Minister on sickness benefit review plans

The prime minister has commissioned a health adviser to review whether people with obesity, alcohol or drug problems should have benefits cut if they refuse treatment to make them fit for work.

About 100,000 people with such long-term conditions are claiming sickness benefits.

Prof Dame Carol Black will consider whether the welfare system fails to encourage them to get treatment.

Disabilities Minister Mark Harper said the aim was to get people to engage with treatment so that they could get back to work and that the right interventions could be "very successful'.