UK: Disability benefits (ESA and PIP) - news and updates up to end of 2020

Possession of fire or a pitchfork with 2 miles of the houses of Parliament is probably punishable by indefinite imprisonment without charge and thrice hourly beatings by people in black uniforms with no numbers on - as is filming such people.

 

Here you go...

-------€
or
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Whatever happened to Damian Greens promise of excluding people with chronic illnesses............that he then clarified would be done on an individual case by case basis.......ie what they were doing in the first place and continue to do

 

I think charging the DWP for each no brainer case it loses is not such a good idea as it will cost money to the public purse.

Perhaps the individuals involved should be identified and have their incomes sanctioned to below the minimum income required to live on and should also be requested to attend regular appointments with income coaches who tell them to work more hours to make up for the losses they have incurred.

However one small difference is that any dependent children they have should not be punished by cutting the offenders income, even I am not mean enough to wish this punishment on someones children unlike the government of this country who happily push starving families to food banks and homelessness in the name of helping hard working families.

 

As all the "mistakes" seem to be made by people above 3 feet tall surely any rational person would agree that the DWP should immediately introduce a policy to ensure all of it's staff are no longer above 3 feet tall - I believe this single measure would drastically cut the "mistakes" down to a more manageable size.

If it works in chocolate factories.......

 

I won a PIP appeal myself this year. The DWP's case was complete rubbish and overturned almost every bit they looked at. Basically, as the citizens advice person says they completely disregard all evidence from other medical practitioners, even if they are much more senior than the assessor, and they give no reasons for doing so. It was a complete joke, but caused me financial difficulties and a load of stress that made me more ill. As bad as my case was I think it was typical of everyday cases the tribunal sees.

 

That is the logical conclusion, however the whole process was supposed to reduce costs and has ended up costing more than if they'd left it alone.

All that would happen is they would somehow figure out other ways of making it harder to claim or
other ways of reducing the benefits still further.

(They've already introduced means testing by the back door on ESA (ie you only get 1 years worth if you are put into the Work Related Activity group) and then it is means tested.
I think it is only a matter of time before all disability benefits are means tested.)

 

Sounds like a good idea, hit them where it hurts, the wallet!

 

Just remembered to go and have a look and can't find my entry - that's "a bit annoying" when it took a lot of my effort.
Nothing to do now but I will put it on my 'to do' list for this week, to contact the clerks for W&P committee and check out what happens to the responses that haven't got through moderation (didn't put anything contentious in......)

 

Quite so. The standard slippery bar-stewards' strategy of creating intermediaries so the buck can always be passed down the line.

What these people never seem to realise about plausible deniability, is that the denials cease to be plausible once the behaviour becomes an established pattern.

 

In principle I agree, but the problem in this case is that it would ultimately be the taxpayers' wallet.

 

I disagree. The point of fines like this is to make them think twice about making pointless stupid rejections in the first place. Its the fear of having to pay that encourage changes that cut down the number of appeals, which aren’t cheap in themselves and of course paid for by the taxpayer. It should have minimal effect on public finances but a huge effect on the people not having to appeal their case for no reason.

 

But the government won't do that, since ATOS is doing the job which the government paid them to do. If they are not violating their contract with the government, then they probably can't be punished for what's happening.

Pulling out of a contract is almost always a violation of that contract, and likely to have some nasty expenses involved. And there will always be another profit-driven company ready to step in and squeeze the government for every penny that it's willing to pay.

The government created this mess, and they're the only ones in a position to fix it. They don't want to, so the voters have to force them to do it or replace them with politicians who will.

 

ATOS did pull out of ESA (because all the bad press was affecting their share price amongst other things).............then the DWP hired Maximus............but then they got ATOS back to do PIP assessments(?) they must have come up with some changes/financial incentives(?)

Maximus tried where possible not to use their name (to try and protect the brand) but it hasn't worked and are going the same way:
"
Maximus miss fitness-to-work test targets despite spiralling costs
Company took over contract from Atos in March to carry out medical assessments of claimants for ESA. The bill for ESA and PIP assessments has now reached £579m" (from2016)

"
Maximus ‘admits’ using brutal and dangerous suicide questions"

https://www.disabledgo.com/blog/201...and-dangerous-suicide-questions/#.Wglcm7iLDCM

But then there is the introduction of Universal Credit which (at the moment) is replacing 6 benefits and includes Income-related ESA.

https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-.../Which-benefits-will-Universal-Credit-replace

 

If only we were privy to the departmental discussions and advice that Peter Lilley received prior to hiring John Locascio, and the advice which he subsequently gave.

 

I wonder if so much time has now passed that copies of things like that might start becoming more accessible under the FOIA? I can't believe that this has been going on for so long!

 

That is rather what I was wondering, but I am not in a position to do anything about it.