Miller holds firm on DLA reform

While disabled campaigners may be proud of recent successes in the battle over welfare reform, Maria Miller tells Sunil Peck that what she’s doing is right

The minister for disabled people Maria Miller has said that a U-turn on plans to abolish DLA [Disability Living Allowance] was always unlikely.

“There is widespread support for a fundamental reform of DLA," she told Disability Now. "I don’t think there is any question that most disability organisations think that reform is needed. The approach that we’ve taken from the start with this reform has been that of co-production.”

The Government wants to cut expenditure on DLA by 20 per cent. Its own figure is that there is a 0.5 per cent fraud rate But it’s clear, according to Maria Miller, that DLA is out of date and not fit to support the needs of disabled people in the 21st century.

“DLA has been poorly managed over the last ten years. We’ve got a situation where there is over £600 million going out in over-payments and equally as worrying, around £190 million in under-payments, so we can’t be convinced that the money that is there is getting to people who need it most.

“The system needs an overhaul and we don’t have systematic checks in place to make sure that this is picked up when people’s conditions change.

“These are some of the fundamental problems with DLA. We want to make sure that we have a benefit that’s there to support disabled people.”

Despite Miller’s insistence that there is wide­spread support for the abolition of DLA, the Responsible Reform report, researched and written by disabled people, and published as the Spartacus report in January, has obtained evidence that its authors say justifies accusations that the Government misled the public and parliament over the extent of support for abolishing the benefit.

Unsurprisingly, Miller is dismissive of the report. “It’s important to listen to any sensible arguments that are put forward. My concern is that it was a selective analysis of 500 of the five and a half thousand responses that we received for the DLA consultation.

“I was saddened to see that little regard had been paid to our approach of co-production and the fact that we had worked closely with many disability organisations.”

In recent weeks, while the Welfare Reform Bill has been going through parliament, websites, radio phone-ins and news bulletins have featured disabled people who say that the loss of DLA will thrust them further into poverty. So is Miller disturbed by the prospect of disabled people’s lives being devastated?

“People who need help with extra costs will continue to get that help under the Personal Independence Payments (PIPs). DLA is about the extra costs of being a disabled person; it’s not about topping up their loss of income.

“There are many other ways the Government supports disabled people in the benefits system. We spend £40 billion of public money every year supporting disabled people, and through our reforms such as the Universal Credit we will be making the situation much more straightforward, particularly for disabled people who do want to get into work but perhaps for a limited number of hours.”

Eligibility for the PIPs will be determined by medical assessments. That method of determining disabled people’s eligibility for support with the Work Capability Assessments has already led to chaos, with people wrongly assessed and the high cost of the appeals system.

“It’s not possible to say that we’re not going to undertake a thorough and proper assessment of an individual’s needs because it’s a difficult process. We acknowledge it’s going to be a difficult process but we’ve learnt a great deal from the work that has been done to make the Work Capability Assessments work better for people who are looking to get into employment.”

What about the long-held suspicions among disabled people that the Department for Work and Pensions has been feeding stories about disability benefit cheats to the media with the aim of winning public support for harsh benefit cuts?

“I am very clear, that is not something that I would be involved in at all. It’s the system that has trapped people in a spiral of welfare dependency. I know that disabled people want to live independently. That’s what I’m here to help make sure that the welfare system and other parts of government is delivering. We have a system that, because it’s long overdue for reform, is easily brought into disrepute by the media reporting on cases where the system is being used in a way that it shouldn’t be.”

Some activists have threatened to stay away from future government consultations because they say that the Government ignored their views in the DLA consultation. If Miller thinks she has a job on her hands to win them over, she’s not saying so.

“What has been good about this process is that there’s clear demon­strable evidence that the Government has listened to the thoughts and concerns of disabled people. Whether it’s the fact that we’ve now said that we’ll continue to have DLA and PIPs available for people in residential care homes to apply for, whether it’s the fact that we’ve changed the qualifying period from six months to three months, whether it’s the fact that we’ve put in place two independent reviews and a third if required, I think all of this is clear evidence that consultation is important and that we are listening to disabled people and their concerns.”