Harpreet Uppal
Main Page: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)Department Debates - View all Harpreet Uppal's debates with the Department for Work and Pensions
(1 day, 15 hours ago)
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Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)
Order. I encourage Members to keep their questions short, or they will not all get in.
Harpreet Uppal (Huddersfield) (Lab)
Having met disabled constituents over the last few months, I have no doubt that the initial proposals caused anxiety, so I do welcome the changes for existing claimants and the Timms review. However, can I urge the Secretary of State to look at the sequencing to make sure that the review happens before we assess new claimants? I have one final point about the assessors themselves. There is no doubt but that the involvement of private companies such as Capita and Maximus has caused problems, as has having assessors who do not understand health conditions. Can we make sure that we look at that properly?
Liz Kendall
Yes, we are absolutely committed to looking at that. In fact, we announced in the Green Paper that we are overhauling our entire safeguarding process, including the training of assessors, because we want to get this right. We will not only bring back face-to-face assessments, but record them as standard, which I believe together will make a real difference to the process and ensure we get the decisions right first time.