Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) original forecast of expenditure savings and (b) actual expenditure savings were from the reassessment of incapacity benefit claims since 2010.

The original estimate of the economic impact of the reassessment of Incapacity Benefit claims from 2010 was a net saving of £1,000 million (net present value, 2009/10 prices) over the years 2009/10 to 2013/14.

This figure was published by the previous Government on 29 March 2010 in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Employment and Support Allowance (Transitional Provisions, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit) (Existing Awards) Regulations 2010 (2010 No. 875), published at this address: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/875/pdfs/uksiem_20100875_en.pdf.)

Actual savings from Incapacity Benefit reassessment are not available. Isolating the impact of any single policy change becomes increasingly uncertain as new policy beds into the benefits system, and becomes the norm.

As Chris Grayling, when Minister for Employment, said to the Work and Pensions Select Committee, Incapacity Benefit reassessment is not a savings measure – it is not a financially based exercise, although clearly if we succeed it will save money – but is about identifying the people who have the potential to return to work, and helping them to do so.