Bedfordshire bowel cancer survivor forced to soil herself during three-hour PIP assessment

A woman was left with no option but to soil herself after being made to stay on the phone for THREE HOURS during an enhanced medical assessment for PIP.

The bowel cancer survivor with severe arthritis said she was made to stay on the phone as she went through the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) evaluation.

Mid Bedfordshire Alistair Strathern was so outraged by the case, he raised it in the House of Commons on Monday (March 18) and the Government’s minister of state for disabled people, health and work vowed she would look into it.

He said: “I was heartbroken to hear the experience of a constituent who had to go through an enhanced medical assessment for PIP.

"A bowel cancer survivor with severe arthritis, she was made to stay on a phone call for over three hours to be assessed. That meant that, due to her needs, she had to suffer the indignity of soiling herself just to complete the assessment.

"How on earth can that be OK? I would like to understand what steps are being taken to reduce the times of these assessments and to hear what can be done to ensure they are finally undertaken with basic human compassion.”

Mims Davies – the Government’s minister of state for disabled people, health and work – said: “I thank the honourable gentleman for raising a distressing case. The DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) is committed to assessing people as quickly as possible. I am happy to look into that particular situation to see why, in this case, the support the claimant was entitled to did not come promptly. Prioritising the reduction of processing times to maximise the number of assessments completed without affecting quality is key, but I am very happy to take that case away.”

She also said the length of time for an assessment is not included in the contract between the DWP and providers – but confirmed the average time it took people to complete a PIP assessment payment claim last year was 63 minutes.