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Ms Rosie Winterton (Doncaster, Central): Does my hon. Friend agree that the benefits that would be derived from making the link go all the way to St. Pancras would greatly help to regenerate areas such as South Yorkshire, which have suffered incredible manufacturing and industrial decline over the past few years?
Ms Jackson: I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. The issue of regeneration inherent in the building of the line has been mentioned by all hon. Members this morning.
The excitement in the media has prompted an interesting and widespread public debate about the rail link. That reminds us just how many parties have an interest in the CTRL--partly because, as many hon. Members pointed out this morning, it is not simply a transport project. The key reason for routing it via the Thames gateway--also known as the east Thames corridor--was that stations along it could act as focal points for regeneration. The theme of regeneration has run through all the speeches this morning. In fact, the £1.8 billion of public subsidy promised in the development agreement with LCR was justified in part by the regeneration benefits.
Concern has been expressed that regeneration may be forgotten in decisions on the rail link. I assure hon. Members that it will not. In the last few weeks, the problems of the rail link have elicited views from those interested in each of the stations, and also from those concerned with access to the regions--such as my hon. Friends the Members for Poplar and Canning Town, for Gillingham (Mr. Clark) and for East Ham (Mr. Timms), and the hon. Member for Ashford (Mr. Green).
Later this month, I shall be chairing a meeting of all local authorities affected in order to discuss their concerns. They will include Kent county council, which I trust will reassure the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard). I strongly agree with the view expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich, East (Mr. Snape) about that intervention by a member of the Cabinet when the agreement was signed by the last Government.
I am aware that there is considerable concern that delays to the CTRL may jeopardise regeneration in London and Kent. As hon. Members will know, the CTRL has been seen as the vehicle for a number of regeneration initiatives, all of which have been mentioned this morning. Ebbsfleet station is the main node for regeneration of the eastern part of the Thames gateway. Substantial development is already taking place, but the rail link station is regarded as key to the redevelopment of some 2,200 acres of land, which has nearly all been used previously.
Stratford is the main node at the other end of the Thames gateway. Here the concept is of development on derelict or under-used land that can be of sufficient scale to act as a catalyst for other redevelopment on smaller
sites in the general area. Stratford is also complementary to regional interests because it is proposed that trains can call there before running through to the west coast main line, without incurring the time penalty of having to stop at St. Pancras and reverse out again.
There is also the regeneration created by the rail link and Thameslink 2000 at St. Pancras. Seventy acres are available for redevelopment in one of the last potential areas on the fringes of central London.
As I am rapidly running out of time, may I say that I shall write to hon. Members on the issues to which they drew my attention. The hon. Member for Ashford and my hon. Friends the Members for Barking (Ms Hodge), for Thurrock (Mr. Mackinlay), for Gillingham and for Chatham and Aylesford (Mr. Shaw) have mentioned blight issues. The hon. Member for Ashford also mentioned freight and commercial confidentiality.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst):
Order. We must now move on to the debate on the benefit integrity project.
Mrs. Margaret Ewing (Moray):
Many hon. Members have approached me to say that they want to participate in the debate so, despite the fact that I have briefings from organisations and individuals with which I could detain the House all day, I shall try to condense my remarks. This is a matter that interests all of us as constituency Members of Parliament and which we would wish to debate constructively.
The benefit integrity project was established after a survey of 1,135 people claiming disability living allowance, the report of which was published in January 1997. Forty interviewers carried out about 30 home visits each of adult or child recipients of disability living allowance. That project was undertaken when people were giving voice to fears about social security fraud. I, too, detected an undercurrent of feeling on the subject. However, snapshot assessments were made of individuals and little expertise was involved in the adjudication.
There was no follow-up of the 1.5 per cent. of cases that were designated confirmed fraud in the 1997 report. No prosecutions were made and no benefits were stopped. That suggested that people who were receiving disability living allowance were doing so because of their needs and that they were not doing so fraudulently, as the then Government feared.
Indeed, on 13 January 1998, when Baroness Hollis of Heigham, the Under-Secretary of State for Social Security, first reported on the BIP findings, she said in another place:
I therefore believe that at this stage we should be considering not the fraud issue, but the needs issue--the needs of the people involved.
More than 40,000 people have since been interviewed. According to a parliamentary reply that I have received, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency estimates that, in the financial year 1997-98, savings of £15.8 million may be made. Subsequently, 311 appeals have been received; as yet there are no figures on success rates.
As part of the benefit integrity project, another 400,000 people are to be interviewed in the next four years. My deepest concern is that fear and distrust have emerged in the community as a result of the project. Individual cases have been highlighted on television and in newspapers. I shall not rehearse all those cases, but every case that is highlighted sends a tremor of fear through other individuals who may be in similar circumstances and there is genuine anxiety that the project is Treasury led, not needs led.
Mr. Simon Burns (West Chelmsford):
Yes.
Mrs. Ewing:
Although I hear Conservative Members saying yes, I remind them that the Conservative Government established the benefit integrity project.
