Peter Hain has called on the medical assessment company Capita to urgently reform its process before it descends into the same ‘punitive fiasco’ as the ATOS assessments from Employment and Support Allowance which caused misery for thousands of local people.
Growing numbers of applicants have been waiting months for their assessments to be completed.
‘Sadly the experience that I am hearing for people who have been through the process is that from the face to face assessment to the point of Capita sending the report to the DWP the system it is prolonged and inexplicably lengthy.
‘It cannot go on that people are waiting months for their assessment to be processed, causing no end of misery for the individual and their family. I ask that you review your system and ensure that applications are dealt with promptly and efficiently and in doing so the turn around on applications is drastically reduced from its current length.’
The Neath MP has also written about this to Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions.
To read more go to http://peterhain.org.uk/2014/01/hain-calls-for-urgent-improvements-to-punitive-disability-assessment-process/