Disability Benefits

Debate between Lord Freud and Baroness Sharples

Monday 12th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sharples]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what checks are carried out on those claiming benefits on the grounds of disability.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud)]

My Lords, as with all benefits, a series of measures is in place to ensure that disability benefits are paid only to those who are entitled. These vary for each benefit. Last month, Professor Harrington confirmed that there has been positive progress in improving the work capability assessment, which determines entitlement to employment and support allowance. The department continues to develop the assessment for personal independence payment in consultation with stakeholders and relevant experts.

[Baroness Sharples]

Now that Crimestoppers is involved, can we expect to see more claims dealt with quickly—which are false claims? Will the public be encouraged to approach Crimestoppers? I gather that their calls will be entirely anonymous.

[Lord Freud]

Yes, my Lords. I very much welcome the fact that we have made an arrangement with Crimestoppers. We already have the national benefit fraud hotline; but the good thing about Crimestoppers is that it is a very trusted brand, which carries anonymity to those who call it. That will be particularly useful when we look at organised fraud, an area about which I am particularly concerned.

Remploy

Debate between Lord Freud and Baroness Sharples

Wednesday 5th October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, we are aiming to support disabled people in employment, and we have to do that in the most cost-effective way that we can find. There is a remarkable difference emerging between the support to get disabled people into mainstream employment, which, when Remploy Employment Services does it, costs £3,600 a time on a one-off basis—the company is now getting 20,000 people in a year—and the cost of more than £25,000, year on year on year, to keep them employed in the factory services.

[Baroness Sharples]

Will the Minister tell us what Remploy produces now? I am lucky; I have a torn ligament and I have a super belt for it that came from Remploy.

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, Remploy has about 54 different factory outlets doing various things, including packaging, logistics and CCTV—a wide variety of endeavours. That is exactly the point: what a Remploy factory operation needs to be successful is to be run as a profitable entrepreneurial unit. At the moment many of them are loss-making, and indeed across the piece only 50 per cent of people are doing productive work.