Universal Credit: Disability claimants talk about how state assessment guidelines made them suicidal

Evaluation of disability benefits should be recorded to improve a “stressful” and “traumatic” process that suffers from “serious” errors, MEPs have warned.

An 18-month investigation by a committee of MPs found that the health assessment system used to decide whether someone qualifies for sickness and disability benefits is debilitating and often incorrect, meaning that people who have entitled to payments, should not receive them.

The Labor and Pensions Commission has asked the government to increase transparency by automatically recording all estimates and reviewing any proposed changes to take into account the potential physical and psychological impact.

They argued that there was an urgent need to adjust the process ahead of the planned streamlining of the benefit system, whereby all sickness and disability benefit estimates are based on a personal independence process known as PIP.

The Work Ability Assessment (WCA) will be abolished and replaced by PIP, but there are fears that the extremely high threshold for PIP payments will make large groups of people unable to receive benefits.

According to the report’s findings, people routinely experience “mental health issues as a result of health assessment” during the PIP process.

One of the testimonies said that the process of reassessing the disability pension was “humiliating” and overwhelming.

“I fear that one day my children will not have a mother because it was too much for me,” said one person. “I want everyone to know that more than once I thought the government was trying to trick me into committing suicide.”

In another piece of evidence, a PIP-assessed plaintiff said the lawsuit was “one of the most disturbing experiences I’ve had.”

“I became suicidal and wanted to hurt myself every day. I ended up going back to a higher dose of antidepressants,” they said. “I felt that I had an abusive relationship with the state, I was not believed, condemned, patronized, lied to, and also left without support.”

Another added that the evaluation was “the most humiliating and humiliating experience I have ever had – worse than any medical examination of my genitals by medical professionals.”

Stephen Timms, Labor MP and leader of the Works and Pensions Committee, urged the government to register estimates to increase transparency.

“They should be included because that’s the only way to understand why these estimates are so often wrong,” he said. I. “Some very serious things go wrong, so let’s write things down regularly so we can get to the bottom of what’s going wrong.”

He added: “With these announced changes, this is especially important – PIP ratings become even more important and complex, so we really need to make sure they get them right.”

Anastasia Berry, co-chair of the Disability Benefits Consortium and policy manager for the MS Society, said the report’s findings are “all too familiar to people with disabilities.” She urged the government to review the PIP immediately.

“This reflects what we already know about PIP – it is long, strenuous and based on arbitrary and inappropriate criteria.

“Many people with disabilities, including those with multiple sclerosis, need an assessment they can trust, not one that causes a lot of stress and anxiety.”

Vicki Nash, deputy director of policy and campaigns at Mind, said the report highlights that “People continue to have mental health issues when they have a health assessment.”

A government spokesman said: “The government is committed to ensuring that people have access to financial assistance in a timely manner and in the form of support, and therefore reducing processing times and further improving the applicant experience are key priorities for the DWP.

“The proposals in our current White Paper on Health and Disability will make it easier for people to access the support they need and increase trust and transparency in our decisions and processes.”