BBC News - PIP assessments: 'Lack of trust' in benefits systems - Driving Mobility

BBC News – PIP assessments: ‘Lack of trust’ in benefits systems

Failings in disability benefits assessments – including claimants being asked when they had “caught” Down’s syndrome – have led to a “pervasive lack of trust” in the system, MPs say.

The Commons Work and Pensions Committee said reports by private contractors for the two main disability benefits, PIPs and ESA, were “riddled with errors”.

And it said contractors “universally missed” the set performance targets.

A government spokesman said the assessments worked for the “majority”.

The committee said it had received an “unprecedented” number of responses from people who had claimed Personal Independence Payments (PIP) or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

Almost 4,000 claimants detailed “shocking and moving, credible and consistent” accounts, the report said.

A recurrent complaint was that claimants did not believe the companies’ assessors could be trusted to record evidence of their conditions accurately.

Read the full story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43058789

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