Unlike some of you who post. I live in the real world of council estates and low cost housing. I know for a fact that people claim disability cos it makes them more money and they cannot be sent for a job. As a taxpayer I am quite willing to help people more unfortunate than myself, but this abuse of the system cannot be sustained or tolerated

Joe, Sutton in Ashfield, England

Simply add these figures to the 'official' unemployment figures and you will have probably about half the true total.
English People are being driven into poverty because their government import and exploit illegal immigrants!

Clive Burghard , LANCING, ENGLAND

I know people on IB (legitamately),
who claim it whilst also getting works pensions well in excess of the laid down minimum income level, how can this be right! IB should also be means tested!

MICK, TEWKESBURY, UK

Would this be the same city banker responsible for the virtual collapse of the banking system? It seems like a lot of his colleagues would qualify for incompetence benefit.
Will they be paying back the mutli-million pound bonuses they award themselves? - I doubt it show.

Tracy, London, UK

If you think everyone on disability benefit is in need of it you're wrong. The figures have rocketed under Labour, it keeps the unemployment figures down. That's also the reason they will do nothing about it, getting people off benefits will raise the figures for unemployment. that's also the reason the Conservatives won't do anything to change it if they ever win an election. blair asked Frank field to think the unthikable on benefit reforms, when he did they sidelined him.

K Cooper, Brierley hill, England

Instead of making the sick and disabled feel like criminals for being ill.Some might say if you are genuinely ill you haven't got anything to worry about, most people who are genuinely ill or disabled get so stressed and more ill because of the current tests for incapacity benefit and it puts so much pressure on us and our carers and extra costs to the NHS when they have to pick up the pieces when our illnesses deteriorate.why don't the politicians get more stringent procedures to get their income like we do,then there would be more money for the people who need it. I would really love to work but can't due to disability and it annoys me that the people who are defrauding the system makes it so much harder for people like myself. As for people having independent medicals whoever this David Freud is,is just like the rest of his cronies in westminster they never research things properly,if they did they would know we already have independent medicals.

Wendy, Newcastle,

It’s worrying how the two major parties are jockeying for the populist vote on incapacity benefits. I am currently in receipt of IB because I have epilepsy. My condition worsens, amongst other things, because of stress and worry, and every time one the political parties come out with threats of tough sanctions on claimants I do go into a worried state. I am probably not the only one claiming IB who worries about these news-grabbing headlines, and all because getting tough on the sick and the frail is an easy option, and to claim a few extra points in the opinion polls. After all the bad press received by IB claimants in recent years, I won’t even admit to claiming IB. It would be easier to lie and say that I made money from being a criminal – after all, they get an easier ride than those on benefits. The sick are going to be treated worse than criminals. Now this Mr Freud spouts off that only 700,000 of the 2.6 million on IB are genuinely sick, and that claimants are only on IB because of their own GPs. Who else would you go to when you’re ill, a City Banker? A message to any party that wants to implement these draconian measures: Voters have long memories.

Michael, manchester, lancashire

I have a "rare" illness that is thought to affect about 27,000 women and 3,000 men in the UK. It causes multiple problems including severe exhaustion, ie literally passing out with exhaustion, forgetfulness and muscle weakness, and it kills you, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, by destroying the liver and often the kidneys too. The almost universal experience of women with this illness is that it takes years to get a diagnosis from ill educated, bullying and plain nasty doctors. Meanwhile their lives fall apart. Can you imagine what's it's like to be plunged into old age at say 25, or 30, to be bullied and told that you're pretending to be ill, and finally to learn that you have, actually, an illness for which there is no cure and which will kill you? To be constantly ill, feverish, exhausted, being forced into debt, constant fear of losing the roof over your head? Yes, let's bully the sick! What a vicious, thug, degraded country England has so willingly become.

A Makrone, London, UK

Maybe he should get the million+ able bodied unemployed back to work first before he starts laying into the least capable?

Tony, Leeds, UK

Over the last ten years, the amount of cars with "Disabled" badges, has risen significantly. As people are living longer and healthier, this huge rise in cars with "Disabled" badges, is a mystery. Sometimes it seems that most of the population of the UK is driving around in cars with "Disabled" badges.

DaveP, Beverley, UK

A neighbour of mine who did manual work was almost crippled with rheumatoid arthritis, but went on working as long as he could and succeeded in working into his early sixties.. When he first applied for incapacity benefit he was turned down and was deeply humiliated in the process. Yet, by that time he could barely get to the end of our lane unaided and had difficulty holding a mug of tea. He got benefit on appeal, but after his experience I find it very difficult to believe that there are millions of people out there who are swinging the lead.

Jane, Stoke on Trent, England

Did David Freud present any evidence for his views? Is there any evidence for alternative views?

This reads to me like an attack on the vulnerable and powerless by the comfortable and self-satisfied.

