Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013

Debate between Lord Hardie and Lord Freud

Wednesday 13th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hardie]

In rising to speak in support of the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie of Luton, I have to declare an interest as honorary president of Capability Scotland. Capability Scotland is a charity which provides services, education and accommodation for people with disabilities, both mental and physical, of varying degrees of complexity and severity. It provides services at more than 25 locations in Scotland for 1,000 people who are afflicted in one way or another. It is in that capacity that I became aware of these regulations and of the concerns of people who use the services of Capability Scotland. Those concerns have already been alluded to by the noble Lords, Lord McKenzie of Luton and Lord Alton of Liverpool, the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, and other noble Lords in eloquent speeches highlighting the difficulties surrounding these regulations. I cannot improve upon the points they made. I simply look forward to the Minister’s response to the detailed questions posed by noble Lords who were seeking the justification for the reduction of the distance from 50 metres to 20 metres.

A Question on the personal independence payment was asked in the House on 24 January. In reply to an intervention by the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, about the 20-metre point, the Minister referred, at col. 1181 of the Official Report, to the various groups mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie. I was surprised to see them mentioned because the implication I took from it, wrongly, was that they had suggested that the distance of 20 metres was appropriate.

The other thing I noted from the Minister’s reply was that there is no effective change in the number of people receiving higher rate mobility allowance because of this change. I challenge that statement. I am sure that the Minister did not intentionally mislead the House in making it, but I shall cite an example from Capability Scotland’s experience. A 41-year-old lady who suffers from cerebral palsy is in employment in the National Health Service and currently receives higher rate DLA at £54.05 per week. She uses that to cover the cost of her Motability vehicle, which is essential for her to get from home to work. She can walk with a frame a distance slightly in excess of 20 metres, but she cannot walk 50 metres, and that is why she gets her current benefit. If this regulation passes with the 20-metre limit, she will receive the basic mobility award, not the enhanced mobility award. The effect of that is that she will get £21 a week, losing £33.05 a week, or £132.20 a month. She will not have enough money to replace her car or to take taxis to work, and she will be unable to remain in employment. How is that compatible with the Government’s policy of encouraging people back to work and encouraging people with disabilities into work? This lady has done that, and yet because of this regulation, she will lose that independence.

I do not share the optimism of the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas of Winchester, about the flexibility of the regulations. Regulation 6 sets out the structure and one then has to look at the schedule for the assessment. When one does so, one has the various activities: “Planning and following journeys”, and then “Moving around”. There is then the detail of what is required of “Moving around”. If you:

“Can stand and then move more than 200 metres, either aided or unaided”,

you get no points. If you:

“Can stand and then move more than 50 metres but no more than 200 metres, either aided or unaided”,

you get four points, and so on. These points are maximums. It would not be possible for an assessor to give any more than the points in the table. Therefore, in the case that I have cited, the lady in question will qualify for 10 points. She needs 12, but unless she can get points from “Planning and following journeys”, she will never get 12 points. She is perfectly capable of planning and managing her journeys. I am confident that she is not the only person in this category. Lots of people will lose out because of this change. They deserve an answer to the question: why has this change been introduced? Why has it been reduced to 20 metres? Who suggested it? What is the scientific basis for it? What consultation was there? Did any disability organisation go along with 20 metres? I think not, but I look forward to the Minister’s response.

Another concern I have is that the regulations do not make provision for people who need occasional supervision to prevent them being a danger to themselves. I again cite as an example someone who gets support from the organisation of which I am proud to be honorary president. A 36 year-old man has had schizophrenia for nine years. He receives a low-rate care component of DLA because he has been assessed as requiring occasional supervision to prevent him being a danger to himself. He uses his payment of £20.55 a week for his sister-in-law’s bus fares to and from his home on a daily basis. Seven days a week, she travels by bus there and back to check on him. To give him some structure in his life, she checks that he is up in the morning, and that everything is all right. She knows instinctively if he is not well, and then alerts the mental health team. Take that allowance away, and she will not be able to visit as regularly as she does and the tell-tale signs of his increasing illness will be missed. He may then be a danger to himself and to others.

I am very concerned about these regulations. I hope that the Minister will give me some reassurance about the two matters that I have raised.

[Lord Freud]

Once again, I thank noble Lords very much for their thoughtful and moving contributions to this debate. Clearly, as PIP is being introduced as a new benefit, it is right that it is subject to a very high level of scrutiny. I shall try to address as many questions as I can. The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, asked about case loads and the steady state, which we estimate will be around 2018. Our current estimate is that the percentage getting the top rate of both elements will rise from 16% in DLA to 23% in PIP. As I have said, the actual number goes up as well, although not by a lot, from 354,000 to 357,000. But the number of people who will get the top rate of the daily living component will go up to 674,000 compared to the 539,000 who currently receive DLA.

My noble friend Lady Thomas wanted me to clarify the meaning of “repeatedly”. Currently, it means as often as the activity being assessed is reasonably required to be completed, which makes the point that it will not be on a daily basis necessarily but will depend on the type of activity that we are talking about. The noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, referred to what might happen to the 20-metre mobility criterion in the future. Clearly, I am absolutely conscious of the strength of feeling around that criterion and I assure the House that we will keep it under very close review both within and outside the independent review process. In the mean time, we have no plans to make any further changes to this criterion.

My noble friend Lady Browning was concerned, as am I, about groups with autistic spectrum disorder. We have worked to ensure that the PIP assessment will take full and fair account of the complex needs that people with autism face. The noble Lord, Lord Touhig, was concerned about the 30-day time period. We believe that that is sufficient time for providers to conclude the process, including gathering evidence where it is needed. Clearly, this is another area that deserves close monitoring.

My noble friend Lady Thomas was interested in how the Government would monitor Atos and Capita. We have set strict recruitment and training criteria for both providers. We will approve only practitioners who reach high standards. We will have random, independently assured quality checks, which we will undertake on a regular basis. Those assessors will be well versed in our case studies and guidance as part of their training.

As regards the carers’ case load and the steady state figure, the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, was concerned that we were using an interim figure for 2015, going to the steady state in 2018. The figure is a reduction of 9,000 claims out of the total number of claims in payment to carers, which is running at around 600,000. I make that 1.5%. The noble Baroness used a rather larger percentage that I did not recognise. Her figures may be on a different basis but we can talk about that privately.

The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, was concerned about whether there was the right number of people to conduct these assessments. To one extent, by pushing out the timetable, we have taken away some of the potential overlap with the WCA reassessment bulge, but we are not using any of the same health professionals to carry out the PIP assessments, because PIP is being delivered through sub-contractors.