Disabilty benefits interviews ‘scrapped’

Thousands of people could avoid controversial faceto-face disability benefits assessments in the new Scottish social security system, the Greens have claimed.

The party said changes they made to legislation setting up the devolved Scottish welfare benefits system scraps these tests, unless there is no other means to obtain the information.

A Scottish Greens’ Freedom of Information request made to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) shows face-to-face assessments have soared since the introduction of the personal independence payment (PIP).

The party’s social security spokeswoman Alison Johnstone said these appraisals are “cruel, humiliating and, in many cases, entirely unnecessary”.

Under the disability living allowance (DLA) system, 6 per cent of applications required the applicant to undergo a medical assessment while for PIP applications 80 per cent required a face-to-face assessment.

Since PIP began in 2013, 372,000Scotshaveapplied, which the Greens said suggests around 300,000 have had an in-person assessment.