What discussions has the Minister had with the UK Government to ensure that personal independence payment assessments are carried out in a fair, consistent and accurate manner?
At the start of this government term I wrote to wrote to the Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) highlighting the concerns Welsh Government has over the assessments undertaken by healthcare professionals for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims. I know that many disabled people in Wales find the process to be complicated, time-consuming and anxiety inducing; often leading to unfair decisions based on the opinion of a sole assessor. I urged the Secretary of State to look at the lessons that can be learnt from the approach being taken by the Scottish Government who are collecting more information from claimants, their medical professionals and carers in order to reduce the need for face-to-face assessments in their decision-making on entitlement to the Scottish disability benefits.
In October 2021, the Minister for Health and Social Services and I sent a cross government response to Chloe Smith MP, Minister for Disabled People on the DWP’s Health and Disability Green Paper. In the response we noted the current PIP assessment process places the focus on the disability rather than the person and re-iterated the importance of DWP processes adhering to the social model of disability. We recommended changes are made to the PIP assessment to enable a person-centred integrated health assessment to be carried out. We believe this will result in a fair outcome with fewer decisions having to be challenged through the Mandatory Reconsideration process or before a Social Security Tribunal.
We requested that Welsh Government officials are included in any DWP discussions relating to developing and implementing changes to the PIP assessment process.
DWP are due to publish their Health and Disability White Paper later this year, and I look forward to reading the positive action that will be taken to ensure that disabled people across Wales are treated with fairness, dignity and compassion when seeking financial support from the United Kingdom welfare benefit system.