Dear Esther McVey MP

As many of you know Debbie Sayers & I wrote an open letter to Esther McVey back in April which 866 people signed; we are still awaiting a proper reply hence the following…

Dear Esther McVey MP

Further to your reply to our letter of April 14 2013.

Your response offers no answers to our questions, therefore we reiterate the following:

We ask you revise your statement of April 8 2013 where you claimed “At the moment the vast majority of claimants get the benefit for life without any systematic reassessments and around 50% of decisions are made on the basis of the claim form alone – without any additional corroborating medical evidence…The Personal Independence Payment will include a new face-to-face assessment and regular reviews – something missing in the current system”

We offered multiple examples of evidence which disproved the individual points in your statement; to save you time we recap – the vast majority of claimants get the benefit for life without any systematic reassessments is misleading as there never have been ‘lifetime awards – “In the past, the use of the term “Life Award” proved to be confusing amongst people who received Disability Living Allowance (DLA) It was taken by many to mean that once awarded, benefit could not be taken away. That is, and was never, the case” Source: DWP Central FoI Team 30/3/12

“around 50 per cent of decisions are made on the basis of the claim form alone” - the contrary evidence for this is overwhelming but most tellingly on the DWP’s own site https://www.gov.uk/dla-disability-living-allowance-benefit/eligibility;

You also claimed in an interview with the Mail on Sunday that the introduction of PIP “ has produced an extraordinary ‘closing-down sale’ effect, with rocketing claims as people rush to get their hands on unchecked ‘welfare for life”; this is also unfounded as you can view by utilising the DWP’s own tabulation tool http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/100pc/dla_ent/ccdate/cnage/a_carate_r_ccdate_c_cnage.html

Given this we believe a more fair and balanced statement including the facts should be simple enough? We request you respond to our individual points as laid out above.

Courtesy of Jayne Linney