SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
1. We welcome the announcement that initially
the new system "will exclude DLA recipients whose cases were
examined by the Benefit Integrity Project" (paragraph 4).
2. We welcome the Government's commitment to consultation
through the Disability Benefits Forum and "to continue working
closely with disabled people and their organisations to make sure
that appropriate arrangements are put in place" (paragraph
5).
3. The Government should consult with as wide
a range of disability organisations as possible to ensure that
the needs of disabled people are understood fully (paragraph 5).
4. We welcome the fact that the new process "will
be evaluated after six months of operation and the findings used
to continue to improve the process to make it more sensitive to
the circumstances of the individual contacted". We recommend
that the evaluation of the new process should include consultation
with those affected and that its findings should be published
(paragraph 7).
5. We recommend that the needs of people with
sensory disabilities and the needs of people for whom English
is an additional language should be addressed in the arrangements
for a new system of checking DLA claims (paragraph 8).
6. We recommend that once estimates of costs and
savings have been made they should be made public, showing the
likely reduction in savings and increase in administration costs
(paragraph 13).
7. We recommend that the Government should make
it clear that the new system will not be focussed on fraud. Any
future initiative based on suspected fraud in DLA should be separate
as far as is practicable from the new arrangements for checking
claims (paragraph 14).
8. Given the specific nature of DLA and the low
incidence of fraud, we recommend that the DSS should consult the
National Audit Office to review the methodology and accuracy of
their savings estimates in relation to DLA (paragraph 15).
9. We agree that the checking of all cases where
there is going to be a reduction or removal of the benefit is
a welcome change (paragraph 17).
10. We endorse the Minister's aim of "making
certain at the outset that the award is correct and then taking
action to ensure that it remains correct" (paragraph 17).
11. It is essential that the findings of the Chief
Adjudication Officer's examination of the quality of decision
making in BIP are taken account of in the new arrangements for
checking DLA claims (paragraph 18).
12. We recommend that the Government should continue
to liaise with the Disablement Income Group and with the Disability
Benefits Forum on the timetable and content of the new training
arrangements. The Government should ask the Disablement Income
Group to carry out a review of the new training arrangements once
they are in place, and the results of this review should be published
(paragraph 21).
13. We recommend that priority should be placed
on clearing the backlog of appeals arising from the Benefit Integrity
Project as soon as possible (paragraph 23).
14. We recommend that the Government, in conjunction
with the Disability Benefits Forum, should hold discussions with
the BMA about the levels of fees for consultations with GPs in
connection with DLA (paragraph 29).
15. Given the continuing high number of life awards,
we welcome the Government's intention "to amend the legislation
so that the term 'life award' does not appear in the future, once
the changes are in place" (paragraph 30).
16. We recommend that the Government should consider
extending the work on take-up of Income Support among pensioners
to Disability Living Allowance and that different approaches
to take-up should be discussed with the Disability Benefits Forum
(paragraph 31).
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