Mr. John Beggs:

The point was made that welfare reform is of critical importance to victims and survivors. For the last five years since we heard that welfare reform is coming, the commission and some of our forum members have lobbied very hard, initially with Lord Freud, to try to reduce the impact on victims and survivors. We are aware that over the past year or so and the next year or so, 125,000 reassessments of the move from disability living allowance, DLA to the personal independence payment, PIP, have taken place and will take place. We are aware that one third of the population are victims and survivors so a high proportion of people who are victims and survivors who are going through those reassessments with physical injuries, mental health injuries and problems. The commission is trying to minimise the impact on those people. We welcome the Evason report, which put in place some mitigation measures to acknowledge the impact of the legacy and to protect victim and survivors. We are now starting to hear evidence on the ground of individual case studies where victims and survivors are not content with the process or the outcome of the DLA to PIP reassessments. Currently there is a call for evidence from the Department for Communities to make evidence to that and to lobby on behalf of victims and survivors. The commission is currently doing this and we are working with a lot of groups that are funded especially to work with victims and survivors to reduce that welfare impact. We are gathering the evidence at the moment and we hope to submit that in the next couple of months. It is, however, a big issue of critical importance for us.