These are common myths you will hear about UK Disability Benefits:

• Two million disability claimants is artificially high
• People are only claiming disability benefits to avoid work
• The Tories transfered millions of healthy unemployed to incapacity in the 90s
• The UK Government has been too generous
• It is easy getting incapacity, GPs will happily sign you off and you're set for life
• People on disability benefits are dishonest and lazy

So is two million claimants too high? Are claimants merely trying to avoid work. Is our government too generous? The best way to measure this is to measure our statistics against claimant and health statistics of other developed nations.

Disability and Mental Health Statistics

• Taking mental health rates into consideration, the UK disability claimant count is low compared to other nations.

Disability Claimant Rates and Unemployment

• There is no evidence that UK disability claimants are abandoned unemployed without a disability or sickness.

UK Welfare Spending

• UK spending on incapacity welfare is average for the rate of claimants.

Disability Benefit Assessments

• Conditionality for disability benefits has always been rigorous.
• The new Work Capability Assessment is unfit for purpose.

Dishonesty in the UK

• Dishonesty exists in all classes of people. The belief that people on benefits are all lazy and dishonest is due to centuries-old prejudice.

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