Edinburgh West MP, , has today called for
Ministers to scrap the controversial disability payment
assessment system.
Ms Jardine regularly hears from constituents who are faced with
having their Personal Independence (PIP) payments removed after
unfair and intrusive disability assessments.
The Lib Dem MP used an opportunity in Parliament to ask the
Scotland Secretary whether he agreed that the flawed assessment
system should be scrapped for claimants in Scotland.
Ms Jardine said:
“Every week I am approached by constituents who are threatened by
either having their PIP significantly reduced, or taken away
completely.
“On many occasions these assessment cause extreme stress, and
they have a serious impact on the mental health of people who are
already struggling to get by.
“One constituent was told she would lose the mobility car which
she depends on to get around, as her assessor wrongly claimed
that she walks with ‘a good gait’, and that if she could complete
the assessment ‘she didn’t need the car’.
“Luckily that decision was reversed once I intervened, but it
goes to show how these interviews are simply not fit for purpose.
They should scrapped immediately, and the entire PIP system needs
to be reassessed itself.
“As usual I received an unsatisfactory answer from the Tory
minister, but I’ll continue to fight the corner of my
constituents whose are facing misery because of this shambles of
a system”.
