Welfare Reform Bill

First, my Lords, I should make a correction for Hansard: it was the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, who I was chatting to, not the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins. I inadvertently put an ““n”” into her name, and I apologise. My Amendments 55 and 56 relate to opportunities for people in receipt of PIP to receive lifetime or indefinite awards of the benefits in much the same way as many people do who are currently entitled to DLA. As figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions in May 2010 revealed, of the 3,157,300 people in receipt of DLA some 2,239,500 received an indefinite award, and on closer inspection this is hardly surprising. If an individual’s disability, impairment or condition is lifelong, their needs will either remain the same or increase over time—they will not go away. Therefore, it seems perfectly logical and right for them to be entitled to the benefits indefinitely. Individuals with a learning disability are examples of such people. At this point it is appropriate for me to declare an interest as president of the Royal Mencap Society and describe briefly what happened to my daughter, who died five years ago. She was born with Down’s syndrome, which in those days was defined as mongolism, in 1951. She had hip dysplasia, which was not operated on when she was young enough. Eventually her femur was too brittle and too thin for any hip operation to take place. She developed cataracts in her late 20s and had six eye operations at Kingston Hospital and Moorfields. She developed a certain degree of dementia at the age of 38. She gradually got worse and more blind until, at the age of 54, having developed epilepsy three years earlier, she had five seizures in a row, which rendered her unconscious. She lived for 10 days and eventually died. In that time she was incapable of movement and had to be hoisted everywhere. She was totally blind, and totally incapable of any form of communication because she had Alzheimer’s. In other words, her condition gradually progressed from bad to worse to worse still throughout her life. Those are the kind of people that I am talking about: people who deteriorate as the years go by. It seems absurd that they cannot have a lifelong award, which would to a certain extent be covered, although I know that this is a different area of healthcare and social care. The point is that we are asking for, and being granted, annual health checks for people with a learning disability. People with severe learning disabilities will also be subject to those annual health tests, and if their condition worsens it can be reported so that the lifelong award would continue to apply. I hope that the Minister will also see that this will save the Government a great deal of money. You are looking at tens of thousands of people who deserve a lifelong award—not only those with learning disabilities; there are other conditions as well, obviously. There are tens of thousands who would have to go for regular assessments. It is absurd. They should be allowed to have their lifetime awards, or at least lengthy awards, for which they could have a health check. I cannot remember the Minister’s exact words but he said something to the effect that people whose circumstances were exceptional could continue to have a lifetime award or something similar. I hope he is able to pronounce a little further on that. Having ad libbed this speech and moved away from my original script, which I cannot read anyway because of my eye condition at the moment, I hope the Minister will find room in his heart to accept this amendment. I beg to move.