SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan has welcomed the news that thousands of people in Derry and throughout the North who are claiming Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for long-term sickness will no longer face repeated medical assessments to keep their payments.
The announcement was made at the weekend by Work & Pensions Secretary Damian Green who said it was pointless to re-test recipients of ESA with severe conditions and no prospect of getting better.
Mr Durkan said: “I welcome the fact that Damian Green now recognises that it is pointless and petty to insist on repeated medical tests for ESA for people with chronic long-term conditions.
“The regime of re-testing which he and other government MPs voted for in the Welfare Reform Act is stressful for claimants with proven conditions and wasteful in administrative terms.
“When we opposed the Welfare Reform Bill we argued against the illogical rigidity of continuous re-testing and called for realism and sensitivity in respect of diagnosed conditions which by their medical nature are not going to improve.
“It is welcome that the new DWP Secretary has seen fit to relax the regime in the face of reality and end the hurtful futility of reassessment for so many.
“However, we will need to see the detailed terms of this adjustment before we know whether it will relieve enough people from anxiety and hardship.
“It is not yet clear if the relaxation on reassessment will extend to some more variable conditions which might be deemed to fluctuate but still have chronic, debilitating impacts on sufferers.
“There is also the question of mental health conditions or cases with varying combinations of conditions.
“If realisation has dawned on DWP over ESA re-tests we should ask that they also modify the refusal to have long-term awards of Personal Independence Payments (replacing DLA).
“The insistence on allowing a maximum of three years regardless of conditions and diagnoses also needs to give way to realism and sensitivity.”
