In November 2001 a conference assembled at Woodstock, near Oxford. Its
subject was ‘Malingering and Illness Deception’. The topic was a familiar one to
the insurance industry, but it was now becoming a major political issue as New
Labour committed itself to reducing the 2.6 million who were claiming Incapacity
Benefi t (IB). Amongst the 39 participants was Malcolm Wicks, then Parliamentary
Under Secretary of State for Work, and Mansel Aylward, his Chief Medical Officer at
the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). Fraud - which amounts to less than
0.4 per cent of IB claims - was not the issue. The experts and academics present
were the theorists and ideologues of welfare to work. What linked many of them
together, including Aylward, was their association with the giant US income protection
company UnumProvident, represented at the conference by John LoCascio. The
goal was the transformation of the welfare system. The cultural meaning of illness
would be redefi ned; growing numbers of claimants would be declared capable of
work and ‘motivated’ into jobs. A new work ethic would transform IB recipients into
entrepreneurs helping themselves out of poverty and into self-reliance. Five years later
these goals would take a tangible form in New Labour’s 2006 Welfare Reform Bill.
http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/ebooks/Welfare Reform (revise).pdf
PIP plans...
