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The Government’s “far too slow” actions rectifying underpayments of disability benefit has been labelled a “shocking indictment” of a system failing people, after less than a third of possible underpayments were reviewed in four years.
On Thursday ministers announced that the Government had been forced to pay out £74m worth of benefits to 14,000 sick and disabled people who were underpaid.
But the review is ongoing, and the Department for Work and Pensions said up to 326,000 people who receive disability benefits may have been entitled to more money.
The reevaluation of cases came following a court ruling four years ago which found more people with mental health problems and other disabilities should be eligible for higher Personal Independent Payments (PIP).
Now mental health and disability charities have condemned the amount of time taken to pay the arrears – with less than a third of cases reviewed since the ruling and fewer than five per cent of people paid their entitlement.
Mental health charity Mind said the court ruling had shown the DWP “failed thousands of people with mental health problems with a draconian assessment scheme that denied them the support they deserved”.
The charity accused the Government of being “far too slow to act in rectifying their mistakes”.
Nil Guzelgun, Policy and Campaigns Manager, said: “Four years ago, the Supreme Court gave a landmark judgment, which meant that the DWP had to clearly define what counts as support and not dismiss the kinds of help that many people with mental health problems rely on.
She added: “The fact that since 2021 less than a third of the people affected have had their payments reviewed, and less than five per cent have been paid the updated PIP entitlement, is a shocking indictment of a system that continues to let disabled people down.
“Some people will have been underpaid – and continue to be underpaid – for more than seven years now.”
She said an underpayment “can be devastating for someone’s financial wellbeing and mental health particularly during the cost-of living crisis”.
“Not paying the right amount can severely impact someone’s life and potentially delay their recovery,” Ms Guzelgun said.
“The DWP urgently needs to ramp up their efforts to review the remaining cases and rectify their mistakes. People with mental health problems can’t wait any longer.”
Disability equality charity Scope also urged the government to speed up repayments.
James Taylor, executive director of strategy, said: “PIP exists because life costs more when you’re disabled.
“The government needs to speed up the process and fix this urgently. Disabled people shouldn’t have to fight for disability benefits. We need a welfare system that gets it right first time.”
The revelations came as the DWP published a review into people who have bee underpaid PIP which was launched to establish who might be owed backdated payments following a Supreme Court judgment in 2019.
The ruling found the definition of people eligible for the disability payment should be widened after concluding the DWP got the law wrong when deciding how highly claimants should score for the activity “engaging face to face”.
Previously, the DWP decided PIP claims on the basis that if someone needed “prompting” to be able to engage with others then they would only score two points, lowering the likelihood they would meet the threshold for the benefit.
This would mean claimants may have missed out if they had support to help them manage face-to-face encounters from a mental health professional, friend or relative.
More than 320,000 cases were identified as possible cases of underpayments, the Government said.
So far, 79,000 cases have been reviewed and, of these, 14,000 arrears payments were made at a cost of £74m.
Disabilities Minister Tom Pursglove announced the payouts in a written statement in Parliament on Thursday.
“On 20 September 2021, the department started an administrative exercise, looking at PIP claims since 6 April 2016 to check whether claimants may be eligible for more support under PIP,” he said. “This is a complex exercise. We have identified around 326,000 unique cases we need to review,” the statement read.
“Given the complexity of the exercise we started at a relatively small scale, prioritising terminally ill and recently deceased claimants, testing our processes and communications with claimants, to ensure they are effective before ramping up.
“The department has today published an ad hoc release of management information on the administrative exercise. As at 31 August 2023, we have reviewed around 79,000 cases against the MM judgment.”
He added: “We are committed to making backdated payments to all claimants affected by this judgment as quickly as possible.
“So, as well as continuing to review claims affected by the definition of ‘social support’, we are also testing a more proportionate approach for claimants who might be affected by the timing element only.”
The DWP have been approached for comment.