Disability benefit reforms: Minister undeterred by campaigners' anger
From her office in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Maria Miller is overseeing a massive, radical reform of the state support available for disabled people.
As the true scale of the reform emerges, disability campaigners are reporting high levels of unease and anger about the looming transformation, and protests are erupting across the country, but, Miller, minister for disabled people is remarkably sanguine.
"The current system is not perfect, and I am not willing to accept a system that is so clearly flawed when we are dealing with the most vulnerable people in society," she says.
From April, incapacity benefit is being replaced with employment support allowance, and all claimants will have to undergo a new assessment to check that they are eligible for it. A preliminary rollout suggests that it is harder to qualify for the new benefit, and that more people are being pushed on to jobseeker's allowance, a lower benefit. Simultaneously, disability living allowance (DLA) is being wound down, and replaced by a new benefit, the personal independence payment. During this reform, the government will trim a fifth from the cost of the benefit.
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Disabled people have reacted furiously to the minister for disabled people after she took part in an online question and answer session about the government’s disability living allowance (DLA) reforms.
Maria Miller answered just seven of scores of questions posted by visitors to the Guardian’s website.
Many were angry that she avoided answering the tougher questions, and instead repeated familiar government lines about its reforms.
Miller, who revealed that she lives with her disabled mother, said the DLA system had no “inbuilt system of review” and had an “unwieldy” assessment process, and needed updating to make it “more transparent, consistent and fair”.
Many of those taking part raised concerns about plans to remove the mobility component of DLA from most disabled people in residential care.
Miller again claimed it would remove the “overlap” between the mobility component and the obligations of local authorities and care homes to provide transport for residents.
Some questioned the coalition’s apparent willingness to fuel “smears” about disabled people and disability benefits that have appeared in the media.
Miller failed to criticise the media, instead claiming that “cases of fraud bring the benefit system into disrepute and this is bad for everyone”, which was why people with “legitimate claims need a benefit system that has robust assessment”.
The disabled activist Rhydian Fon James told her: “The reasons given for DLA reform are not robust, with little evidence to support the case for reform and, importantly, no independent academic research.”
Miller said the government’s research was “generally” commissioned by the DWP from “external academic and independent researchers and this is what was used as evidence in the consultation”.
One disabled war pensioner said afterwards that Miller had failed to answer “a single serious question”, while others described her efforts as “a joke” and “a travesty”.
Another described the exercise as “an absolute waste of time” and added: “I hope you can see just how frightened people are at the thought that, by a tick in the wrong box... our safety nets will fall and we will be left to suffer with absolutely no compassion by our government.”
Meanwhile, 60 disabled campaigners have lobbied MPs about the mobility component plans.
They said it would have “a devastating impact on 80,000 disabled people who rely on the allowance to maintain their independence by covering the costs of getting around”.
The House of Commons event was organised by a coalition of disability charities, led by Leonard Cheshire Disability, Mencap and Sense.
Government ‘caused misleading stories’ with DLA information
The government has been accused of causing disabled people “significant alarm” after releasing information about disability living allowance (DLA) that led to “misleading” media coverage.
The complaint came in a letter from the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) – a coalition of disability and welfare advice organisations – to Maria Miller, minister for disabled people.
Members are particularly angry about a Daily Mail article on 3 February, headlined: “The great disability benefit free-for-all: Half of claimants are not asked to prove eligibility.”
The article – based on information released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – says nearly a million disabled people have been claiming DLA for more than 14 years, while half of claimants have never been asked for evidence to support their claim.
The consortium says the article concludes misleadingly that DLA is “over-claimed and under-scrutinised” and implies that it should be “time-limited”.
The letter says: “It is extremely worrying that the DWP campaign information has been used to suggest a person’s impairment or health condition and related higher costs somehow disappear over time.”
And it warns the DWP of its obligations under the Equality Act not to “generate stigma, persecution or harassment of disabled people requiring support from the welfare system”.
The letter says the information’s release so close to publication of the government’s welfare reform bill was “deeply unhelpful” and caused many disabled people “significant alarm”.
Following similarly misleading and inaccurate stories around fitness for work tests and incapacity benefit reform, the consortium is to ask the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) to arrange a meeting with newspaper editors to “ensure disabled people and benefits are covered accurately”.
Neil Coyle, director of policy for Disability Alliance (DA), a consortium member, said he believed it was “no coincidence” the information was released so close to publication of the bill, which will include details of far-reaching reforms affecting working-age DLA claimants.
Coyle said the DWP’s “campaign dossier” allowed “scope for misunderstanding of the purpose of DLA”, and led to coverage that caused “stigma and discrimination against disabled people who need support”.
The letter asks Miller for reassurance that the DWP has challenged the media over the inaccurate DLA stories.
The DWP declined to comment on the letter.
The PCC said 44 people had lodged complaints about the Mail story on the grounds of accuracy.
Last week, a similar PCC complaint was lodged over another Mail story which accused disabled people of “trying it on” in a bid to secure incapacity benefits.
The Daily Mail said it would respond to the PCC complaints.
http://www.dls.org.uk/rights/News/2011/february/16.html