Incapacity Benefit

Incapacity Benefit is a UK welfare benefit that was introduced in 1995. It used to be available to adults who were younger than the State Pension age, who had made National Insurance contributions, and who were having difficulty finding work because of an illness or a disability.

Incapacity Benefit was phased out by a New Labour government following the passage of the Welfare Reform Act in 2007, which replaced it with Employment and Support Allowance for new claims. In 2011, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition began to reassess long-term recipients still on Incapacity Benefit and move them onto Employment and Support Allowance.

There are now fewer than 100,000 people on Incapacity Benefit. It is no longer available to new claimants.

In Britain, sickness benefits were introduced by David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill and other reformers as part of the radical changes to social security brought about by the National Insurance Act 1911. These Edwardian-era reforms were incorporated into the Welfare State after the Second World War - although until the early 1970s, the post-war National Insurance scheme treated everyone who became eligible for benefits after losing their job in largely the same way, regardless of whether or not they were disabled.

Long-term illness and disability were also addressed to some extent through National Assistance and, from 1966, Supplementary Benefit.

Edward Heath's government brought in a raft of new social security payments including Invalidity Benefit, which was introduced in 1971 to go some way towards replacing the wages of people who had been 'invalided out' of their occupation after developing a long-term illness or a disability. It was worth more than basic Unemployment Benefit paid to people without disabilities.

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