ALMOST 800 people across North Wales are getting benefits because they are addicted to drugs or alcohol.The bill for their claims runs into millions of pounds a year – and Ministers have promised to reform the system.
The Department for Work and Pensions have published the figures amid criticism of their plans to subject all incapacity benefit claimants to tough ‘fit for work’ tests.
In north Wales, 780 people were receiving incapacity benefit (IB) or employment support allowance (ESA) with drug or boozde addiction as their main “disabling condition”, the DWP said.
A further 200 were claiming disability living allowance (DLA), with some of them eligible for one of the other benefits.
Conwy had the most cases, 200, with 120 IB claimants and 80 on ESA because of their drug or alcohol problems. An additional 50 receive DLA.
Wrexham and Flintshire both had 150 (each having 100 IB, 50 ESA). They each also have 30 people on DLA. Denbighshire has 120 (70 on IB and 50 on ESA) with 50 claiming DLA; Gwynedd 120 (80 on IB, 40 on ESA) with 20 on DLA; Anglesey 40 (30 on IB, 10 on ESA) plus 20 on DLA, according to the figures relating to November last year.
The benefits paid to drug addicts and alcoholics come to around £83,000 a week or £4.1m each year.
A breakdown shows there are 280 people in North Wales claiming IB paid at £99.15 after 12 months for alcohol dependency and 220 for drugs. On ESA, which is paid at £99.15-£105.05 weekly, there were 210 alcoholics and 70 claimants dependent on drugs
The figure are based on claimants collecting the lowest level of one of the two DLA components at £20.55 a week, so the actual weekly total could potentially be up to £26,000 higher.
The coalition’s reforms to address the issue include replacing DLA with a new payment with tougher criteria. All IB claimants are already being subjected to tests to see if they are physically capable of working.
A DWP spokeswoman said: “Reform of the broken incapacity benefit system is about saving lives, rather than writing people off to a life on benefits as used to happen.”
Charities working with addicts say the claimants are not exploiting the system as if they are unable to work they would have to claim benefits, otherwise they would starve.
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