Baroness Thomas: I'm not holding my breath for DWP changes to PIP
3 min read
Lib Dem peer Baroness Thomas of Winchester writes on the topic of her Lords debate: 'Discussions with Disability Rights UK and Disability Benefits Consortium on identifying a mobility criterion in the Personal Independence Payment'.
Why am I calling on the Government to hold urgent talks with two umbrella disability charities about the mobility test for PIP to try to make it fairer?
Chiefly because we are now seeing the effect of reassessments on those who were awarded higher mobility payments under Disability Living Allowance but who have failed the much harsher test under PIP. This means that thousands of disabled people are having to give back their Motability cars: 400 - 500 a week.
Doesn't this mean that enhanced rate mobility payments are now only going to those in the greatest need, as the Government maintain? My answer is no, it doesn't mean that at all in practice. PIP, like its predecessor DLA, is not taxed or means-tested, so a person's income isn't relevant. Are those in the greatest need always going to be those who can walk just 20 metres rather than those who can walk, say, 30 metres?
The 'walking test' is the main indicator of the number of points a person is given - the more difficult for them, the more points they get, in theory. Under DLA, the walking test was 50 metres - the Department of Transport's guidance on inclusive mobility. Under PIP, it is only 20 metres, aided or unaided. This means that if you can walk, perhaps with a stick, just over two bus lengths, you won't be eligible for enhanced rate mobility and thus a Motability vehicle - car, wheelchair or scooter.
Yes, thanks to the Lib Dems in the last Parliament, there are four 'reliability' criteria that assessors must ask. They must discover whether you can walk this distance safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time period. But do all assessors bother to ask these questions? Do they even tell the claimant that this is an outside test, so the weather is an important factor? No, of course not. But don't assessors have to look at any medical evidence produced by the claimant?
The DWP doesn't ask for this before an assessment because a medical report from a GP might cost the claimant quite a bit. If a claimant is turned down and goes to appeal, then the DWP will pay for a medical assessment. And appeals are running at about 60% in favour of claimants at present, so something is clearly going wrong with the initial assessment. This is one area where talks with the disability charities in my motion could be very fruitful. And the training and monitoring of assessors is another area which might be discussed.
Of course I would like to see the policy change. If there really is a White Paper on the way from the DWP, then this might be an opportunity to get the PIP assessment right, but I'm not holding my breath.
One disabled claimant from Essex, after several years of independence, is having to move back to Shropshire so that her mother can look after her. "We're being treated like a financial inconvenience. The Government forget that there are actual lives at the end of these changes."
Baroness Thomas of Winchester is a Liberal Democrat peer
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