11th Sept 2012: Esther McVey, new Minster for Disabled People at the Department for Work and Pensions, has been busy in her new post – to judge by the number of email-alerts received by Rescare in the last two days notifying us of a written or verbal statements made by her to Parliament.
This parliamentary exchange about personal independence payments especially caught our eye; and clearly indicates that the ‘negotiations’ beween the DWP and organisations representing the learning disabled, as to what assessment criteria should be applied – via the guidelines issued to the currently-preferred agency Atos, are still ongoing. Given the range and variety of learning disablity, Rescare wonders whether a set of ‘catch-all’ assessment criteria is a viable objective.
Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole, Liberal Democrat) : To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what discussions she has had with organisations representing people with disabilities on the draft assessment criteria for personal independence payments.
Esther McVey (Wirral West, Conservative): We have consulted disabled people and their organisations throughout the development of the personal independence payment assessment criteria. During the initial informal consultation on the criteria my predecessor as Minister for Disabled People, my hon. Friend Maria Miller, and officials met 60 user-led organisations and representative groups and received 170 written responses. During the most recent consultation officials met 51 organisations and received over 1,000 written responses.
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For further information on PIP and DLA, a useful starting point is the DWP’s own website.
See http://www.dwp.gov.uk/policy/disability/personal-independence-payment/ which starts by affirming the government’s intent: “From 8 April 2013 the Government is introducing a new benefit called Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for eligible working age people aged 16 to 64.”