The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced plans for a new way of recording all disability health benefit consultations. These changes will see a new telephone platform come into place in 2024, as well as new enhancements to the video assessment application.
These updates come just a week after the publication of a report from the DWP Committee around the health assessments system used by people who cannot work, or who face extra costs due to disability or ill-health, to access vital benefits, the Daily Record reports. The report included a proposal from the chair, Sir Stephen Timms MP, for all assessments to be recorded by default and with an option for claimants to opt out.
The cross-party committee said footage could then be used to review cases 'more accurately' without the need to go to appeal. The committee also said it could 'help assessors learn from past mistakes', with suggestions that could drive down the high rate of decisions reversed on appeal - which stands at 69 per cent for Personal Independence Payments (PIP).
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It comes as Work Capability Assessments used for Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) are set to be abolished as part of new DWP measures, but will remain in place until at least 2026. Other recommendations from MPs on the committee included:
- Allowing claimants to choose between remote or in-person assessments
- Extending the deadline to return forms
- Targets to reduce the assessment waiting times
- Payments to people who have been forced to wait beyond the new targets
Commenting on the report, Committee Chair Sir Stephen Timms said: "We surveyed eight and a half thousand people as part of our inquiry and found a profound lack of trust in the system as a consistent theme. Many will welcome the abolition of the Work Capability Assessment.
"The Government’s process improvements, and recognition that the system causes undue stress and hardship, are steps in the right direction. However, waiting years for changes won’t cut it when quicker wins are available: flexibility of choice on assessment by phone or face-to-face; recording assessments by default; extending deadlines to reduce stress; and sending claimants their reports.
"All this will give much-needed transparency to a process that so few trust yet affects their lives so fundamentally. All efforts must be made for unnecessary limbo and stress for claimants to be put to an end.”
You can view the full report online here.
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