New benefit system fails disabled

The Post Office payment system is attracting criticism

By Jennifer Clarke BBC Radio 4's Money Box

It is six weeks since the government launched its ambitious plans to encourage 13 million benefit claimants to move over to "direct payment".

Under the new system order books and giros are being phased out and pensions and other benefits are paid directly into a bank account, saving the government money and tackling fraud.

The government has always insisted that people will still be able to get their money in cash from Post Offices by using a Post Office Card Account and pin.

There is no way my mother would even understand what the card was for

Pat, whose mother has Alzheimers

But in practice it is proving impossible for some people to do so.

The Post Office had already admitted that its 38,000 PIN keypads will have to be adapted because many people with some visual and physical disabilities cannot use them.

But there are growing concerns that many other vulnerable people who cannot use pin codes will also find the new system impossible to navigate.

Alzheimers

Money Box listener Pat from Hertfordshire contacted the programme on behalf of her mother, who has dementia.

Although she does get some care support, she still lives a fairly independent life.

Collecting her own pension herself has been an important part of her routine but Pat is worried that the new system will not let her do it.

You will take away her independence in the way she lives her life, and that frightens me

Money Box listener Pat

"If you have a card with a pin number there is no way my mother would even understand what the card was for because she has never used a cash card in her life.

"And there is no way that she would remember a pin number. She will not be able to make the change."

Pat fears that her mother will be badly affected if she can no longer manage her own pension.

"You will take away her independence and if you take away her independence in that you will take away her independence in the way she lives her life, and that frightens me".

She is angry that the needs of people like her mother with dementia do not seem to have been taken into account.

"I know that people do not understand about dementia but somebody should have been thinking about that and talking about that, and perhaps finding a way of making exceptions for people like this before they launched it on us."

The Alzheimers Society has written to the government to express its concerns about the new system.

But it is not just about Alzheimers.

Organisations representing people with other neurological conditions like autism have told Money Box they are also very unhappy with the pin system.

Third party collection

It has now emerged that those who rely on a third party to collect their pension for them will also be frustrated by the new rules.

At the moment it is very easy to nominate someone to collect your benefit for you by simply countersigning the relevant week's page in your order book.

Under the new system the person has to have a regular carer and that simply is not the case with most pensioners

Gretel Jones, Age Concern

But under the new system the only way for someone to collect cash from the Post Office on behalf of someone else is for that person to apply for a permanent extra card and pin on the account.

The problem is many elderly people do not have one dedicated carer. Gretel Jones is Consumer Affairs Policy Officer at Age Concern.

"The present system alllows an individual who is trusted by the pensioner to collect it.

"They could nominate their daughter to go and get it one week, or their neighbour.

"Under the new system the person has to have a regular carer and that simply is not the case with most pensioners.

"So how are they going to get their money?"

At the moment many Local Authorities and local Age Concern offices offer a third party collection service, but the new rules may make this too complicated to continue.

The charity is also concerned about the safety implications of somebody having full and permanent access to another person's account.

"Under the old system the most somebody could lose, heaven forbid, is their weekly pension, but under the new system if you give them access to a bank account the pensioner could lose more."

Age Concern is urging people who rely on third party collection not to switch to the new system until alternative arrangements are put in place.

RNIB advice

The Royal National Institute for the Blind is advising blind and partially sighted people to wait until their needs have been met too.

Two years ago the RNIB seconded a member of staff to work permanently with the Post Office to come up with a keypad which blind and partially sighted people could use.

It says as far back as 2001, the Post Office's own expert had discovered 11 problems with the screen and the keypad, but that the new scheme was launched regardless.

They have been quite surprised by the reaction... It is a shambles

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Oliver Heald

The RNIB is angry that neither the Post Office nor the government has put workable alternatives in place, as spokesman Bill Alker explains.

"The government has stated that there will be an exceptions scheme.

"But we genuinely do not know anything about it. It appears that people with disabilities may have to try to access the present system and work with the difficulties, which is wholly unacceptable."

Conservative Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Oliver Heald told Money Box that the introduction of the scheme has been "a shambles", and has criticised the government's lack of preparation.

"They thought it will be simpler if everybody has direct payment and they have been quite surprised by the reaction.

"I have been asking about these vulnerable people and the answer comes back: oh well, we will introduce a system for them when it is required.

"Well of course it is required now. So where is it? It is a shambles."

Cross party political pressure is building too. More than 360 MPs have signed an Early Day Motion calling for simplification of the Post Office Card Account.

And next week the influential Trade and Industry Select Committee will start its own investigation into the introduction of the new system.

BBC Radio 4's Money Box will be broadcast on Saturday, 17 May, 2003 at 1204 BST.