The CambridgeshireLive website discusses whether the new NICE Guideline will change how the DWP will handle benefit claims.
Extracts
The DWP has said PIP, Universal Credit, and ESA assessments will not fundamentally change with the new NICE guidelines for ME/CFS, despite patients' hopes for a knock-on effect on sickness benefits claims.
Many people with ME welcomed the changes because they recognise the condition as a serious and complex medical disease, and they no longer recommend treatments said to be either ineffective or harmful.
“I’m hopeful there will also be an effect on claims for sickness benefits.
“In theory, DWP assessments allow for the fact that ME is a variable illness: a claimant may be able to wash, dress and feed themselves one day, but not the next.
“In practice, the process is made incredibly arduous and claimants succeed only if they can show they are incapacitated 100% of the time.
Chair of the Cambridge ME group, Mark Harper
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