Mr. John McKeon:

This will only take a moment. One of the issues is that generally speaking when people fall ill or they have a care requirement, and this is something we are considering, they submit a claim because the date from which they will be paid is the date of the claim.

Even while they are awaiting a report from a consultant or doctor, the advice that advocacy groups give them is to get the claim in first. For this exact reason in disability and carer's allowance schemes we also allow people to come back and ask for a review of the decision instead of going to the appeals office. It is dealt with in order that people are given that opportunity. That is what I think drives this behaviour.