Disabled people in unnecessary 'distress and pain' as majority of rejected benefit claims are overturned

Hilary Benn, Labour MP for Leeds Central, has called on the Government to review the system, claiming it is causing people unnecessary “distress and pain”.

During a debate in Parliament this week, he highlighted figures which show appeals made against rejected claims are successful in 67 per cent of personal independence payments (PIP) cases, 65 per cent of disability living allowance (DLA) cases and 54 per cent of employment and support allowance (ESA) cases.

He added: “If those were the rates for the overturning of crown court decisions - people who were found guilty, and then found innocent - there would be an uproar.

“The Government, and all of us, need to look at why, in so many of the cases that go to the tribunal, the original decision turns out to be wrong?”

The debate also heard the Government spent £120m on challenging disability benefit claims for PIP and ESA between 2017 and 2019.

The Government currently uses two companies to conduct these assessments - Independent Assessment Services and Capita - and claimants are required to submit medical evidence and complete interviews in person or over the phone.

Marsha De Cordova, Labour MP for Battersea, said the assessment processes for ESA and PIP are “not fit for purpose”.

She added: “They use a series of points-based, functional descriptors and a tick-box approach.

“PIP looks at an individual’s ability to carry out a series of everyday activities relating to daily living and mobility, and the Work Capability Assessment is supposed to test someone’s capability for work, based on various activities.

“Its main flaw is its failure to include real-world factors, and it takes no consideration of how carrying out work could affect a particular person’s health.

“I heard from one person who was asked to touch their toes, no matter how much pain they were in or how such an activity relates to their doing work.”

Would you like to share your experiences of getting a rejected claim overturned? Please email [email protected]

She added: “For more than a decade, there has been a growing mistrust of assessors as a result of the errors in reports, and many people do not feel that they are being treated fairly.”

During the debate, Chloe Smith, a work and pensions minister, said the assessment process is “fair and robust” and decisions are “based on evidence and objective criteria”.

The Tory MP said: “The benefits system considers the impact that a health condition or disability has on an individual’s ability to work and carry out day-to-day activities.

“Decisions are based on an assessment of an individual’s functional ability, not their diagnosed health conditions.

“Claimants are of course encouraged at the outset of their claim to provide all evidence that is relevant to their case, including medical evidence supplied by their GP or other professionals such as support workers, carers or community mental health nurses.

“We recognise that attending a health assessment can be a stressful experience, which is why, whenever we are able to assess somebody solely on the available paper evidence, we do so.

“It is of course important that the benefits system is fair to both benefit recipients and taxpayers. We think that our health assessments are a fair and robust approach to managing the gateway to benefits, with our decisions based on evidence and objective criteria.”