Drive to help sick back to work

The scheme aims to help people on disability benefits into work

A £21m initiative to help people on sick and disability benefits in deprived areas of Wales to return to work was launched on Wednesday.

More than 200,000 people currently claim incapacity and disability benefits, with many living in areas with links to heavy industry.

First Minister Rhodri Morgan and Work and Pensions Minister Anne McGuire unveiled the Want2Work scheme.

The project will cover parts of Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot and Cardiff.

Up to one in five people in Merthyr are unable to work and are claiming incapacity benefit.

One of the issues locally for me is that we don't have part-time flexible work available GP Jonathan Richards

They include Lynn Thomas who is only now well enough to start looking for a job.

Due to a severe heart condition she has been unable to work for the last 14 years.

She said:"It's very frustrating. It saps away your confidence and you don't feel like you are contributing to anything

"You feel like you are relying on so many people."

The government wants people like her who can go back to work to do so.

In the Queen's Speech on Tuesday, it announced it would change the incapacity benefit system to "facilitate a return to employment, while offering long-term support for those unable to work".

Lynn Thomas is typical of those the scheme is designed to help

Under Want2Work, volunteers will be given assistance from local Jobcentre Plus advisers and health care professionals.

Geraint Williams, a Want2Work manager in Merthyr Tydfil, said: "We work with the local health board to provide health and well-being activities, voluntary activities and learning in education.

"As we move people through these stages, for those people that can, (we) actually move them back into work that exists locally."

Figures from the Welsh Local Labour Force survey show 57% of people with a disability in Wales were economically inactive compared to 48% in the UK.

At the initiative's launch on Wednesday, Ms McGuire and Mr Morgan met Merthyr Tydfil man Brian Smith, 46, who has returned to work as a driver.

He was on incapacity benefit for two years after having a heart bypass operation and kidney transplant.

Dr Richards said employers needed to be more flexible

The Want2Work project has been supported by more than £8m of Objective One European funding and more than £3m of Objective Three funding.

Ms McGuire said it followed on from the success of the Pathways to Work pilot scheme, which helped hundreds of people in Bridgend and Rhondda Cynon Taf.

She said: "Nine out of 10 people coming on to incapacity benefits tell us they want and expect to get back to work.

"Want2 Work gives them the practical job advice and rehabilitation support they need."

But Merthyr Tydfil GP Dr Jonathan Richards, who has many patients who are unable to work, said more people would be in work if employers were more flexible.

He said: "One of the issues locally for me is that we don't have part-time flexible work available so that people who could perhaps work two or three days a week don't have the opportunity to work.

"Or people who could work in a protected environment where, when they were not feeling so well could ring up and say 'Look I'm really not well today', then they wouldn't have to go into work.

"If we had that opportunity, I'm sure there would be more people who would be working."