Nearly 7,000 people in west London have been stripped of their incapacity benefits under the coalition government.

Since the last election, 6,970 people claiming benefits for a range of health issues have been declared fit for work and stripped of their allowance according to statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Within west London, 21% of assessments in both Brent and Ealing ended in people being stripped of their incapacity benefits - the highest percentage in the area.

In Hounslow it was 19%, in Hillingdon and Westminster 18%, in Hammersmith & Fulham and Harrow it was 17%, and Kensington & Chelsea saw the smallest proportion of people stripped of their benefits with 16% declared fit for work following assessment.

Under the coalition, Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance and illness related Income Support has been phased out and replaced with Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

Everyone who was claiming the previous benefit types was made to undergo a Work Capability Assessment which would decide whether they were theoretically fit for work.

Anyone declared fit was moved onto Jobseekers Allowance, provided they met the criteria.

Of the 37,190 assessments in west London, 19% of incapacity benefit claimants were told they were fit for work and moved on to JSA.

Across the whole of Great Britain, 255,730 people have been declared fit for work following Work Capability Assessments over the past five years, 19% of all those assessed.