Welfare Reform Bill

I support new clause 3. Some of my arguments will echo those made by the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Danny Alexander), but I make no apology for bringing important issues to Members’ attention once again. The new clause is not particularly onerous. It will not cost the taxpayer any more, but it goes to the heart of the Government’s commitment to make sure that the new employment and support allowance succeeds where incapacity benefit has failed. The solution to any problem must start simply with a correct diagnosis of that problem. For incapacity benefit and the new employment and support allowance, the crucial gateway is the personal capability assessment. There are, however, problems with that gateway, and they have produced the major issues in respect of incapacity benefit. The new clause simply requires the Government to publish an annual report on how that gateway is working, and to do so following consultation with key organisations such as the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights, which it is hoped will be as able an advocate of the concerns of disabled people as its predecessor body, the Disability Rights Commission. Why is this subject so important? Mistakes in how the gateway works cause enormous distress and cost the taxpayer huge sums of money. In 2005, 50 per cent. of appeals against incapacity benefit decisions were successful; that is an enormously high rate, and should be a real concern to the Government. Two examples given by the Citizens Advice illustrate that point. In one, a client with a severe skin condition lost incapacity benefit following a personal capability assessment that which awarded him five points, but at his appeal five months later he qualified for 16 points, although he then immediately received notice of another PCA medical examination. In another example, a woman with ME—myalgic encephalomyelitis—was given only seven points at a medical examination, but the doctor who carried it out advised her to appeal, saying that the computer would not allow him to award more; the client received 33 points at appeal. To borrow words that some Members might be familiar with from Christmas viewing of ““Little Britain”” episodes, ““the computer says no”” and people lose their benefit only to be re-awarded it later at great cost to the taxpayer as well as great personal distress.