Benefit Integrity Project (Hansard, 28 January 1999)

§ Mr. Darling

The Benefit Integrity Project will end on 31 March 1999, to be replaced by a new and fairer system. No new cases will be selected for the project after this date. Cases where action has already started will continue to be processed through the remaining stages of adjudication, including review and appeal, in the normal way.

We are determined to ensure that people are receiving the correct amount of benefit. However, there is currently no automatic review mechanism within Disability Living Allowance (DLA). Therefore, from April a new system of periodic review will be introduced. It will incorporate the lessons already learned and will be continually evaluated and refined as it develops. Staff involved in the new processes will receive full training before commencing this new work.

Initially, the new system will exclude DLA recipients whose cases were examined by the Benefit Integrity Project. People with a fixed period award due to end within the next three years will also be excluded. The review process will involve gathering information by postal inquiry and home visits; these methods of approach will be applied across a range of people on all rates and components of DLA contacted to help identify the best means of approach in individual cases. The process will be evaluated after six months of operation and the findings used to continue to improve the process to make it more sensitive to the circumstances of the individual contacted. In addition, we will be testing new ways of gathering evidence in connection with DLA claims. This, plus information from the new review activity, will be used to help shape an active modern service for the future.

We are already talking to disability groups about ways to ensure the new system is sensitive to people's circumstances, and that it is both fair and effective.