Sickness benefits to be denied to people who can work from home

SICKNESS benefits will be denied to people who could work from home in a bid to slash the annual £25.9billion bill, ministers said.

- Martyn Brown

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride claimed that the changes would help bring down the number of people signing off with health problems.

Under the crackdown assessors will consider someone's ability to work remotely to reflect the rise in flexible jobs.

Mr Stride said the proportion of claimants with the highest incapacity benefits with no working requirements has soared from 21% in 2011 to 65% last year.

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He told the Commons that 2.5 million are receiving sickness handouts and taxpayers are spending £15.9billion more on them than a decade ago.