Britain’s “Incapacity” Racket

The United Kingdom has an "Incapacity" program for people allegedly unable to work. And like the "Disability" portion of America's Social Security program, the British system is a magnet for fraud. The Times reports that more than $8 million was paid to people who are "too fat" to work. But this is a drop in the bucket compared to the people receiving handouts for mental health reasons. In an obvious sign that people are scamming the system (unless the UK's government-run health care system is even more dangerous than current stories suggest), the number of people who are ostensibly incapacitated has tripled in less than 30 years:

Almost two thousand people who are too fat to work have been paid a total of £4.4 million in benefit, it emerged last night. Other payments went to fifty sufferers of acne... Billions of pounds is being paid in benefits to people claiming to be unable to work because they suffer from depression, stress, fatigue and unknown or unspecified diseases. ...Frank Field, a former Social Security Minister, said last night that too many people were working the incapacity benefit system to avoid work. “It is a racket, which governments have allowed to exist for far too long. I do not blame people for working the system, it is the job of politicians to stop them doing it.” ...The number on incapacity benefit has more than trebled since 1979... More than £2 billion was paid in 2006-07 for mental health complaints, including £518 million to those with what are described as “unknown and unspecified” diseases.