So, there has just been a live Q&A on the Guardian's website about the DLA reform. Not many questions were answered, but here are her responses:
"I'm sure many of you know a lot about DLA but for those of you who might be newer to it -
It was first launched in 1992 and has never been substantially updated since.
There have been enormous strides made in legislation which support disabled people, headway made in people's attitudes towards disabled people and many new and different ways that the State supports disabled people, for instance through things like aids and adaptations which now account for more than £200 million. All of this needs to be better taken into account in the way this important disability benefit works.
The new Personal Independence Payment gives us the opportunity to bring DLA into the 21st century."
"@diana13 and others have asked what first hand experience I have of disability issues - my mother is a disabled person and lives with me and I therefore have some insight into the very real challenges that both disabled people and their carers face on a day to day basis.
I have spent time both meeting disabled people and their organisations to make sure I hear directly from them the priorities that they feel the government needs to tackle."
"@MindYerBeak and others have asked whether pensioners will be reassessed. That's a straightforward one - at the moment the changes we are looking at apply to people of working age (16-64) so pensioners aren't affected - the reforms won't affect Attendance Allowance."
"Re Atos - lots of you are asking about whether Atos will be involved in any new assessment. We haven't made any decisions on who will carry out the assessment. We want the best people for the job and we are looking forward to people's responses through the consultation on how best to carry out the new assessment process."
"@Rhydian - I'll pick directly up on your post requesting more evidence for the need to reform. The Government's research on DLA is generally commissioned from external academic and independent researchers and this is what was used as evidence in the consultation.
DLA was first brought into being in 1992 and since that time has not been substantially reformed.
There is no inbuilt system of review, leaving people with short term conditions treated the same as people with long term conditions.
The assessment process is unwieldy, requiring self assessment - with 50% of people receiving DLA never being required to submit any independent evidence of their need.
Significant numbers of people have had no contact with the Department since their awards were made almost 20 years ago and we have no way of knowing if their need of support has increased or not.
All of this points to a benefit that is in need of updating to make it more transparent, consistent and fair."
"Lots of people have raised the issue of support for care home residents. Let's be clear, the Government is 100% committed to supporting disabled people, whether they live in care homes or family homes - more than £40 billion a year is spent to promote disabled people's independence through care and the benefits system. But we can't have money being used to fund the same thing twice.
Local authorities and care homes have clear obligations to provide transport for care home residents and care home residents also receive DLA mobility to cover their extra transport costs. Our proposal is to remove any overlap to make sure that care home residents still get the transport they need and that public money is used most effectively. What's clear to me is that even now the system isn't really working for many people.
A recent report called Don't Limit Mobility said that care home provision of transport is patchy and there is even evidence of people being charged for what should be freely available. Lots in the report was anecdotal evidence of how the current system doesn't work well for care home residents who do have very different mobility needs. What we are doing is looking at how we can make sure the system works better in the future, not only removing any overlap of spending but also ensuring that there is clarity for the future."
"@cellarman - you asked about people with fluctuating conditions who may be able to meet the conditions as fit to work one day but not on another. Just to be clear, Personal Independence Payment will be paid to people in and out of work as DLA is now so we won't be assessing people on the basis of whether they can work or not.
Assessing fluctuating conditions accurately and fairly is critical and we will be looking at responses to the consultation for people's thoughts on this. Just a reminder, the consultation is open until Monday Feb 14th."
"My time slot from the Guardian is running out fast. Can I thank everybody who has taken the time to contribute - every posting has been read and will feed in to our consultation. Hope I can do this again soon."
"@ LynnHarrison
You and others are concerned about disabled people being portrayed as dishonest and even fraudulent.
I share your concern. Cases of fraud bring the benefit system into disrepute and this is bad for everyone. People with legitimate claims need a benefit system that has robust assessment - treating people fairly and putting integrity back into the support that's available"
Quite a long post there, but I hope that helps people who don't want to trawl through all the comments. I have highlighted bits that I thought might be of interest to people, but if anyone wants anything else highlighting, just let me know.
