I see Paulie has already posted the headline figures, so I won't bother repeating that.
Nope, but it's pretty easy to go to the DWP's site, look up the current number of people in receipt of state pension (11.4 million in 2006-7) and work out what percentage they constitute of all claimants of claimants on income-substitute benefits, i.e of the "30%" (actually about 28%, but let's call it 30% for convenience's sake), they'd comprise 18% of that 30%, or in real terms, 55% of the entire claimant population on benefits that are income substitutes.
I think that if you take into account the closure of several major industries and the fact that many industrial illnesses/injuries don't properly manifest until you're no longer working in the conditions that cause it (vibration white finger for example), then it was partly to do with the collapse of industry and partly to do with number-juggling.
I think that if you take into account the closure of several major industries and the fact that many industrial illnesses/injuries don't properly manifest until you're no longer working in the conditions that cause it (vibration white finger for example), then it was partly to do with the collapse of industry and partly to do with number-juggling.
Oh, by the way, Incapacity Benefit didn't exist in 1992, there was something different called Invalidity Allowance, with an entirely different set of qualifying criteria.
Balders, what you think happened is irrelevant, what you know and can prove, that's what is relevant.
Really?
No, the collapse of the manufacturing industry is ongoing, in fact steel and heavy engineering mostly went belly-up in the 1990s
The point is, you numpty, that you can only get IB if you have paid sufficient NI contributions, therefore clearly demonstrating that at least 1.6million IB claimants have worked and contributed previously. This is the fundamental basis of the welfare state that Beveridge created, one of social insurance whereby you pay in when you can and the system pays out when you can't.
