussing on what people can do rather than on what they can’t.”

He also seeks to pour balm on concerns over the future of disability living allowance (DLA) which has been seen as threatened by moves towards individual budgets.

“DLA effectively is an individual budget in the sense that you get the money and you spend it on what you need to spend it on. We recognise the support that’s there for it as an in-and-out-of-work benefit that recognises the barriers people face and we don’t have plans to change that.”

The access to work scheme, too, which provides equipment and support to disabled people into and at work is safe on Purnell’s watch. “It’s definitely not under threat. We think it’s a good scheme which is the embodiment of the social model of disability, that society has a duty to help disabled people be equal in the workplace.”

What remains to be seen is whether this softer rhetoric will be reflected in policy changes or is it merely a style thing, the all too familiar iron fist concealed in a more velvety glove.