article_snippet: The benefit replaced incapacity benefit, income support and severe disablement allowance with an annual cost to the taxpayer of £725million.
article_snippet: Jonathan Iasby of the Taxpayers' Alliance told the newspaper: 'The benefit system is a valuable safety net but The benefit system can't be a comfort blanket.
article_snippet: We need to ensure treatment is available to help people back to work.'
article_snippet: The initial assessment phase lasts for 13 weeks, during which your income and capital are analysed.
article_snippet: Ministers claim the success is down to the Government's controversial new assessment regime pioneered by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith.
article_snippet: This is due to applicants' physical and mental conditions assessed to show how it would affect applicants' ability to work is also assessed.
article_snippet: Sometimes applicants are asked to undergo a medical examination and are asked about how applicants condition affects applicants ability to carry out every day tasks, whether applicants vary from one day to another and what applicants normal day is like.
article_snippet: Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith pioneered the Employment Support Allowance, which requires claimants to undergo mental and physical assessments .
article_snippet: Atos Healthcare, which has been accused of making unfair decisions on when sick and disabled people lose benefits, was ordered to review its tests last summer after a Government report found a Government report assessors were of unacceptably poor quality.