New benefit assessments damaging the health of Greater Manchester’s most vulnerable, says Citizens Advice

More than 85% of people living with a disability or serious long-term health condition had their mental or physical health affected by the stress of being reassessed for benefits

More than 85% of people living with a disability or serious long-term health condition had their mental or physical health affected by the stress of being reassessed for benefits, according to a study by Citizens Advice Greater Manchester.

The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) replaced Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in 2013 with anyone claiming the benefit being reassessed before 2018. New eligibility standards mean a quarter of DLA recipients are expected to not qualify for PIP.

The Citizens Advice Greater Manchester study of claimants who have experienced problems with their reassessment found that: 

• 86% of people reported that stress about the reassessment had damaged their physical and or mental health.
• Almost half felt they had been unable to explain on the application form how their disability or health problem affected their daily life. 
• More than a third found the questions during the face-to-face medical examination embarrassing.
• 56% had to see their GP for help in dealing with the reassessment.
• 60% of participants said that despite being previously been awarded DLA indefinitely on the assumption that their condition would not improve, they would now face regularly reassessments. 
• There were extensive problems with delays in the system, failures to backdate any awards and the sensitivity and accuracy of face-to-face assessments.

Almost 60% of those surveyed had either lost or seen a reduction in the care component of their benefits since moving to PIP, and almost 70% had lost or reduced Motability part of their benefit since the switch.

Around a quarter of participants had undergone a mandatory reconsideration – an internal review of the initial decision – after having benefits cut following the reassessment, and 29% had lodged, or already lost, an appeal against a PIP decision.

More than half of those who had lost benefit payments following the reassessment were planning to cut back on heating and fuel payments and more than a third expected to get into more debt.

The study showed that the process is inappropriately designed and causes further damage to the health of the very people it should be helping.

Citizens Advice across England reported over 125,000 PIP-related enquiries to its local Citizens Advice offices in the 12 months up to April 2016 – an increase of 36% over the previous 12 months.

The concerns about the medical reassessment process have prompted an inquiry by the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee into the PIP assessment process.

Citizens Advice Greater Manchester was created in 2016 following a partnership agreement between local Citizens Advice services working in communities across the 10 Greater Manchester boroughs.

The organisation is calling for a shake-up of the current system to PIP assessment process with easier to understand application forms, realistic timescales to speed up the decision-making process and scrapping reassessments for people with long-term conditions which are not going to improve. It also calls for financial penalties for assessors such as Capita and ATOS for each case overturned at appeal in order to improve standard and consistency
of assessments.

Alison Haynes, Chair of the Citizens Advice Greater Manchester Strategic Board, said: “It is extraordinary that a benefit intended specifically for people with long-term health problems should be so inappropriately designed that it causes further damage to their health and wellbeing.

“It is deeply worrying that, for these clients, both the outcomes of the reassessment and their experience of the reassessment process had led to damaging impacts on their health and, sometimes on the health and wellbeing of other family members as well.”

Anyone needing advice relating to PIP reassessment is advised to call the Greater Manchester Adviceline on 03444 111 222.