Rehabilitation: Drive to get people back to work hailed as good news for providers
Rehabilitation providers have welcomed reforms to Welfare State provision announced by the Minister for Work and Pensions.
It had been feared the proposals, outlined in the A New Deal for Welfare Green Paper, and which include plans to get a million incapacity claimants back to work, would be detrimental to rehabilitation specialists due to the strong emphasis they place on occupational health initiatives.
Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton announced that, as part of the proposed reforms, Incapacity Benefit will be replaced by an employment and support allowance that is dependent on claimants attending work-focused interviews and other back-to-work schemes.
Those who do not attend will see their benefit reduced while the money freed up by sending people back to work will be used to increase benefits for the disabled and those who are unable to return to work.
The Government hopes that by using work-focused exercises to overcome the psychological barriers - as well as occupational health and rehabilitative therapies to deal with the physical problems - around one million long-term sick people will be back in work within 10 years, saving taxpayers £12.5bn a year.
Joy Reymond, UnumProvident's head of rehabilitation services, backed the reforms.
She said: "These changes should be welcomed by rehab providers as the Green Paper will increase the general level of awareness of how important rehabilitation is."
These comments were echoed by other occupational health providers who also urged the Government to go further.
Andrew Vallance-Owen, BUPA's medical director, said: "In addition to emphasising rehabilitation there should be a push to introduce primary care into the workplace to intervene before someone has to stop working."
