Lift unfair benefits barrier for the terminally ill
SIR – As clinicians who work closely with people living with motor neurone disease, we call on the Government to reform the fast-track benefits application process for terminally ill claimants, known as the Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI) process.
Only about 40 per cent of people with motor neurone disease who claim disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment and Employment and Support Allowance apply through the SRTI route. This leaves the majority of claimants to navigate the standard application process, which takes several months to complete. For people with a degenerative terminal condition such as motor neurone disease, 50 per cent of whom will die within two years of their diagnosis, this process is completely inappropriate.
The primary reason for the low take-up of SRTI lies in the government definition of terminal illness, which requires a “reasonable expectation” that SRTI claimants will die within six months of making their claim. This requirement is fundamentally flawed and does not reflect the reality of living with a terminal condition.
In the case of motor neurone disease, it is impossible to predict with certainty how long a person will live. As a result, far too many people living with terminal, degenerative and highly disabling conditions are unjustly excluded from the SRTI route.
We urge the Government to emulate Scotland, where the definition of terminal illness has been changed to remove the six-month requirement in favour of allowing health professionals to use their clinical judgment to determine whether a person is terminally ill. This change would enable doctors and specialist nurses to support SRTI applications for people with motor neurone disease and other terminal conditions without feeling restricted from doing so by an unworkable regulatory stipulation. Chris Mcdermott
Consultant Neurologist Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Professor Ammar Al-chalabi
Consultant Neurologist, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Professor Martin Turner
Consultant Neurologist Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and 30 others; see telegraph.co.uk