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Benefits Simplification

Or 03 numbers, as the hon. Gentleman says. It is a consequence of a point that I made earlier that these systems appear to be set up in the interests of the system and not in the interests of the claimant. It is crucial in the development and simplification of the benefits system that the claimant's interests come first. This could be a quick win for the Minister, because the sort of instruction that was issued to GPs could equally be issued across the DWP, and I am sure that new phone systems could be put in place so that people calling the social fund helpline before Christmas do not have to pay huge sums. I hope that she will explain what she will do to make that happen. This situation is a consequence of what my hon. Friend the Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy) and I have described as the faceless state. The DWP is at the forefront of an increasingly faceless and bureaucratic system, where the system's interests are put far ahead of the claimant's. I was asked what can be done to promote the simplification of the benefits system. The first and crucial point, which the Committee makes in its report, is the need for drive and vision at a high level behind this process. The report is striking, and the language that it uses is strong for a Select Committee report. I did not mean to scare the hon. Member for Bradford, North, who is its Chair, but it came across powerfully to me that the Committee's analysis was that there is not a great deal of drive or vision at a high level behind the benefits simplification process. Even in the hon. Gentleman's attempt at the close of his remarks to be kind to the Government in this area, he damned them with faint praise. He mentioned one or two small-scale improvements, but the report makes it clear that that drive at the high level does not exist, that the benefits simplification unit is simply not able, on its own, to deliver and develop this agenda, and that without the high-level commitment this agenda will not progress as it should. That is particularly the case in respect of another point on which I strongly echo the Committee; there is a need for a joined-up approach between the DWP and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, and between the benefits system and the tax credits system. The tax credits system is part of the benefits system and should be seen as such, and there needs to be a much more joined-up approach. We have talked about the idea that the DWP should be responsible for tax credits as well. The programmes are trying to do the same thing. The Chairman frowns; perhaps he thinks that the DWP is not up to it. It certainly seems clear from its performance that HMRC is not up to it, which prompts the question of who would be up to it under this Government. That question may be outwith the scope of this debate. One area that could provide that joined-upness is the Social Security Advisory Committee. I am deeply disappointed that the Treasury is still unwilling to give it the same remit on tax credits as it has on the benefits system. The ““tell us once”” initiative and the shared application process is another area where simplification could proceed. Today's announcement for pensioners was an example of what can—and should more often—be done. Another area that causes people to suffer is benefit assessments. A constituent of mine was being assessed for incapacity benefit, industrial injuries disablement benefit and disability living allowance. Those three medical assessments took place in the same centre with the same doctor, each separated by a week. Over a three-week period, that person had to go back and forwards three times. I went to the centre to ask for an explanation, and I was told that the problem was that the benefits were handled in different areas. The systems did not talk to each other and they could approach the claimant only once they received the message that he needed an assessment. The idea that someone should have three separate assessments for three separate benefits in the same place three weeks in a row is absurd. In relation to disability benefits at least, the Government should consider developing a core assessment, so that it can be shared between the different systems to try to make the process easier. The Committee rightly refers to the idea of a single working-age benefit and sets out a model for that in annex A of the report. The Institute for Public Policy Research has also made recommendations along those lines and my party adopted it as a policy objective at our recent conference. David Freud's important report refers to it as a key aspiration. The Chairman of the Committee is right to highlight the complexity of making a change on that scale and the associated difficulties, but the idea has important advantages in principle and in practice. There would be a clearer difference between a benefit designed to replace lost income and those benefits that are there to meet the extra costs that people may have, for example, through disability. Eligibility for those extra cost benefits would not depend on whether someone was out of work in the way that incapacity benefit does, or employment and support allowance will.