Mark Lazarowicz MP intervened in a parliamentary debate on Tuesday to draw attention to lengthy delays in applications for the new Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for disabled people.
The Opposition had called the debate in reaction to comments reported to have been made by Lord Freud that some disabled people are not worth paying a living wage.
The Edinburgh North and Leith MP said, ‘I know of the case of someone who first applied for PIP back in September 2013. She was refused it in the first instance. She was then successful at the first-tier appeal, but the Department has not yet decided whether or not to appeal to the next tier up; because of various delays and errors, that decision has not yet been reached. So, 13 months after first applying, she is still facing nobody knows how many months of delay, and that kind of thing is causing people much tension and pressure, is it not?’
Lazarowicz says disabled people wait at least six months for an assessment, and can suffer health-damaging financial insecurity as a result. He is critical of ATOS’s involvement in the new scheme, and wants people with progressive conditions such as Motor Neurone Disease to be fast-tracked.
Minister responds
Later in the debate, Mark Harper, Minister of State at the Department of Work and Pensions, agreed that delays were unacceptable: ‘ I have not tried to hide from that and I am committed to putting it right. It is literally my top priority, and it was one of the things that the Prime Minister specifically asked me to address when he appointed me in July’.
He said decisionmaking is now speeding up, with ATOS in Scotland having trebled its outputs this year. Edinburgh has a new assessment centre, and home assessments have increased by 40 per cent.
Communication with claimants has improved, Harper continued, and dealing with terminally ill people is now close to target. PIP, however should not be confused with an out-of-work benefit. This Government has spent more each year on PIP and its predecessor: ‘It is not the case that we are dealing with the deficit off the backs of disabled people’.
Unconvinced
Lazarowicz remains unconvinced: ‘Disabled people should be able to participate fully in society but the way the Government has mishandled the introduction of PIP actually threatens to increase social exclusion. That should surely be unacceptable in any civilised society.’
The report of an independent review of PIP assessment, chaired by Paul Gray, will be published by the end of the year.
[Image: Christos Doulkeridis, Flickr-Creative Commons]
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