The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is considering tightening benefit rules for those claimants who work from home. A recent survey conducted by the DWP revealed that 200,000

individuals claiming health and disability benefits expressed readiness to work if the right job or support was available. The study, carried out by research organisation NatCen, gathered

the views of 3,401 disability benefit claimants on their health and potential for employment. The findings suggest that 200,000 people receiving health and disability benefits are prepared

to start working immediately if provided with the appropriate job or support. This figure of 200,000 is derived from the 5% of survey participants who responded in this manner. The report

of those who felt they might be able to work in the future indicated that they would be capable of performing a job that entirely involved working from home, reports Birmingham Live. The

report cautions: "Even among those who said they could work from home, it wasn't something that they necessarily wanted to do, and many saw it as a short-term solution at

best." It further noted: "Working from home should not become the preferred solution to helping health and disability customers in all categories back into work." The document

also mentioned: "It may only be a long term or permanent option for those who would not be negatively impacted in other ways from the reduced social interaction it involves."

Lindsay Judge, research director at the Resolution Foundation, commented on the current state of the health and disability benefits system: "I don't think anybody thinks that the

health and disability benefits system works well at the moment," she said. "It doesn't work well for claimants. It's costing the exchequer a lot of money. You can

envisage a better system. But to make that kind of wholesale change is a long-term project, and it requires reconfiguring the relationship between the department and claimants. It's

really hard to see how the government could do that if its initial foray into this field is to make quite significant cuts. "The basic rate of benefits is so low – it has been eroded

away. So getting incapacity benefits is a significant boost and passports you into things like carers' allowance and away from conditionality. As the system has become more restrictive,

there have been more advantages for people to claim that benefit. It would be wrong to say that it's the only reason we're seeing more people on the higher rate of incapacity

benefits, but it is clearly a contributory factor."