So in 1995 the Tories replaced Invalidity Benefit with Incapacity Benefit, which required claimants to satisfy an objective medical test.

ECONOMIST: Welfare reform

Invalidity Benefit, supposedly for invalids, had been paid to thousands of early retirees on the nod of friendly local doctors.

ECONOMIST: Welfare reform

Incapacity benefit, paid to people too ill to work, was brought in to replace the widely abused invalidity benefit, whose recipients turned out to have included shot-putters and mountaineers.

ECONOMIST: Welfare reform