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Lords back disability benefit shake-up | Lords back disability benefit shake-up |
(40 minutes later) | |
The government has headed off a House of Lords defeat over plans to replace the Disability Living Allowance. | The government has headed off a House of Lords defeat over plans to replace the Disability Living Allowance. |
Ministers want to amend the system to make sure claimants have more medical tests, but opponents say this will mean 500,000 people will lose benefits. | Ministers want to amend the system to make sure claimants have more medical tests, but opponents say this will mean 500,000 people will lose benefits. |
A proposal to delay the scheme by carrying out an extended pilot project before it is implemented across the country was beaten by 16 votes. | A proposal to delay the scheme by carrying out an extended pilot project before it is implemented across the country was beaten by 16 votes. |
The government suffered three Lords defeats on the issue last week. | The government suffered three Lords defeats on the issue last week. |
Introduced in 1992 to help disabled people cope with the extra costs they face in their daily lives, Disability Living Allowance is paid to two million people of working age. | Introduced in 1992 to help disabled people cope with the extra costs they face in their daily lives, Disability Living Allowance is paid to two million people of working age. |
Deficit | Deficit |
The replacement Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) would see claimants taking up-front medical tests and then undergoing regular assessments. | |
The government wants to pass its Welfare Reform Bill, which includes the proposal, by the end of the parliamentary session in May. | |
It says it has to reduce spending on benefits, helping to cut the deficit while also increasing incentives to work and targeting support for the vulnerable more effectively. | |
During the Lords debate, cross-bencher Baroness Grey-Thompson, an 11-time Paralympic gold medal-winner, proposed an amendement to the bill, delaying the introduction of PIPs until further testing was carried out. | |
She said: "There needs to be careful scrutiny of who will be affected by these changes. For me there's a real concern about whether it could lead to a deterioration of people's health." | |
But work and pensions minister Lord Freud said such a delay would cost £1.4bn. | |
He added that the government recognised the benefit of moving away from the "big bang approach" to implementation, which would see both new claims and assessments beginning in April next year. | |
The number of new claims for PIP would be limited to a "few thousand per month" for the first few months of implementation, allowing "us to fully trial all the processes in a truly live environment". | The number of new claims for PIP would be limited to a "few thousand per month" for the first few months of implementation, allowing "us to fully trial all the processes in a truly live environment". |
The government won the Lords vote by 229 to 213. | |
An earlier Lady Grey-Thompson amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill, in which she argued reports from doctors should be a mandatory part of the PIP assessment process, was withdrawn without a vote. |