PEOPLE with long-term health conditions are being subjected to fit-for-work benefits assessments even though they have no hope of a recovery, MSPs have been told.

One woman with a ­polio- related illness and ­another with multiple sclerosis told the ­Scottish Parliament Welfare Reform Committee how they had to undergo repeat assessments to decide if they should still be eligible to receive benefits.

Rosena McKeown has Post Polio Syndrome, which eventually forced her to give up her job at Glasgow City Council, but was later assessed as having back pain and declared fit to work. The decision was overturned at a tribunal.

Ms McKeown said her ­experience had left her fearing the next assessment.

She said: "My condition has deteriorated markedly since. I now have to use a walking stick as the muscles in my right thigh have wasted so much my balance is impaired.

"I expect to be re-assessed in 2015. I will also be migrated to Personal Independence ­Payment at this time, I suspect, as I have an indefinite award for Disability Living Allowance.

"With all the changes taking place I cannot be certain I will be awarded the enhanced rate that would enable me to keep my Mobility car, thus losing my independence."

Michael McMahon, committee convener, said he would be asking the Department For Work And Pensions to consider a similar procedure used for people with cancer, who are not reassessed.

One woman told how she ­received a six-page letter from Work And Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith justifying the reassessment every two years, stating there were ­advances in treatments all the time and the benefits system had to keep pace.

SNP MSP Annabelle Ewing said Mr Duncan Smith had ­recently compared the welfare reforms to the ending of slavery and said the changes were setting people free.

Audrey Barnett, who has MS, said: "I would love to be cured and freed from my health, but Iain Duncan Smith can't set me free."

Mr McMahon said the ­committee pass on the experiences and fears for the future.

He said: "I suggest we pull together the evidence and asked questions of Iain Duncan Smith. ATOS (which carries out assessments) told us it had raised concerns that the Government accepted about cancer patients and there being no way to account for it in the assessments.

"I think it is important to raise these issues and ask why people with degenerative conditions are being re-assessed when there is no means of improvement."

stewart.paterson@eveningtimes.co.uk