Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Green Excerpts

Monday 4th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[Laura Trott]

There are 200,000 fewer pensioners in absolute poverty than when Labour left office.

[Sarah Green (Chesham and Amersham) (LD)]

9. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the assessment process for personal independence payments.

[The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work (Tom Pursglove)]

Assessments play an important part in ensuring people get the right entitlement. It is the claimant’s chance to give all the information needed to help make the right decision. The assessment, which measures the impact of a health condition on a person’s ability to live independently, is kept under review; I am sure the hon. Lady is familiar with the tests and trials set out in the White Paper.

[Sarah Green (Chesham and Amersham) (LD)]

The Minister will know that one challenge with PIP is how to accurately assess fluctuating conditions. More than half a million people in the UK are living with Crohn’s disease or colitis, but fewer than 3% are in receipt of PIP. Past applicants have said that while fatigue is the most disabling symptom, they feel that that is the least represented symptom in their assessments. [Interruption.] Would the Minister consider introducing a fatigue rating scale to PIP assessments to more effectively capture what is, for many, the most debilitating component of their condition?

[Mr Speaker]

Minister, the reason I was coughing was that the question was rather long.

Disability Benefits: Assessments

Sarah Green Excerpts

Monday 4th September 2023 Westminster Hall

[Sarah Green (Chesham and Amersham) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I start by reflecting on some of the surgeries I have sat in on, and I am sure other Members have friends or family who have gone through the PIP assessment and seen the impact it has had on the self-esteem and mental health of the individual concerned. It is reassuring to hear in the debate the desire from both sides of the House for a kinder, more humane process that will result in more accurate assessments.

I thank the Minister for his answer in Work and Pensions questions earlier and I take it in the spirit it was meant.

I shall focus on one aspect of PIP assessments, which is the use of informal observations. As we have just heard, this is where an assessor watches how someone looks or behaves during an assessment. I know that such observations form part of the suite of evidence used by case managers, but those informal observations are reliant on an assessor’s knowledge of various conditions. There are too many examples of assessors failing to consider or understand the fluctuating and non-visible nature of some conditions. For example—I declare an interest as the co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Crohn’s and colitis—many of those living with Crohn’s or colitis feel that assessors prejudge their eligibility for disability benefits based on their physical mobility within a face-to-face assessment, rather than asking probing questions that are relevant to their condition.

That brings me to the condition-specific knowledge of assessors. The Government have stated that all assessment providers are required to ensure that health professionals carrying out assessments have a broad training in disability analysis, as well as awareness training in specific conditions that range from common to rare. The testimony of claimants with Crohn’s and colitis raises concerns that assessors do not properly understand the true impact of their specific condition, its fluctuating nature and its effect on their ability to maintain employment, relationships and education, and to engage in day-to-day activities. I urge the Government to look again at the use of informal observations in assessments, and to ensure that assessors have comprehensive knowledge of the needs of people with long-term health conditions, with condition-specific training that includes working with patient charities and clinicians. That would go a long way to ensuring that those with fluctuating conditions receive the support they need and are entitled to.

People with Disabilities: Cost of Living

Sarah Green Excerpts

Tuesday 16th May 2023 Westminster Hall

[Sarah Green (Chesham and Amersham) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. I thank the hon. Member for Motherwell and Wishaw (Marion Fellows) for securing this debate on an important matter.

I rise to speak today as the daughter of a woman who lived with disabilities. Her daily challenges were significant, but I did not think of her as disabled until well into my late teens or early 20s, when I fully grasped her reality. That is because she lived a full and active life; she was ferociously independent and did not want her challenges to affect the rest of us or affect how she was treated by other people. I think we all know of people living with disabilities who show immense courage and fortitude. I pay tribute to them, because they do not want to be dependent. They want to live full, independent lives.

We know that the cost of living crisis has had a severe impact on many of our constituents. Last year, I ran a cost of living survey in my constituency. The responses from those caring for people with disabilities and from those living with disabilities were particularly heart-wrenching. One mother made the difficult decision to turn off her disabled son’s oxygen concentrator because she could no longer afford to pay her energy bills. He now relies on oxygen cylinders, which run out and which must be replaced on a regular basis. That brings its own challenges, but effectively their lives are now more complicated than they need to be.

Another constituent, in addition to having a spinal condition that has left him unable to work, is diabetic. He told me that because of the cost of living crisis and food inflation, he can no longer afford to follow the recommended diet for his diabetes. In his own words, he is playing Russian roulette with his health.

We all have examples we could share from our constituents. The simple truth is that the increase in the cost of living has had a disproportionately detrimental effect on people with disabilities. Disabled individuals and their households have, on average, lower incomes than those without disabilities. Furthermore, many people with disabilities have additional costs related to the treatment and mitigation of their condition. Those who encounter difficulty in leaving their home also have the added costs associated with being at home more often, such as higher energy bills.

What is more, even with existing disability-related financial benefits, those with disabilities are more likely to find themselves in relative income poverty. That has been compounded by benefits not having previously kept pace with inflation. Without drastic action, we risk a situation in which the most vulnerable in society are driven further into poverty. Reintroducing the universal credit uplift and extending it to all claimants on legacy benefits is a request that I have had from a number of constituents. What assessment has the Minister made of the help available to those with disabilities in the cost of living crisis?

[Dr Rupa Huq (in the Chair)]

I call the first of the three Front Benchers, David Linden for the SNP.

