THE ODDS
It can happen to you!
Most of us cannot imagine being long-term sick or injured. Indeed the commonest excuse for not insuring this risk is “It won’t happen to me”.
In fact, there is a one in six chance of having a long-standing illness lasting six months or more.
(Source: ONS/NHS Limiting Longstanding Illness, 2003.)
Looked at another way, more than 570,000 new claims for State Incapacity Benefit were made during 2006 from people of working age, whilst in the same period, there were fewer than 83,000 deaths between the ages of 20 and 64 in the whole population.
(Sources: ONS/DWP, November 2007 and ONS 2008.)
What are the commonest causes?
We are all aware of the risks of accident and serious illness such as cancer, heart disease and strokes, but the common causes of long-term illness are mental and behavioural disorders and musculo-skeletal disorders – or in simple language, stress, anxiety, depression and bad backs.
Over half of those considered unfit to work and receiving incapacity benefits are suffering from these conditions. Of current State Incapacity Benefit claimants of working age, 75% have been claiming for more than two years and 55% for more than five years. (Source: ONS/DWP, November 2007.)
What are the chances of me claiming?
In November 2007 some 2.6 million people of working age were claiming Incapacity Benefit and met the medical criteria. However, only 1.6 million were receiving benefit, the remainder having made insufficient National Insurance contributions to qualify.
Of these 2.6 million Incapacity Benefit claimants, 1.2 million were receiving means tested Income Support because they had insufficient income to live on. At the same time, 1.7 million people of working age were receiving Disability Living Allowance because they needed the help of another person to get around or to manage their personal care. Some of these were Incapacity Benefit claimants, others were people disabled prior to working age.
(Source: ONS/DWP, November 2007.)
To put the facts simply, if you were in a typical class at school, the chances are that two of your classmates are claiming benefits because they are too sick or disabled to work.
Is that a chance worth risking?