We fully support a new campaign calling for urgent changes to disability benefits assessments in order to reduce the number of vulnerable people who are forced to go through a stressful and often unnecessary appeals process.
Headway’s ‘Right First Time’ campaign has been launched to coincide with the release of an interim parliamentary report into disability benefit assessments conducted by the Work and Pensions Committee entitled Are PIP and ESA Assessments working well?
Due to the complicated and hidden nature of brain injury, assessing its impact on survivors is a complex process.
A significant number of survivors who apply for Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Personal Independent Payment (PIP) that are refused, are then subsequently accepted on mandatory reconsideration or on appeal.
The failure to come to the right decision in the initial assessment can have a significant impact on the individual’s mental health, while putting extra pressure on family finances as they navigate the various and often lengthy stages of appeal.
Headway’s evidence to the parliamentary inquiry, launched last year, was based on a survey of more than 650 brain injury survivors, which revealed that the experiences many survivors have when applying for these disability benefits is largely negative.
The key findings were:
- The system is largely focused on the physical impact of having a disability, neglecting other elements of disabilities
- 76% and 77% of respondents felt that it was difficult to explain the effects of brain injury on the application form for ESA and PIP, respectively
- Assessors were found to be lacking in this specialist knowledge. 71% and 60% of respondents felt that the assessor for ESA and PIP, respectively, did not have an understanding of brain injury
- Assessors were widely reported to lack empathy and patience
- A significant number of respondents commented on the fact that their medical evidence was not taken into consideration, and that the assessment environment was not suitable for them
Headway’s Right First Time campaign is calling for:
- Specialist assessors who have an expert knowledge of complex conditions such as brain injury
- A system for recording and confirming consideration of third-party evidence by assessors and decision-makers
- Applicants should be offered the option for an audio or visual recording of the face-to-face assessment
We believe this campaign can affect change in a system which is clearly failing people who have had a brain injury.