ABSTRACT
The UK social security system for sickness and disability dates from the social, industrial and medical revolutions of the nineteenth century, prompted in particular by the need to provide for industrial injury. It was recognised that only the state could provide ultimate cover for the traditional risks of occupational injury, sickness, old age and unemployment. Such social insurance improves not only the standard of life of individual workers, but also the economic, social and political stability of society. Over the last century the original concept of social insurance has evolved into a broader concept of social security, and the focus has shifted from the industrial worker to the citizen per se. ‘Incapacity’ benefits provide income replacement for people whose capacity for work is limited by sickness and disability. Such benefits raise the question of how to define and identify individuals who are ‘incapacitated for work.’
