Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Twigg Excerpts

Monday 24th February 2014 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Stephen Twigg (Liverpool, West Derby) (Lab/Co-op)]

1. If he will undertake a cumulative impact assessment of the effects of the Government’s welfare reforms on sick and disabled people.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Mike Penning)]

The Treasury regularly produces analysis of the cumulative effects of the coalition’s changes, including to welfare, but even the Institute for Fiscal Studies says that there are no real results that can be broken down and are reliable enough to show the effect on disabled people.

[Stephen Twigg]

My constituents Natasha Wilson and Katie Lyson are young women with cancer. With support from CLIC Sargent, they applied for personal independence payments seven months ago. Last week, Natasha finally got her money, but Katie is still waiting. Does the Minister agree that a seven-month wait for payment for a young cancer patient is simply unacceptable? Will he look into Katie’s case as a matter of urgency?

[Mike Penning]

I fully agree that that length of wait is unacceptable, and I have been working on this with the two suppliers since I came into office, as did my predecessor. I will personally look into the case and if those involved would like to come to see me, I would be more than happy to meet them.