The Department for Work and Pensions is planning a big shake-up of the way it pays millions of people who are claiming certain disability benefits.
Ministers are said to be considering allowing people to keep some of their sickness payments even if they return to work, with the benefits being tapered away as people start earning, like other payments in Universal Credit.
At the moment, sickness and disability payments in Employment Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit depend partly on the claimant's capability for work, and there is concern that fit-for-work tests make people prove that they are incapable of working to be able to get the benefit. A Government source told The Times: "It's very much not the case that we'd be relaxing assessments so you could be perfectly fit and claiming. It will be more about being supported into work and supported to do the things you can do, rather than incentivised to prove how incapable you are".
