More than 10,000 claimants of incapacity benefit in Brighton and Hove will be expected to go back to work under Government plans published yesterday.

Figures show the city is home to 12,400 people deemed too ill to hold down a job. That is the 50th highest number in the UK.

Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton, said upwards of 85 per cent of claimants could soon be expected to look for work.

In Brighton and Hove that would mean 10,540 people returning to the jobs market.

The Welfare Reform Bill, would replace incapacity benefit with a new employment and support allowance.

Claimants would have to prove they needed payments.

The reforms, which would come into force in April 2008, are aimed at getting a million people off benefit and back into work over the next decade.

People who have been on incapacity benefit for more than two years are more likely to die or retire than ever get back to work.

About 2.7 million British people claim incapacity benefit and the Government believes the new system will save £7 billion a year.

The way people are assessed will be updated.

More severely disabled people would receive higher benefits and would not have to look for work.

But claimants assessed as able to work would have to take part in initiatives designed to help them back into jobs. People who refused could lose benefits. Mr Hutton denied the system was designed to punish disabled people.