This in from Andrew Turner’s office, in their own words. Ed
The Island’s MP Andrew Turner is reminding Islanders that senior officials from Atos Healthcare and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will be speaking about Personal Independence Payments (PIP) at a public meeting at the Riverside Centre in Newport at 10.00am this Friday (25th April).
Replacing Disability Living Allowance
The new PIP benefit is being phased in to replace Disability Living Allowance, but figures unearthed by Mr Turner revealed that around 100 Islanders have been facing long waits for an initial assessment.
Following an appeal in local media for Islanders facing hardship whilst waiting for the assessment around 20 Islanders contacted the MPs office; all have either now been seen or have appointments for their assessment shortly, aside from one appointment that has to be rearranged.
Difficult to get figures
Mr Turner said:
“This is known to be a problem countrywide, but it was difficult to get figures about how many Islanders were waiting as they are not reported to the Government on a constituency basis.
“Since I found out about the extent of the problem and have been dealing with senior people within Atos, they have worked hard to get assessments done for those people reporting that they are suffering difficulties due to the delays.”
Atos working through backlog
He went on to say,
“These are not means-tested benefits so by no means all people will be hard up whilst waiting for the assessment and any payments due will be backdated to the date of the claim.
“I know Atos are also working towards dealing with the remainder of the backlog and putting better arrangements in place for the future; hopefully they will be able to give more information about that on Friday.
“I would like to thank the local media for their help in getting the message across. If there is anybody else who needs help do please contact my office on 530808 or [email protected].”
An Atos spokesperson said:
“We understand it is difficult for people experiencing delays in their PIP application and welcome the opportunity to help people to understand the PIP process and what it means to them.”
Image: Andrew Bain under CC BY 2.0
