Published on Liberal Democrat Voice By Caron Lindsay | Sun 26th July 2015 – 8:55 am

I’ve heard quite a few people say that MPs should concentrate on making laws and not act as “glorified social workers.” I totally disagree with that approach.

I’ve also heard politicians, ministers, even Liberal Democrat ones, confidently tell meetings that it’s fine, such and such a problem is fixed and the service in question is now working well when any service user will tell you that this is far from the truth.

This is why it’s so important for MPs to understand what problems people are facing and to take action to fix them.

One example of this comes from Orkney and Shetland. We all know that claiming benefits is s bit of a nightmare, particularly if you are required to have a Work Capability Assessment. If you live in a remote area, and they don’t come much more remote than those two islands, you could find yourself waiting for a very long time for that assessment, leaving you temporarily out of pocket.

Island residents took their concerns to local Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael who flew to Aberdeen last week to meet contractors Maximus (who replaced ATOS). The Shetland News reports:
“Earlier this week Carmichael met with Maximus management in Aberdeen to discus the slow progress of assessments in Shetland and Orkney. He urged them to “act swiftly” to clear the backlog.

He said the historic problems dated back to when ATOS was the contractor, but since Maximus took over “we have not seen the hoped for improvements”.

“One area where there has been an improvement, however, has been their willingness to engage with people like myself,” Carmichael said.

“I was pleased, therefore, to meet with managers in Aberdeen this week to get to the root of the problems that are causing the delays.”

Carmichael said he felt few of those problems seemed “particularly difficult to solve” and “ought to be capable of restoration”.

“I have agreed to work with them to identify local solutions to the problems they have found and it is possible that we could see dramatic improvements in a short timescale and a clearing of the backlog by the end of the year.”

He added: “Obviously it remains to be seen what progress can be made but I was impressed by the willingness to listen and to act.”
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I saw Alistair in London last week when I was down for the Federal Executive and, as he says in the article, the problems are relatively simple to sort and with his help should be sorted very quickly. The way in which bureaucracy creates massive problems out of simple circumstances is extremely frustrating and has a massive impact on people’s lives. This is why you need practically minded MPs to help resolve these difficulties. It’s what people go into politics for – to make lives better.

The other reason casework is so important is that the institutions which govern us are often not very good at admitting when they’ve got stuff wrong and people need someone to cut through that nonsense for them and sort out wrong decisions and injustices. Sometimes it takes some effort to do it but it’s always worth it to see an injustice rectified.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron’s Musings