Daily Mail confusion between Disability Living Allowance and Incapacity Benefit corrected

The start of this week saw the Government begin the process of sending out letters to those claiming Incapacity Benefit, inviting them to a reassessment of their capability to work.

On the same day, new information was reported in the media, suggesting possible cuts to Disability Living Allowance.

At Full Fact we covered these stories in the media, concluding on 'the good, the bad and the ugly' in the reporting.

In terms of the ugly, Full Fact looked at the apparent confusion between Disability Living Allowance and Incapacity Benefits in the Daily Mail's article.

The Daily Mail reported that: "Letters are being sent out to people on the Disability Living Allowance, asking them to submit reassessments."

It went on: "Out of the 1,626 people assessed in Burnley and Aberdeen a third of those questioned were taken off the DLA and instead put onto Jobseeker's Allowance."

As Full Fact reported, letters are actually being sent out to those receiving Incapacity Benefit. People on Disability Living Allowance will be reassessed, but as part of a different process in 2013/14.

We pointed out that the Daily Mail article contained "fundamental errors which confuse statistics and proposals for two different types of benefits", and said that we would contact the Daily Mail to ask for a correction.

However, before we pointed out the confusion to the Daily Mail, they appear to have noticed the mistake they had made; and the article now correctly reports on Government plans for Incapacity Benefit.

We have no idea whether Full Fact's coverage played any role in the change, but we welcome it nevertheless.

Original story

Corrected story