Child Maintenance Services

Sarah Green Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2023 Westminster Hall

[Sarah Green (Chesham and Amersham) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) for securing this important debate. In the past year, I have observed a marked increase in the number of constituents contacting me to share the difficulties they are having with the Child Maintenance Service. I would like to say at the outset that I echo the comments made about the individuals at the end of the hotline desperately wanting to help and to be supportive. It is the system itself that I have an issue with.

The first point I want to raise is about the need for improvements in customer service and case management. The CMS is, in the words of one constituent,

“absolutely too difficult to deal with.”

People are left waiting on the phone for hours to speak to caseworkers, only to be told that they are unable to help with the query. Electronic communications often leave much to be desired. One constituent told me they receive updates at 10 pm on a Friday, resulting in a weekend of stress, as they are unable to seek further information or take action until the following Monday. Many individuals relying on the CMS are already under immense emotional strain, and the service should not add to that burden.

When things go wrong, they are not always addressed quickly enough. One particularly concerning example came from a constituent who, despite taking over custody of his two children in March last year, is yet to receive any child maintenance payments for one of them. We are told that the failure is down to an IT error—the child’s middle name is used in one location and not in another. It is “computer says no” gone mad. We are told the CMS is working to resolve the issue, but my constituent first raised it in July, and it still is not resolved. Given the serious financial implications that the error could have, it should be resolved urgently, particularly given the rising cost of living. It is just not good enough that a parent has not received the child maintenance they have been owed for so long because of an IT error.

Several of my constituents do not feel that the service has sufficient power to ensure that paying parents contribute what is owed to the welfare of their child. In one case, a constituent’s ex-partner has not been required to make payments because, as far as the CMS is concerned, they are not working. However, they are simply not working in the United Kingdom, while receiving a sizeable income from assets in Australia.

In a similar case, another constituent’s ex-partner qualified for the nil rate of child maintenance due to a failure to take into account the rental income they earned from properties. There appears to be a real difficulty with CMS accounting for income that takes any form other than a regular salary or wage. That allows paying parents who are asset-rich to get away with not paying towards the care of their children. What steps are being taken to improve communication between HMRC and CMS?

Finally, I want to raise the issue of the collect and pay service. I have encountered several cases in which payments made using direct pay have been used to inflict continuing economic abuses and coercion on victims of domestic violence, so I welcome this morning’s news that the Government have accepted Dr Samantha Callan’s recommendation to amend legislation to ensure that direct pay cases can be moved to collect and pay when there is evidence of abuse. I wait with interest to hear more from the Government on how they will facilitate that and how they plan to define evidence of abuse.

I am, however, disappointed that the Government have no intention of removing the 4% deduction applied to the sum received by the receiving parent under the collect and pay service. I raised the issue on behalf of one constituent in a letter to the Secretary of State in November. The reply I received from the Minister for Pensions was concerning. It stated:

“there are no plans to abolish the 4 per cent collection charge for receiving parents. This charge only applies to the Collect and Pay service and is intended to provide a parent with an incentive to use the Direct Pay service which has no ongoing fees.”

I find the insinuation that receiving parents require an incentive to stay on direct pay troubling, when the move to collect and pay generally occurs due to the failure of the paying parent to meet their financial obligations. It appears that CMS is deliberately using the 4% penalty as a deterrent, which seems misplaced. This is particularly pertinent in cases of domestic abuse, as it leaves victims facing the choice of either dealing with their abuser directly or risking a decrease in the money they receive to care for their child. I am disappointed that the Government are not looking to change that policy, and I ask the Minister to reconsider.

Ultimately, we must remember that the purpose of the Child Maintenance Service is to ensure that the children of separated parents receive the financial support they deserve. The system should work with them, not against them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Green Excerpts

Monday 13th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Chloe Smith]

The short answer is no. The longer answer was given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to the Work and Pensions Committee only last week.

[Sarah Green (Chesham and Amersham) (LD)]

19. What steps her Department is taking to ensure that new universal credit recipients, who were previously entitled to severe disability premium, do not experience a reduction in benefit payments when they transition to universal credit.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Chloe Smith)]

There is a little repetition with the answer that I gave to the hon. Member for Bradford South (Judith Cummins). To support claimants previously entitled to the severe disability premium who moved to universal credit following a change of circumstances, we have introduced severe disability premium-related transitional payments. Those eligible, depending on their specific circumstances, will receive a transitional element of up to £405 a month.

[Sarah Green]

I thank the Minister for that answer. One of my constituents was previously in receipt of employment support allowance and housing benefit with a severe disability premium. Earlier this year, she relocated to my constituency to be closer to her daughter for support. That triggered a transition to universal credit and, even with transitional protection payments, she is more than £70 a month worse off, which, in the face of the current cost of living squeeze, is having a significant impact. Will the Minister meet me about this case? What additional steps will the Government take to support people such as my constituent who are being unfairly financially penalised by the move to universal credit?

[Chloe Smith]

I am happy to meet the hon. Lady, who, as a relatively new member of the House, I can see is getting stuck into casework. I welcome her hard work in doing so. The design of universal credit has concentrated support on the most severely disabled. That can be taken in alignment with other points that I have made, including on the support available through the national disability strategy and the ideas put forward in our health and disability Green Paper, as well as the many other things that the Department is doing. I hope that they may be of some support and help to her constituent.