Government must speed up progress on direct payments

Paul Carter with the Conservatives in Birmingham

The shadow minister for disabled people has spoken out in support of individual budgets and direct payments, but has called on the government to speed up their delivery.

Speaking at a fringe event in Birmingham hosted jointly by Scope, Mencap and Age Concern, Mark Harper MP said that although the government was supportive, “things are going too slowly”.

He said: “The government has run a number of pilots. We’re still waiting almost a year later for the report from the DWP [Department for Work and Pensions] to say what the government’s conclusions are from those pilots and what the next steps will be.

“We’ve been pressing them to publish that report to say what they are going to do, and we think they need to move further and faster.“

Scope’s chair, Alice Maynard, said more needs to be done to promote direct payments and individualised budgets because “they are the means to achieving equality, inclusion and reducing poverty”.

“Direct payments and individual budgets are just some of the ways in which this choice and control can be achieved.

“But in many cases the availability of that support is limited and often it’s surrounded by a level of bureaucracy which means its actually quite difficult to access.”