PERSONAL INDEPENDENT PAYMENT ASSESSMENT CRITERIA FOR BLIND AND PARTIALLY SIGHTED PEOPLE

That this House is concerned over the detrimental impact changes to disability living allowance will have on blind people owing to the ill-thought through assessment criteria for personal independence payments (PIP); notes that the charities supporting blind people have raised numerous concerns, including that the new assessment process focuses on mobility or cognition and does not sufficiently take into account the ways in which being blind or partially sighted can affect everyday life; is worried that the changes ignore the fact that blindness is a lifelong condition to which some adaption may occur, but which comes with significant extra costs; and implores the Government to engage with blindness charities and experts to make sure PIP assessments will adequately assess the needs of blind people.