SIR - Put down the crutches and pick up your pen, and we will get you back to work again. This is the Government's promise in the wake of the Green Paper on incapacity benefit reform.
With millions receiving billions, a fresh look is needed, and few would argue with that. It remains to be seen what the bloodthirsty Labour rebels will do to the proposal. The Government is bravely treading a bold path through the no man's land of welfare reform. In the last battle in 1997, with its historic 180-seat majority, they retreated amid embarrassing scenes of wheelchair protests.
The timing isn't good either. With a tamed majority, rising unemployment and with the Department of Work and Pensions slashing staff numbers, where are the legions of employers in a position to recruit those whose health is less than A1 ? Whenever the Government wheels out advocates of welfare reform they never seem to be accompanied by representatives of the CBI or other employers' organisations expressing great enthusiasm to encourage recruitment of the millions on disability benefits. The silence from the business sector is deafening, and without their voluntary help it is destined to failure.
ANDREW BROWN,
Worcester.
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