Press release: Sense comment on report on DLA reform
20 February 2012
Simon Shaw, Parliamentary Manager at Sense, says:
"We welcome the Work & Pensions Committee’s report covering Disability Living Allowance reform which specifically highlights the problems that deafblind people can expect to face when the Government replaces DLA with Personal Independence Payment (PIP). We urge the Government to change the way it assesses people while there is still time.
"We specifically welcome the Committee’s recommendation that the Government consider the effectiveness of face-to-face PIP assessments for people with impairments that are severe or unlikely to change, such as deafblind people, when there is sufficient written evidence from medical and social care professionals with knowledge of the person’s disability.
"Face to face assessment by non-specialists will have limited value, and the report refers to a Sense report which found “unacceptable practices” in the Department of Work & Pension’s testing of the assessment, including a deafblind man being asked to copy the assessor’s movements – which he could not see."
Sense's report
Personal Independence Payment & deafblind people is a report based on the experiences of deafblind people who volunteered for the Department of Work & Pensions’ testing for the new PIP assessment.