Welfare Reform Green Paper

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 3:32 pm on 24 January 2006.

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Photo of John Hutton John Hutton Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions, The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 3:32, 24 January 2006

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman—yes, we do, and we set out three specific proposals in the Green Paper that will address that. I agree that it is not acceptable for 50 per cent. of such appeals to be subsequently overturned. We need to consider that fairly and reasonably. That will be part of the review of assessments that we have set in train today, and if we can work with a variety of different stakeholders to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the medical assessment procedure, I hope that we can alleviate the need for so many appeals.

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Saint Swithins-Day
Posted on 25 Jan 2006 10:04 am (Report this annotation)

This means more computer-driven Personal Capability Assessments which treat claimants as a series of multiple choice answers as opposed to rounded patients with, often, multiple health conditions, each effecting the other. Claimants have remarked upon the difference between the old medical examinations and the new ones, and they preferred the old ones which had a human touch and sophistication to them. The new ones, they find, tend to include the same comment about the claimant copy/pasted into various descriptors, often with bizarre results. Eg; "Was the client anxious on examination?" - "No: Can easily browse the internet for several hours a day".

Frankly, that sort of "examination" is beneath contempt.