Geoff Adams-Spink BBC News website disability affairs correspondent

Campaigners say independent living is the key to ending inequality

A leading charity that campaigns for disabled people is urging the government to put independent living at the heart of incapacity benefit reform.

Scope says the welfare system needs a radical rethink to make the needs of individuals paramount.

The organisation has commissioned a report from think-tank Demos which looks at ways to give disabled people more control over their lives.

The report says disabled people are best placed to manage their own needs.

Scope's chief executive, Tony Manwaring, says that it is wrong to stigmatise people claiming incapacity benefit.

"We need to start with the presumption that disabled people want to be active economically, want to be active citizens," he said.

"In order to achieve this goal disabled people need to be empowered to exercise choice to get the support they want and need."

Our contribution to society will not be measured by how much we earn Jim Elder-Woodward

Mr Manwaring believes that the key to this is turning the welfare state on its head and working with disabled people and their organisations to formulate workable plans.

"There are a million disabled people who want to work but who can't because they don't have practical support to find suitable jobs and then remain in work," he said.

"There are also millions of disabled people who aren't able to work but who want to participate in society as equal citizens."

The Demos report - Independent Living: The Right to be Equal Citizens - is being launched to coincide with the first anniversary of Scope's campaign to end the inequality between disabled and non-disabled people.

One of the report's sponsors - Jim Elder-Woodward, who chairs an organisation looking at ways of promoting independent living - says the government should do more to encourage disabled people to participate fully.

"Eventually, we should be able to move in and out of the labour market without fear of poverty and stigmatisation," he said.

"Our contribution to society will not be measured by how much we earn but by how much we give; by way of voluntary work and as consumers in the market place."

Step change

Demos director, Tom Bentley, said the report called for a system based on the principle that those best placed to identify the needs of disabled people, and how to meet those needs, are disabled people themselves.

"We now face a unique opportunity to create a system which empowers disabled people to lead a self determined life and fulfil their potential," he said.

The government has gone some way to recognising Scope's concerns with the publication of a strategy for improving the quality of life for disabled people over the next 20 years.

The new minister for disabled people, Anne McGuire, said the government was committed to ending inequality.