‘Trial tests’ for DLA claimants
PEOPLE living on disability benefits are being sought for a pilot health assessment ahead of a review of almost 120,000 cases.
It has been revealed that the Social Security Agency is to contact 3,000 randomly-selected DLA (disability living allowance) claimants asking them to meet with a health care professional to discuss their condition.
Northern Ireland has the highest percentage of people claiming DLA in the UK.
DUP social development minister, Nelson McCausland, said the initiative would help shape the reassessment process which will be faced by 117,000 claimants, if plans to replace DLA with a new personal independence payment are implemented by the UK government in two years’ time.
“It is vitally important that DLA customers in Northern Ireland help us with this work,” he said.
“The cases looked at here will feed into a similar exercise being carried out in Britain which will decide how the new assessment process will operate in the future.”
In total, 185,000 people in Northern Ireland claim disability benefits.
Children aged under 16 and adults aged over 65 will not have their cases reviewed under the current reform plans.
Mr McCausland said there were “significant differences” in some of the conditions which lead to people claiming DLA in Northern Ireland, in comparison to other parts of Britain.
“The pilot being carried out during the summer will have no bearing at all on people’s current or future claim to benefit – it is anonymous – but it will ensure that the new objective assessment process being devised in Britain will take into account the personal challenges that face people in Northern Ireland,” the minister added.
Over the last five years, the amount of social security benefits claimed here has risen from £3.9 billion in 2006/07 to just under £5 billion last year.
The latest estimate for the 2011-12 financial year – provided within the chancellor’s spring 2011 budget – is more than £5.2 billion.
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
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