LONG waits for disabled people applying for vital benefits will be over by Christmas, a Government minister has pledged.

Mark Harper vowed that action was being taken to ease the misery facing claimants of the new personal independence payment (PIP), being piloted in the North-East.

But the minister for disabled people said it would still take 16 weeks to process applications – down from more than six months, at present.

And he suggested claimants could get by while waiting for their PIP to come through, because there were “other benefits available”.

Mr Harper told MPs: “I agree that the wait is too long. No one should be waiting longer than 26 weeks by the autumn and 16 weeks by the end of the year - and we will make sure that that happens.

“As regards hardship, PIP is not an income-replacement benefit for those out of work. It is paid in work and out of work.

“There are other benefits available such as employment and support allowance, which can help those people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own.”

The introduction of PIP – replacing disability living allowance (DLA) – is widely viewed as having been botched, plunging many people into poverty.

In June, a report by a Commons committee warned that:

* Claimants are turning to food banks and charities after waiting more than six months for a decision

* One North-East woman in chronic pain waited eight months for an assessment – only to be told she must apply again, after her forms were lost.

* A huge backlog of claims had built up by October last year, when the decision was taken to extend trials in parts of the North-East.

Mike Penning, Mr Harper’s predecessor, admitted the department for work and pensions (DWP) had blundered by ordering face-to-face assessments for almost all claimants.

As a result, a huge backlog of claims built up – amid allegations that a private contractor, Atos, made untrue claims of a network of available centres.

The controversy was raised again in the House of Commons this week, when Mr Harper insisted “significant strides” had already been made.

Terminally ill people had been waiting 28 days for a decision on average – but those waits were now down to just “a matter of days”.

In future, face-to-face assessments would no longer be required “where there is clear medical evidence for the impact of someone’s disability”.

PIP came in for new claimants across the North-East last year and, from February, for claimants “reporting a change in condition” in Darlington, York and Harrogate.

By 2018, around 210,000 disabled people in the North-East and North Yorkshire will all be re-tested and either moved onto PIP, or denied payments.

A spokesman for Atos Healthcare said: "The Department made clear that they were not misinformed during the tender process, that at the point of go live they knew our capacity, our partners and the number of centres we would be using.

"It is true that both ourselves and the DWP have experienced delays in the PIP system. Put simply this is because this is a new benefit and the assessment takes much longer than was originally anticipated. We are taking immediate action to reduce delays in our part of the process.”