Welfare Reform Bill

Let me take each of the noble Baroness’s amendments in turn. On the trialling of the assessment, I am sure that noble Lords are aware that it is possible to test out and evaluate the assessment process without trialling it. There is, indeed, an advantage to testing over trialling, because the former can be done without affecting an individual’s entitlement to benefit. The noble Baroness will be aware of the testing we undertook throughout the summer with more than 900 disabled volunteers, and the informal consultation that took place alongside it. Both were very effective, and allowed us to review, revise and improve the draft assessment criteria from the draft published in May to the draft with which noble Lords have recently been provided. We are now seeking further views on that. For our testing, using independent experts has demonstrated that our proposed approach to assessment is both reliable and valid. This testing included individuals on the autistic spectrum. This is not the end of the matter, though, as we that believe the development of the benefit processes, including the assessment, should be and will be an iterative process. Therefore, in addition to testing of the assessment, we have created a specific development group to engage with a broad spectrum of disability organisations, to understand their views on a range of issues related to the delivery of the benefit. We have also created a number of customer research panels made up of groups of disabled people who share similar characteristics. We will seek to test our processes in a model office environment, allowing us to see how they work without affecting individuals. These processes will be vital in helping us gather insight first-hand from individuals on whom the process may impact. Turning to the independent review of the trial referred to in the amendment, I first state that I do appreciate the importance of such reviews, and will talk about that in more detail later. However, undertaking this after only one year of operation would not provide adequate time for the assessment process to bed in. It would not allow enough time for sufficient data to be captured, as it requires people to go through the full claims process in this time, and there are inevitable lags in the production of statistics. Any subsequent analysis would therefore provide an unrealistic impression of how the benefit was operating. There are, of course, other means by which we seek to evaluate and improve the operation of the new assessment. The assessment and its associated process will remain living tools, and we will continually carry out internal evaluation work to monitor their performance. We will therefore not have to wait for the outcome of the independent review to learn from and take action based on operational and individual experiences. The second element of the noble Baroness’s amendment is the involvement of disabled people’s organisations in the assessment process. Let me assure the noble Baroness that we have involved disabled people’s organisations in the development of this policy from day one. We are trying to approach this work in a co-produced way, seeking the views of disabled people and their organisations at each stage. I have mentioned in earlier debates that our assessment development group comprises members of Equality 2025 and Radar. Both have provided critical support, direction and challenge throughout the process of developing the assessment criteria. We also held a 16-week informal consultation on our initial draft of the assessment criteria, which sought the views and opinions of disabled people and their organisations. This process helped us to revise the initial draft assessment criteria and develop the second draft, which has lately been made available. Most of the changes that we have made have been as a direct result of the input of disability organisations. We are now seeking views on the second draft and, importantly, the proposed weightings, before we reach any firm views on the entitlement thresholds. We then intend to carry out a full consultation on the entire assessment criteria, including the weightings and thresholds. Equally, we are involving disabled people and the organisations that represent them as we design the operational processes for personal independence payment. To achieve this, we have created a dedicated working group specifically for this purpose. The group’s membership has been drawn from a wide number of national and grass-roots, user-led organisations, and it is currently working with us on a range of operational issues. We also see disabled people’s organisations playing a key role in the delivery of the new benefit, helping to inform individuals and guide them through the process. This could include assisting them in making claims, providing evidence to help support their case and/or attending assessments with them to provide support and reassurance. We are undertaking work to strengthen and expand our partnership arrangements with local organisations that represent disabled people and ensure that they have all the relevant information about PIP. Meanwhile, there is nothing in the legislation to prevent disabled people’s organisations being involved in the delivery of assessments. The key for us is ensuring that, regardless of which organisation or organisations deliver the assessment, they have the capacity to do so, and that individual assessors have the requisite skills and experience. Disability organisations have been free to participate in the procurement exercise for the assessment, which is now under way, either as prime contractors or as partners of such organisations. Whatever the outcome of this exercise, we will ask the assessment provider to work with disability organisations and seek their input, so that we can deliver the best possible service to claimants. The final element of the noble Baroness’s amendment is intended to ensure that individuals whose condition is unlikely to change over five years should not have to undergo an assessment more often than once every five years. We will discuss this issue in more detail in a later group of amendments. However, we know that disabled people’s lives are varied and that health conditions and impairments affect people in many different ways. As I have said before, we therefore do not feel it would be appropriate to make blanket rules for particular groups of people. Under personal independence payment, we want individuals’ treatment to be tailored to fit their personal circumstances. This includes our approach to award length and review date, which should also be personalised. Such an approach would be able to take into account the likelihood of the impact of an individual’s health condition or impairment changing. We know that for some people a shorter-term award might be appropriate. For others, a longer-term award might be appropriate, while, for those with the severest disabilities, an ongoing award might be right. We absolutely do not want unnecessary reviews of claims, both to reduce the impact on individuals and to ensure that we do not waste money. The noble Baroness, Lady Wilkins, raised the question of the overall cost of delivering DLA reform over three years. This was included in the 2010 Budget Red Book at £675 million.