Disabled People in Poverty
Terry Jermy Excerpts(5 days, 14 hours ago)
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Terry Jermy (South West Norfolk) (Lab)
There is a clear link between disability and poverty, particularly in rural communities such as mine, where poor public transport adds to difficulties accessing basic medical appointments and makes it either really difficult or really expensive.
I wanted to ask the Minister about the PIP process. It is a horrible process—I know it painfully well. Residents are having to wait for up to a year to receive a decision and money. There is no financial benefit to the Government, because the money is backdated, but all the while that people are waiting they are presenting in crisis at the jobcentre, the hospital and the GP service, which is costing an absolute fortune and ruining lives. Will the Government look at the PIP process and aim to speed it up, so that we can help more people and save costs in the system?
Welfare Reform
Terry Jermy Excerpts(3 months ago)
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Liz Kendall
My hon. Friend is right. One of the things we learned during the pandemic is that a healthy nation and a healthy economy are two sides of the same coin. I believe we need to do much, much more to join up what the DWP does with what the NHS and, crucially, local skills and voluntary organisations do. That is not the way we have worked in the past, but that is what we want to change.
Terry Jermy (South West Norfolk) (Lab)
Having worked for all his adult life, my dad had a life-altering stroke in 2013. He was just 55, and PIP kept him alive for 10 further years. As the person who helped to fill in his PIP forms, take him to assessments and make the telephone calls, I can tell the House that, without a doubt, the system is already incredibly difficult to access. Will the reforms help speed up the process for PIP assessments and decisions, which take far too long under the current process?
Liz Kendall
Yes. We have announced in the Green Paper that, alongside the changes for which we will legislate, we will have a review of the PIP assessment process, led by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Social Security and Disability. We will work with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, and others to sort this out. One of the great tragedies is that it is a miserable system for everybody. I do not want it to be like that—we need to change it—and I really look forward to talking to my hon. Friend to get more of his ideas.