"We must make an honest assessment of sickness levels in Merthyr" Kitcher

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 20th May 2008

BBC investigative programme, Panorama, visited Merthyr Tydfil on 19th May to report on the Governments plans to get people off Incapacity Benefit and into work.

Amy Kitcher, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Town ward comments on this contentious and sensitive issue, "I think Panorama took a very balanced view; they interviewed people with varying circumstances, over a period of several weeks. This is not the typical 'cheap-dig' television we usually get when the camera vans roll into Merthyr.

"The fact is that over two and a half million people in the UK are on incapacity benefit. This is a serious issue that we can't afford to ignore, least of all because in money terms it is costing us £16billion a year. Of course the journalists are going to come to Merthyr to cover this story because, like it or not, we have very high levels of incapacity benefit claimants.

The Government must tackle the skills shortage to have any hope of reducing the number of Incapacity Benefits claimants

"That said; we shouldn't take a simplistic view of the problem. People do face real barriers to returning to work. For example, 60% of incapacity claimants have no skills at all. The stand-alone creation of new jobs; 3,500 are needed according to Panorama; won't be enough; we need to address to skills shortage too before any significant reduction in levels of incapacity benefit will be achieved."

"The Westminster government also needs to change the benefit system to really 'make work pay' for long term claimants. This has failed to be the case so far, possibly because IB claims are not counted in unemployment figures."