PIP changes ‘could make people more unwell if forced to work’
Reforms to disability benefits could end up making people sicker if not properly resourced due to pressures on medics, the government has been warned.
Concerns have been raised about increasing demand on overstretched GPs by relying on them to carry out more detailed medical assessments for disability benefit claimants.
No10 stressed the changes would not lead to “undue burden” for doctors and a wide-ranging consultation it seeking input from the medical, as well as the disabled, community.
Ministers are planning to overhaul personal independence payments (PIP) in an attempt to tackle the soaring bill for disability support.
Reforms could see the introduction of a tiered system of disability benefits depending on the severity of a person’s condition, their equipment and clinical needs.
Part of these proposed changes, which would not be implemented until after the next election, could see benefit eligibility based on a medical diagnosis rather than a test of someone’s ability.
This could, in principle, rely on doctors providing more detailed guidance about how life-limiting a diagnosis is and what sort of support a patient could need.
Resources like the NHS app, which allows people to submit their own medical evidence, could help streamline the process and ensure doctors are not forced to carry out more work.
But medics and political rivals have warned the changes would not be feasible without proper support for the NHS.
The proposals have come under attack from charities representing disabled and sick people, in particular the suggestion that the bar could be raised for someone with a mental health condition to receive the payment.
Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of mental health charity SANE, said she was concerned by the fact that “mental health problems are often invisible and fluctuate from month to month or day to day, and that assessments for benefits are all too often based on ‘snapshot’ judgements which do not take account of how hidden and disabling mental illness can be”.
She said: “While there is such an acute shortage of mental health professionals – doctors, nurses, counsellors – we are worried that ill-informed judgements may force people to work when they may be at risk of relapse which may worsen their depression, anxiety or other conditions.”
Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesperson, Wendy Chamberlain said the NHS was already “stretched to breaking point” and accused ministers of wanting to “pile more pressure” on to the system.
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She told i: “GPs work tirelessly to provide good quality care for patients but the Conservative party seems hell bent in putting up obstacles to prevent them from delivering this. We would not be in this mess if the Conservative government had not brought our NHS to its knees.”
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said the priority should be “fixing the NHS so that people can get well, not blaming people who are ill”.
“How cold hearted do you have to be and how lacking in empathy to see this crisis of ill health as anything other than caused by decades of austerity and lack of investment in the NHS?” she said.
The Prime Minister’s spokeswoman insisted that the consultation was open to all medics for input.
“We are keen to hear exactly from GPs and from the sector to ensure that we have the right approach in place,” she said, when pressed on the concerns.
“We are obviously alive to the pressures facing GPS and for example that is why we are taking forward separate work to look at pilots and reforms to fit note process to relieve some of those pressures elsewhere on GPs.”
She added: “We will work with them to ensure that we strike the right balance between getting the expertise we need for those assessments but also making sure that GPs are not unduly burdened.”
The DWP has been approached for comment.