Welfare Reform Bill

Lord Rix Excerpts

Tuesday 13th September 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rix]

My Lords, it is important for the Government to recognise that any reform of the welfare system and tackling of the deficit should not be at the cost of undermining the ability of disabled people to live independently. The concerns I will refer to during my speech will be applicable to many disabled people but particularly to those with a learning disability, and I think at this moment it is appropriate to mention that I am the president of the Royal Mencap Society.

I intend to focus my comments on the Government’s proposals to replace working-age disability living allowance with the personal independent payment. The Government have declared that PIP will remain a benefit to support,

“the extra costs of overcoming the barriers faced by disabled people to leading full, active and independent lives”.

However, I and many disabled people fear that this most welcome announcement may be somewhat economical with the truth. Prior to the decision to reform DLA, your Lordships may recall that there was an announcement in the June 2010 Budget that the Government intended to make significant savings on future spending on the benefit of some 20 per cent. George Orwell’s gloomy prediction in 1984 may be true after all:

“‘Doublethink’ means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them”.

In February 2010, Mencap published the findings of a survey it conducted, which asked people with a learning disability how they use the DLA and the difference it made to their lives. Some 84 per cent of nearly 1,000 respondents spent some or all of their DLA on paying for various forms of care and support, including help around the home and support for leisure activities and transport needs. Seventy-one per cent of all respondents also said that DLA made a huge difference to their lives in providing them with the support they needed.

The tightening of eligibility criteria for social care means that many people with a learning disability who currently claim DLA receive no support from their local social services—a situation that is getting worse as even more local authorities decide to reduce the numbers eligible for support. My particular concern is for those people who may be hit twice, missing the threshold for social care and potentially losing eligibility for PIP at the same time.

The Government have also stated they will focus on those with the greatest need, which on the face of it seems perfectly laudable and a worthy intention. However, as I wrote to the Prime Minister on 24 June:

“The Government’s focus on those disabled people with the greatest need also risks excluding many disabled people who still face additional costs associated with their disability. People accessing the lowest rates of DLA are often unlikely to be able to access support elsewhere, and cuts to these groups could remove vital preventative support. In the long term, this could lead to increased pressures on both social care and NHS budgets”.

Although the figures remain unclear, Disability Alliance UK has estimated that over 750,000 disabled people could lose support as a result of the 20 per cent cut in expenditure, based on the assumption that care support for the lower rate will be abolished.

Yesterday, when I asked the Minister what lessons the Government intend to learn from the work capability assessment for PIP, he responded that the Government,

“expect to make sure that the personal independence payment is focused on the needs of the individual”,

and that:

“The assessment is much more appropriate than the DLA assessment, which is, frankly, subjective and inconsistent”.—[Official Report, 12/9/11; col. 504.]

I trust that the PIP assessment will be better, for the work capability assessment has already proven to show disadvantage towards less apparent or hidden disabilities, particularly for people with a mild or moderate learning disability, whereby the level of help and support they need for day-to-day living can be difficult to determine.

However, like many other noble Lords, my principal concern with this Bill is the proposal to remove the mobility component of the PIP from those people living in local authority-funded residential care. While the Government’s announcement that they intend to delay the implementation of this policy until March 2013 is a step in the right direction, I do not feel it goes anywhere near far enough. Under Clause 83—which I and others, I am sure, wish to see amended—disabled people living in residential care could have their mobility payments taken away. As regards the way in which mobility needs in residential care homes are met, the Government claim that the rationale for removing PIP mobility is,

“to identify and remove any overlaps”.—[Official Report, Commons, 24/5/11; col. 7P.]

However, evidence shows that very little duplication exists, and removal of this benefit would severely undermine the Government’s aim to support disabled people to lead full and independent lives.

I am also concerned about the Government’s review of this decision. At the publication of the Bill, the Government announced their intention to,

“review the support given by DLA against the responsibilities of care homes, and reflect the outcomes from this review in the PIP eligibility criteria for people in residential care homes”.

However, while this may seem welcome, your Lordships should be aware this is an internal review, with no terms of reference, no call for evidence, no sessions in public and no opportunities for the public and interested parties to submit evidence. The Government have also announced that their findings will not be published in public and there is no publicly available information about the review and its remit. I fear that the era of open, transparent and accountable government in the heart of Whitehall is still in Never Never Land. Fortunately, my noble friend Lord Low is conducting his own independent review into this proposal, with the secretariat provided by Mencap and Leonard Cheshire Disability. No doubt the noble Lord will explain all this later, and I trust the Government will consider the Low review constructive and helpful as we attempt to make progress with Ministers on this issue.

While there are many other areas of the Bill on which I could have expressed my concerns, including housing benefit reforms, I am going to finish—especially as my voice is going. However, I am sure that your Lordships will refer to some of these during your speeches. It is clear that as matters stand, unintended consequences of the Bill could have severe implications on the quality of life for many disabled people in this country. I therefore urge Ministers to listen to these concerns and, of course, to respond accordingly.