Labour 'deserted claimants'

MORE than one million people have either died or retired while claiming Incapacity Benefits (IB) since Labour came to power, the Conservatives claimed yesterday.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Theresa May claimed the statistic showed that Labour had "abandoned a generation of people" who have been left to languish on benefits.

The government has announced plans to reassess all 2.63m claimants and replace the benefit with the new Employment Support Allowance after finding those receiving IB for over two years were more likely to die or retire than return to work.

Figures show that almost 900,000 IB claimants died or began claiming the state pension between 1998 and 2007, and Ms May said that if the trend continued the total must now be more than one million.