TWO years after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) promised to review end-of-life support for benefit claimants, it has been claimed its findings are being withheld – and up to 2000 people have died after their claims were rejected.
SNP MP Drew Hendry, who has spearheaded a campaign to change benefit rules for terminally ill people, told The National the UK Government should follow the commitment by Holyrood to ending the notorious “six-month rule” for personal independent payments (PIP).
The rule means benefits are only fast-tracked when a terminally ill claimant has six months or less to live, and was slated by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Terminal Illness, which Hendry chairs.
This newspaper reported almost two years ago how the APPG found the system was “outdated, arbitrary and not based on clinical reality” and left terminally-ill people facing “far-reaching financial hardship and crippling debt”. The report found the rule – brought in three decades ago to determine how quickly someone can access benefits – was conceived by politicians with no clinical evidence to support it.
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Marie Curie and the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MND) have been campaigning to scrap the “six-month rule”. They have called on the UK Government to publish the findings of the DWP review amid concerns that at least 100 people per month are being rejected for benefits within the last six months of their lives.
The charities obtained the data from the DWP, showing that over an 18-month period, 1860 people (around 100 a month) had their PIP claim rejected, and died within six months of making the claim.
Over the same period, the Therese Coffey's (below) DWP rejected a further 280 dying people, despite them claiming under rules designed to fast-track support for the terminally ill.
Mark Jackson, Marie Curie’s policy and public affairs manager, said: “The current law plunges dying people into uncertainty – they know they are dying but because they do not know how long they have left they can’t access financial support quickly. It is vital that we treat dying people with dignity and don’t put barriers up in front of them based on outdated arbitrary rules that, for many, are impossible to satisfy ... Ministers need to act now.”
MND Association’s head of policy and campaigns, Susie Rabin, said: “The publication of the review is well overdue and people are still struggling and suffering. It’s not good enough. We need the Government to publish the review immediately and make the changes to the system that are so desperately needed.”
Hendry said it was a disgrace that people were dying without vital support: “These families should not have to deal with these avoidable additional money worries at this exceptionally emotionally painful time.
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“The Tory government has made promise after promise to sort this out, and here we are, nearly two years later, and almost 2000 people have died without access to these payments. The Scottish Government has already committed to ending the notorious ‘six-month rule’ when it takes control of Personal Independent Payments.
“The UK Government could follow their lead and finally provide fairness and dignity for those facing a terminal diagnosis. Although, by their actions, I don’t think the Tories care even about that.”
A UK Government spokesperson said: “Terminal illness is devastating, and our priority is dealing with people’s claims quickly and compassionately which we’ve continued to do throughout the pandemic. We are grateful to charities and stakeholders who have worked with us, including Marie Curie, for their invaluable insight and are working across government on proposals including changing the six-month rule and raising awareness of the support available.”
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