Vulnerable people are suffering as a direct result of Government welfare reforms, MPs have been told.
Wrexham MP Ian Lucas was among a number of Welsh MPs who used a Parliamentary debate this week to highlight concerns about the Personal Independence Payment – designed to help people with disabilities or long-term ill health. The system has been criticised for failing those it is designed to help with long backlogs in cases being dealt with.
Mr Lucas has had a large number of Wrexham constituents with serious illnesses raise concerns with him about their cases.
He told Westminster Hall: “The personal independence payment system was introduced by this Government—by the Conservatives and their Liberal Democrat allies—and the system has failed. Individuals come to our constituency offices in great personal distress. They are the type of individuals whom we want to see supported by our tax system, and I know that that feeling goes across the House. The reason that we pay our taxes is to support vulnerable people.
“The Government chose to change the system and they must take responsibility for that choice. They chose the company that would deliver the system, and they must take responsibility for that choice. The system does not work.
“We, as Members of Parliament, are representing constituents and making telephone calls to the Department for Work and Pensions and to Capita, and dealing with cases to give people their entitlement. It is not something that they do not deserve—it is their entitlement. We want a system, and they deserve a system, that is satisfactory and that works.”