Jenny Galuschka, Bl;andford Forum, England

i know at least 10 people who have never worked since they left school. They go onto unemployment benifit for a few years then go onto incapacidey benefit ,and by that point they have no interest in working at all . Free house help with costs so all they have to do is buy food

Ian Little, irvine, scotland

Kate Green obviously lives in a different world from the rest of us, I know of at least a dozen people who are on disability benefit who are fit to work. Some of these were introduced to it through Maggie Thatcher's lot to trim the unemployment figures and found it quite a comfort and so remained.

Dave Madley, Alicante, Spain

sick and elderly my foot!

Incapacity has been a refuge for many who choose not to work. I fully support the true incapaitated person, but the boot sales, ebay, window cleaners, pub salesmen, DVD ripoff merchants, fences ... they are usually on incapacity.

Interesting that the long term sick categories are not your physically disabled, they are mostly, back pain, obesity, stress, migraine ... all the illnesses that you can't actually prove medically. A convenient correlation indeed.

Tax payers are being creamed ... and we see it going on all around us, but political correctness stops us calling it what it is. There is a whole new underclass of benefit dependents ... shameless .... And do you know. I don't blame them.

They can't afford houses, can't afford to rent if there were houses to rent. They can't afford to live on minimum wage, they have to take short term work with no security. Quelle surpris, Cause - effect.

Paul Meredith, Maidstone, UK

"next we get an attack by those same thieves on the sick and elderly".
No, Mr Heavey, you are wrong; you're just not listening to what's being said. (1) Those who are genuinely incapacitated will continue to get Incapacity Benefit, and (2) that you think this will affect 'the elderly' is completely astonishing; the old age pension is entirely separate, and is nothing to do with Incapacity Benefit.
Yes, we all despise MPs, Ministers and other public servants who are riding the gravy train, but surely, when the subject of this article is abuse of Incapacity Benefit, you're heading a bit 'off topic'.
Wrongly claiming IB is not only benefit fraud, but theft from the rest of us who pay tax and NI. That's the point of the article and what I hope will be tougher policy on wrongful claimants. I for one would be delighted to see a great deal of the money saved go to the genuinely sick and the elderly; surely you would too? Or do you prefer to see money go to fraudulent claimants? How odd...

richard fleet, London,

If you are on £40K or so a year with two children, then going on the benefits instead of working doesn't make much sense. But, if you are only on £15K a year or so, which, after all, is still well above the minimum wage, then going onto IB makes perfect economic sense.

Say you are in a flat that costs £150 a week - not unreasonable rent for a 2-3 bedroom flat in a major city. You've got a couple of young kids with a stay at home parent, and you clear £300 a week after tax. That's a job that pays £9 - £10 an hour, not £5.75 minimum wage. Pay the rent, council tax of £20 or so a week, travel costs to work of around £10 a week, and you are left with £120 a week to live on.

Get onto IB though and you are in a much better off position financially. Now you don't work, so no travel costs to work. The rent is paid as is the council tax. And you have £180 a week, instead of £120 a week to live on.

No wonder so many people claim the IB. At least their brains are intact!

KDA, Edinburgh, Scotland

thats rice comming from idoits who get cault claimming expensis which dont exist family etc so they should prech what they teach they caused high taxes,high faul bill due to pritiseation. high council tax bills it want these so called people to live in the real world and realise what the high cost of living is all about. it angers me.

kevin green, rugby, warwickshire

Go Gordon .... ignore the corrupted parasites that go under the guise of MPs along with the obscene bonuses paid in the city, pump billions into wobbly banks and target the real villains .... I’m sure this policy will reap its just rewards.

Paul, Sheffiled,

It's almost comically inappropriate for a City banker to be commenting on this topic. How much free money do they get just for turning up? And it's no good saying that private sector money is properly earned. It's shareholders' money, and in any case the banks screw money out of all of us, both individually and by taking slices out of the productive economy. There's an argument to be had here, but the rich had better butt out of it.

Tim, Lancaster,

Notice this report comes from a city Banker who undoubtedly has never suffered from a debilitating illness or struggled to survive on £81.35. As for incapacity claimants all sitting at home watching daytime TV, most cannot afford the licence fee or to pay for the electricity to power the TV. Politicians steal hundreds upon thousands from the taxpayer (DWP Minister Hain for example) and nobody bats an eyelid, yet a sick and disabled person already struggling to survive on below poverty line income against rising inflation is the asy target by poisonous ministers and rich parilamentary hangers on. This is a shameful attack on our most vulnerable members of society by a political elite who are out of touch with the reality of modern day life in the UK.

Jim Barrington, Wirral, UK

I suffer from depressionand haven't been able to even hold a rational telephone conversation for about 10 years. Luckily I have now found some treatment which suits me and am able to work part time. However, I was once on incapacity benefit and had to undergo independant assessment. The first time distressed me so much, even though I was judged unfit for work that when a second demand for assessment was sent two years later I gave up the benefit rather than putting myself through the experience again. I was lucky, we could survive without my earning, but let no-one think it is easy to get benefit if you have mental difficulties because it isn't.