All this is set against the background of an overall review of the social security system, but people who are in receipt of disability living allowance feel that they have now been singled out for a specific review.
I remind the House that many other important benefits--such as housing benefit and income support--hinge on disability living allowance. If at any time DLA is discontinued, those other benefits are discontinued and although, after a review or an appeal, the disability living allowance may be backdated, those other items of support to families are not backdated, so a great deal of distress results.
There can be a sudden drop in household income--and we must all budget according to our household income. This is a very difficult situation for many disabled people to be in. The review and appeal procedures are long and complex. Every hon. Member must have been involved in many such cases. We hope that our intervention will speed things up for the person involved, but I often wonder about the people who do not approach their Member of Parliament.
Other people are worried that, for them, reassessment may mean a return to residential care. We have all worked hard to try to ensure that care in the community works. Many people who, after being institutionalised for years, have emerged and rely on care in the community, are being reassessed. They fear that they may have to return to permanent residential care.
My excellent local citizens advice bureau in Moray experienced a threefold increase in inquiries about disability between 1996-97 and 1997-98. I am sure that that increase is mirrored elsewhere. It is a sign of the anxiety that exists. I worry about what is happening in places where there are no welfare rights workers, citizens advice bureaux, or people to whom people can turn.
The basic aim of disability living allowance was to give dignity and decency to people who suffer from disability, which comes in many different forms. I want, in a constructive speech, to make some proposals to the Government. First, I want to comment on the important issue of the assessment mechanisms.
In reply to a parliamentary question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for North Tayside (Mr. Swinney), the Secretary of State for Social Security said of decisions resulting in reduction or removal of entitlement to DLA:
Having had only about 15 minutes to look through the letter, I ask the Under-Secretary of State for Social Security, the hon. Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr. Denham), who is to reply to the debate, to ensure that we have a detailed expansion of that letter. I also ask him to confirm that there will definitely be guarantees for those who want to ensure that medical evidence is submitted when decisions are taken that may result in reduction or removal of entitlement, because many of the
issues pertaining to DLA are cocooned by the issue of medical entitlement. Assessment seems to take little account of day-to-day changes in the condition of many disabled people. In response to a letter from my hon. Friend the Member for North Tayside, Peter Mathison of the Benefits Agency stated:
Claimants do not always receive clear advice on issues pertaining to the project, such as the information that they may have advisers present. They may be advised that someone may be present but a claimant could take along a next door neighbour, a family member or a friend and not necessarily someone with the knowledge to advise them on how to respond to questions and state exactly what is being sought. It is not made clear that people can have access to previous claim forms against which they can compare their present circumstances to see whether there has been any change. In most cases, there is a deterioration. People also have a right to delay an interview until a more suitable time.
Information should be clearer for people who are being reassessed, whether it is provided in forms or by agency representatives who visit them. There are many public service advertisements on television; perhaps the Government could examine the clarity of the advertising on this subject. The training for visiting officers could be improved. We should aim for best standards and best training. Some people receive only half a day's training while others are trained for up to four days. In a letter to me, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency stated that there was no requirement for visiting officers to have medical knowledge.
Adjudication officers must look beyond the bald statements that sometimes appear on forms and they should always err on the side of the claimant rather than on the side of reducing benefits. It has been suggested that a disability benefits task force could bring together the expertise of voluntary groups. Over the past two days, I have met representatives from no fewer than nine such groups. Their expertise, with that of welfare advisers, could be brought to the heart of the Department of Social Security and to the heart of government. The people in those voluntary groups deal with people's day-to-day problems.
Perhaps the Minister can advise me on exemptions. Many organisations have told me that there is evidence that people who should be exempt from review have been reviewed. I have a list of the exemptions. What criteria can be established to ensure that people on the exempt list are not subjected to further review? Is there a possibility of extending the exempt list? I have received from the Cystic Fibrosis Research Trust a request for its clients to be considered for exemption. I need not go into detail, but all hon. Members will appreciate that people with cystic fibrosis fluctuate between well-being and illness. That is also the pattern of many other illnesses, and I hope that that can be considered. I should like to know how the criteria for exemptions are established and how they can be expanded.
11 am
"I am happy to confirm that the benefit integrity project has revealed no cases of confirmed fraud."--[Official Report, House of Lords, 13 January 1998; Vol. 584, c. 936.]
That finding was based on the receipt of about 30,000 replies from disabled people.
"there will always be additional evidence to support the decision"--[Official Report, 9 February 1998; Vol. 305, c. 76.]
Interestingly, I found in my mail today a letter, dated 2 March, from the Secretary of State, in which some of these issues are raised. Immodestly, I should like to think that the prospect of the debate may have stimulated the writing of that letter, but I hope that this important letter has been circulated, not only to all hon. Members, but to representatives of voluntary organisations who are deeply involved in this crisis.
"The additional information may be factual medical evidence from a GP, hospital or other health care professional, a full medical examination by a qualified medical practitioner or information from a carer. The most appropriate source of additional evidence will be used in light of the individual circumstances of the case."
That does not guarantee a full medical assessment, which is what I seek.
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