Sally Light CEO Motor Neurone Disease Association

PEOPLE living with a terminal illness such as motor neurone disease (MND) should be able to claim benefits without having to complete long forms, attend assessments, meet with work coaches or wait weeks, sometimes months, for their benefits to arrive.

But the fast-track Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI) process requires a “reasonable expectation of death within six months”, something incredibly difficult to predict in people with MND.

Therefore people with MND are being unfairly excluded from this process, despite being terminally ill.

Government figures show that only 40 per cent of claims for disability benefits by people with MND are made through SRTI.

That means six in 10 are left to apply for benefits through the standard process, which is entirely inappropriate and insensitive to their situation.

Madeleine Moon MP has tabled a Private Members’ Bill which proposes to replace the six-month limit with a clinical judgment by an appropriate health professional. This would replicate the change agreed in Scotland last year.

We have now launched a petition, in partnership with Marie Curie, calling on the Government to change the law and ensure that everyone coping with a terminal illness can access the support they need as quickly as possible.