The All Party Parliamentary Group for Disability met this week on zoom. Along with Lord Hannay; Vicky Foxcroft MP, Shadow Minister for Disabled People; Diane Kingston OBE; Chris Wallace from the United Nations Association UK; Rebecca Hilsenrath, CEO of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Minister for Disabled People, Justin Tomlinson MP was present to comment on a range of issues. In relation to housing, he said: “I totally agree with Vicky, it’s vital in those new developments we are future proofing housing.”
In a discussion about benefits, Vicky Foxcroft told those present that all sanctions do “is drive people into further poverty”.
Justin Tomlinson commented that post-Covid “a menu of options” would be “a good way forward” for disabled people undergoing assessments for benefits, and that the DWP needed to do “a huge amount of work around severe conditions criteria” when it came to assessing the length of benefit awards. He said: “The idea of PIP is to trigger when to identify when people will need a higher level of support… it is in no-one’s interest to do unnecessary assessments but neither do I want to repeat the mistakes of the DLA.”
Lisa Cameron MP, chair of the APPG on Disability said that it was “really important to minimise the levels of stress for people” undergoing assessments, and Rebecca Hilsenrath said “we would like the government to review how long it takes to get benefits”.