Mary, Derby, derbyshire

sixty- three years of age and diagnosed with cancer.
My sick pay from work finiished after six months and then directed to Incapaciy benefit as I am not fit for work even after treatment (I have a heavy manual job in a factory). Such a shock to learn only entitled to £72.55 per week. After forty-seven years of work and paying around j£250,000 into tax and national Insurance it is not a great return is it? Now that I need help it is not there. What a cruel Government. So many decent hard working people must be destroyed when they need help.

cyril mitchell, Dumfries, Scotland

Give them jobs investigating fraud and political corruption by MP's, there is enough of that about to keep a small army employed.

Robert, Nottm, UK

It must be nice to be an invesment banker and not be disabled just sit back and slag off people who have lost limbs and are in a lot of pain when Mister Purnell was at school I was working seven days a week down a mine paying tax and national insurance which by the way is why I get incapacity benefit my left hand got trapped between the roof and a support totally crushing it my knees both have arthritis because of crawling 1000 yards every single day but then again if my father had been an MP I COULD HAVE STAYED AT HOME AND HE COULD OF JUST PAID ME OUT OF HIS EXPENSES

Brian, Durham, England

Can someone tell me how to get benefit fraudulently because I can't get it honestly. I've been trying to get some kind of help for two and half years and have received nothing but scorn and rebuttal from DWP and Housing. I've worked since I was 16 and I'm 36 now, that's 20 years of tax and NI yet I'm not entitled to anythign due to a bizarre technicality. As a result I've been homeless a number of times and have suffered greatly. If it's so easy to scam benefits, why don't I know about it? I think this is all a ruse. I qualify in almost every way but never get a penny, I don't believe there are people out there who don't qulaify but DO get money. I think this report is bogus.

Thomas, St Albans, Herts, UK

Regardless of your conservative or liberal approach, what must be understood and remedied is the inefficiency of the 'giving' of such benefits. Each case should be looked at with utmost scrutiny. In my opinion far too many people are given benefits and the sooner these people are recognised for being lazy and useless; rather than incapable of work the better.

George Crawford, Petersfield, Hampshire

how i agree with michael's comments lets have a full check on
the mp's first

andrew barron, douglas,

"City banker and welfare adviser " Well you can't argue with those qualifications, the guy must be right.

mike, alford, uk

all the people jumping on the band wagon of attacking the sick and disabled should remember the sick have a vote too.
how can they think putting a private company in charge of finding work for the disabled and only paying them for the ones they find work for and paying nothing if they are unable to make someone take a job.peoples lives are at risk with this brow beating attack on the sick forcing the sick to work at any cost just to get the numbers down is criminal.
how can this david fraud an apt name for him say that 2 thirds of claiments are able to work has he seen their medical records and had any kind of medical knowledge or training.the people claiming incapacity benefit dont just suddenly present themself as sick and unable to work most of the time it is a case of overworking their body that results in injury and disability.stop attacking the sick and concetrate on imigration from eastern europe taking the jobs that are available to our own workers

dylan hay, dundee, scotland

The real story here is the level of benefits compared to the minimum wage.
Maybe The Times could investigate how landlords profit from housing benefit for example?

Alan, Andover, Hants

Yes and I bet a lot of them are over fifty. That's what you get when you allow business to discriminate. Those on Incapacity Benefits have had to lie or starve. Not that anyone has cared about any of this before.

judy, Liverpool, England

Just another wheeze to privatise social services, and make the external "advisers" rich. A few private-sector "consultants" will make fortunes, while nearly two million people on under £80 a week will be made destitute. Plus the NHS will be privatised piecemeal, to be run American-style, by US-based corporations - which will lose or sell our data around the world, to add insult to injury. Gordon, you have no mandate for any of that, and don't you forget it.

Julia Iskandar, London, England

Eighty one pounds a week is an appallingly low sum of money to pay for food, heating, water, electricity, phone, clothing and other essentials. How do the long term ill manage?

Maybe our bloated, pompous, overpaid MPs should try living on it instead of trying to frighten our disabled and ill people - many of whom have paid their taxes for years before becoming ill.

Chris Court, London, UK

In a certain town a town Councillor receives incapacity benefit supposedly because of a back problem. At election time someone took a photograph of him. He had been miraculously cured of his back problem and was delivering election material.

Paul Gooch, Nottingham, UK

ah so the mp's, ministers, prime ministers, are caought stealing money from tax payers etc, and next we get an attack by those same thieves on the sick and elderly, remember soldiers had to go to the courts to get disability payments from parliment.

michael joseph heavey, cahersiveen>adams towns, madness

2 million is a lot of potential voters-lets see whether Nu-Labour or HM opposition either have it in them to do anything about this?

steve, west midlands, uk