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Week Beginning 22nd October 2001.
Contents
1. Social Security (Work-focused interview) Regulations
2. Implementation of Section 37 of the DDA in Scotland
3. Ophthalmic statistics
4. House of Lords Questions on DLA and winter fuel payments
5. Early Years Education and Childcare
1. Social Security (Work-focused interview) Regulations: During a debate on regulations resulting from the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 the Government were pressed on their proposals to make disabled people claiming Incapacity Benefit, Income Support or Invalid Care Allowance, attend ‘work focused interviews’ or lose benefit. The new rules, which apply only to new claimants, will apply in 50 areas but will be extended nation-wide from April 2002. People who are registered blind will be caught by the new requirements.
There was a bitter exchange over the Government's original announcement in the summer that Incapacity Benefit would in future we awarded only for fixed three year terms and the Prime Minister's erroneous claims about people languishing on IB for ten, fifteen or twenty years without checks. RNIB helped torpedo this proposal which we likened to an MOT requirement on disabled people.
Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on Work and Pensions attacked the Government's compulsory work interview policy as cruel and unnecessary. He cited evidence from recent pilot schemes which found that the interviews made no difference to people's attitudes to work or to whether they eventually got a job. As an alternative he said that the Government should be doing more to get disabled people into work by methods such as part time work in combination with benefit payment.
Webb then went on to quote from RNIB’s briefing, which pointed out that the Regulations would mean that blind people would have to get over yet another hurdle when making a claim for benefit. He quoted our view that the Government's claims of simply wanting to 'help' disabled people don't exactly tally with the compulsory, punitive nature of the scheme. Then he cited our concern that requiring people to attend an interview just after losing work because of the onset of blindness ' may not do them any good, but it could very well cause them additional stress and anxiety'. Webb sought assurances that the interviewer would have some knowledge and understanding of disability issues, as there is no guarantee of this in either the Act or the Regulations.
Lynne Jones MP pointed out that there is no fraud in Incapacity Benefit and urged the Government to evaluate the new scheme's effectiveness before rolling it out nation-wide.
The Secretary of State sought to defend the proposals saying that Government intended to do all it could to make sure that the one million disabled people who wish to work are given every opportunity to do so. He said that this group had been excluded and written off for too long. He then sought to re-assure Dennis Skinner and Frank Field, who had pointed out that unemployment in their areas had barely changed, and that what disabled people really need is a job to go into after being interviewed.
Darling said that he acknowledged these concerns, but that they should not prevent the Government from trying. He also challenged Angela Browning MP's assertion that a person may have their benefit cut if they do not turn up for an interview. He said this was not correct. He went on to say that the guidance given to staff was clear that they did have the discretionary power to waive an interview. Darling said that to waive the interview for a large number of people at the outset would ‘defeat the object of the exercise’.
RNIB will continue to press Government for an effective, non-punitive employment strategy for disabled people with action on job retention, greater publicity for Access to Work and a truly empowering personal adviser service available whenever a disabled person wants it. A copy of our briefing on the issue is available from Richard Holmes in the Public Policy Office.
2. Implementation of Section 37 of the DDA in Scotland: Responding to a question from Margaret Jamieson about consultation on the carriage of assistance animals by taxi drivers without extra charge, the Minister, Peter Peacock, said that The Executive is going out to consultation on the terms of The Taxi Drivers' Licences (Carrying of Guide and Hearing Dogs) (Scotland) Regulations. Copies will be available on the Scottish Executive website, and in audio tape, disc and large print.
3. Ophthalmic statistics: The Statistical Bulletin covering Ophthalmic Statistics for England 1990-91 to 2000-01 was published on Thursday 25th October. The main findings of the bulletin are:
· 9.6 million NHS sight tests were paid for by Health Authorities (HAs) in 2000-01, an increase of 2% on 1999-2000.
· Over 1/3 of these sight tests were performed on patients aged 60 or over (39%) and 1/4 on children.
· 3.6 million optical vouchers were reimbursed by HAs in 2000-01 to pay for spectacles, a decrease of 2% from 1999-2000. 72% of this total was for the simplest single vision lens prescription, attracting a voucher of type A.
· £292.5 million was spent in total on General Ophthalmic Services in 2000-01; this represents an increase in real terms of 2% on expenditure on 1999-2000.
· 7,824 ophthalmic practitioners (ophthalmic opticians and ophthalmic medical practitioners) were under contract to perform NHS sight tests at December 2000, an increase of 3% on December 1999.
· There were 6,467 ophthalmic establishments at 31 December 2000.
4. Winter fuel payments: The Government were asked a series of questions in the House of Lords on the issue of extending winter fuel payments to DLA claimants aged below sixty. The Minister, Baroness Hollis, answered calls from Lord Ashley, Lord Addington and Lord Rix, by saying that the Government had no plans to extend the provision.
5. Early Years Education and Childcare.
There is a huge amount of interest in early years education and childcare within Parliament. RNIB takes a keen interest in such debates because this is an area in which visually impaired children and their parents are hugely disadvantaged. In a House of Lords debate on the professional qualifications of managers of early years provision (22 October 2001), Baroness Walmsley, Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman, drew attention to the need for the training of nursery managers and other senior practitioners to pay closer attention to the needs of visually impaired children and others with special needs. She said:
“Recent changes to the SEN framework, the new approach to identification and assessment heralded by the forthcoming SEN code of practice and the advent of new duties on all early years settings not to discriminate against disabled children, make a review of this area all the more vital since they will mean new challenges for senior managers across early years. Awareness of these new and additional duties should permeate everything in which senior management is involved: planning, reviewing and developing policies, staff management and recruitment, and even the content of job descriptions, as well as the more specialised SENCO role.
The senior management teams of all early years settings will need training and guidance in the new duties, as will cluster SENCOs and registered childminders.
All managers should in any case be required to have some level of training in identifying and responding to the needs of children with SEN, including those with low incidence disabilities such as visual impairment and deafblindness and those with complex needs. I would not expect every manager or SENCO to have in-depth knowledge of such low incidence disabilities, but they do need to feel confident about where to turn for further help and information. Modules covering this area need to be prominent and not optional in the qualifications available to those wishing to climb the ladder.” (22 Oct 2001: Column 897)
The Bulletin Contacts: Richard Holmes, RNIB’s UK Parliamentary Officer, Tel: 020 7391 2380; email: richard.holmes@rnib.org.uk