There is a statistic that should be leading the 10 o’clock news every single night: one in four Britons are disabled. Either it’s true and we have become one of the least healthy nations on earth or something has gone wrong in how we classify disability.
But this is not a problem confined to adults. Data from the benefits system shows how the problem is starting in the very young, setting in motion what the Times’s Fraser Nelson reveals the Department for Work and Pensions privately calls a dependency ‘pipeline’ and ‘almost a dirty secret’.
In the episode, we reveal figures that show almost one in ten six-year-olds are now regarded as disabled by the benefits system. If things continue as they are, this will rise to one in five by secondary school and one in four by a child’s 16th birthday. And once on welfare, all the figures suggest it becomes very difficult to get off it again. ‘If the system isn’t reformed there is no reason for believing then 1 in 4 won’t be diagnosed as disabled.’ But as he explains in the episode: reform is possible.
The full Reality Check episode, in which Fraser explains just how we’ve got here – and how bad things could get – is out now.
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