7:00am Wednesday 31st December 2008
By Dominic Bowers
Tendring ranks the worst in Essex when it comes to residents languishing on long-term sick benefits, figures show.
Nearly 60 per cent of people claiming incapacity benefit in the district have been picking up the allowance for more than five years.
Out of 6,990 receiving the assistance, 4,160 have been claiming for more than 60 months.
Tendring’s figure is the highest of 14 district and unitary authority areas in Essex. They rank second in East Anglia, with only North Norfolk faring worse, and 38th out of 354 across England.
Douglas Carswell, Tory MP for Clacton and Harwich, says the system encourages people to become benefit cheats.
He has called for an overhaul so decisions are made locally, possibly at district council level.
“What is so wrong about the system is that some people who are genuinely deserving are being treated as if they are trying to pull a fast one, while there are a large number of people who don’t deserve it but are getting it,” he said.
The Government has promised to get a grip on incapacity benefit payments, which are designed to keep the chronically-ill out of poverty.
A spokesman for James Purnell, Work and Pensions Secretary, said new plans would see numbers start to fall.
Radical welfare reforms will see virtually everyone expected to do something in return for their benefits, to help more people move from benefits and into work, she added.
Nationally, just over 56.64 per cent of people on incapacity benefit have been claiming the allowance for more than five years, a total of 1.49 million people out of 2.63 million claimants.
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