Welfare Reform Bill

Baroness Harris of Richmond Excerpts

Wednesday 16th November 2011 Grand Committee

Amendment 86ZZZW withdrawn.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Harris of Richmond)]

My Lords, it might be appropriate to have a break at this moment, so I suggest that the Committee adjourns for 10 minutes.

--- Later in debate ---

To sum up, my amendment ensures that we avoid the current situation we have with the work capability assessment. The experience of the WCA offers many fruitful learning points that we would be foolish not to apply to the assessment for PIP. The WCA has consistently failed people with fluctuating conditions, such as mental health problems or multiple sclerosis. The oversimplistic descriptions in the WCA do not allow people to record their fluctuations and, as a result, people lose out. People with severe conditions that occur only some of the time tend to be seen as inherently less impaired than people with moderate conditions that occur all of the time. The PIP assessment should therefore not make that same mistake. My amendment would at least mean that the legislation recognises that conditions occurring most, but not all, of the time can be just as debilitating as conditions that are constant. I beg to move.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees]

My Lords, if Amendment 86ZC is agreed to, I cannot call Amendment 86A by reason of pre-emption.