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

Eventually found my entry at November 08, 2017 at 04:38 PM, not brilliant but did make improvements with my 'written' one. Would love to be able to hold a thought and write it coherently.

Very good report written by a former DWP employee - worth a read. (page 33 at the moment)
Simon Gardner says:
November 08, 2017 at 08:00 PM

http://www.parliament.uk/business/c...ttee/pip-esa-assessments-forum-17-19/?page=32
 
An inquiry into the government’s flawed disability benefit assessment regime has produced more online evidence from the public than any other investigation ever held by a House of Commons select committee.

More than 2,800 submissions had been made to the work and pensions committee through its online forum by the time the deadline passed, compared to the usual 50 to 100 posts.

The committee has also received a further 450 pieces of written evidence, compared to the usual 100 or so it might usually expect.
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https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/response-to-benefit-assessment-inquiry-breaks-commons-records/
 
It's M.E. Linda said:
Eventually found my entry at November 08, 2017 at 04:38 PM, not brilliant but did make improvements with my 'written' one. Would love to be able to hold a thought and write it coherently.

Very good report written by a former DWP employee - worth a read. (page 33 at the moment)
Simon Gardner says:
November 08, 2017 at 08:00 PM

http://www.parliament.uk/business/c...ttee/pip-esa-assessments-forum-17-19/?page=32
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Here's the comment. :)

Simon Gardner says:
November 08, 2017 at 08:00 PM
Subject: ESA Assessment
I underwent an ESA assessment in late 2016 after being employed by the Department for Work and Pensions for seven years.

I was dismissed from the DWP due to ill health and their occupational health provider (Atos Healthcare) finding me medically unfit for a return to employment.

Following my dismissal from employment with the DWP I claimed ESA. The length of time between my initial claim for ESA and the medical assessment was in the region of ten months. This was a period of great anxiety because I was aware of the negative press coverage surrounding ESA assessments and I did not know what to expect during the assessment.

When the assessment was eventually carried out I found the doctor to ask deliberately leading questions.

The medical report that was created by Atos had many factual errors and recommended that I was 100% fit for work - despite being dismissed from employment with the DWP ten months previously.

As a result of the medical assessment I was found 'fit for work' by the DWP decision maker and advised to attend my local JobCentre to claim Job Seekers Allowance immediately.

I believed that the DWP had made the wrong decision because evidence provided by my GP and hospital consultants was not given due credence compared to the report generated by Atos. The decision maker at the DWP seemed unable to use personal judgement or common sense when I explained my situation to them – they appeared to have their hands tied because the content of the Atos report was taken to be infallible.

I also found that the DWP decision maker in their decision letter made inappropriate assumptions about my medical condition to justify their decision, for example suggesting that I could use a wheelchair to improve my mobility and therefore my prospects of finding employment.

In my experience the medical assessment only took into account my condition on the day of the assessment – there was no consideration of how my condition varied throughout the course of a typical week.

I found the mandatory reconsideration process that followed to be totally ineffective due to the DWP’s intransigence. It appeared that no matter what evidence I provided to the contrary, I was fit for work in their eyes.

Fourteen months after my initial claim I was found incapable of work and placed in the support group for a minimum of two years by an independent tribunal.

My experience of claiming ESA is that the entire process, as it stands, is not fit for purpose and needs to be overhauled.

I hold a firm belief that had the DWP taken the evidence provided by my GP and hospital consultants seriously the correct decision could have been made much sooner, and at a much reduced cost to the taxpayer.
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It's M.E. Linda said:
@Luther Blissett, I've had a look at the 'Help and how to' page but can't see how to do your little spoiler box with the comment inside . Only very highly trained and brain alert peoples allowed?!?!?!
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  • In between the film strip and the floppy disk icons in the comment box.
  • If you hover over it it says 'insert...'
  • Choose spoiler
  • choose a title for your spoiler
  • Code: 
    [SPOILER="example"][/SPOILER]
    will appear
  • put what you want to be hidden between the brackets so it looks like
  • Code: 
    [SPOILER="example"]blah blah blah[/SPOILER]
  • the part between the brackets will be hidden unless the button is pressed
 
ArtStu said:
The payment rates are out of date now on the citizen advice site. I guess you can go from support to work related at any point, and even though you may have been ill for years, still be classed as a new claimant and awarded the new measly rate of just £73.10 ? :arghh: :mad:

https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/what-youll-get
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Just spotted this, am I correct in saying that if you are currently in the support group and at a reassessment are placed in the work related group you get the old rate of £102.15 ?

ESA claimants with a current claim prior to 3 April 2017, including those who are awaiting an assessment or are moved from the Support Group to the workrelated activity group following reassessment are protected from the effects of this change.
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ArtStu said:
Just spotted this, am I correct in saying that if you are currently in the support group and at a reassessment are placed in the work related group you get the old rate of £102.15 ?
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If it's still the same claim, or a "new" claim with a certain time period (no real idea what this is, but 12 weeks seems to be uppermost in my mind) then you are not a new claimant, so the old rates are supposed to apply.

(AFAIK the above 12 week thing only applies in limited circumstances, such as an administrative closure of your claim which is then reversed, or if you had permission to do a work trial but found you couldn't manage etc.)

A change in benefit classification is still the same claim.

Of course they keep changing the rules, so.....it's anyone's guess what would actually happen.
 
Trish said:
I think the organisation that needs to be hit in the pocket is the private company that has been given the contract to do the medicals. In my area it is ATOS which is, I understand, one of the huge multinational companies that take on practically anything, then employ and train the people to do the task, cutting corners and bending rules whenever possible in order to make maximum profit.

I gather that in many cases the problem is the people they employ to do the medicals - nurses or physios mainly I think, are not knowledgeable about most of the disabilities they are assessing. For example, a physio is unlikely to understand the level of disability caused by mental illness. The reports they produce are not a true reflection of the patient's situation and what they can and can't do.

I think in any case that goes to appeal where the report is found to be wrong or inadequate, the company, ATOS, should have a heavy fine reflecting the full cost of the appeal and a compensation payment to the patient (I wish).

I suspect as a result the company would pull out of the contract, as they do when the profits drop away, leaving the government forced to directly employ and train the medical assessors, or redesign the whole system.
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That was certainly the fear UK Labour minister's had when they were in power. I had the opportunity to question 2 separate ones about their use of companies and the high appeal rate. Neither considered any sort of punitive action to be desirable in a contract and both felt that fines or even govt criticism would result in no company willing to take on that function.

Both knew that the system wasn't working but reading between the lines at that time (2007/8?) they felt that sick and disabled people didn't matter enough to change the system. There had been a media campaign of vilification of this group.
 
Yesterday before the budget (which I ignored) the Work & Pensions Committee interviewed "claimants" in receipt of PIP and/or ESA (UK benefits), followed by advocates working for charities/CAB who assist claimants with their applications. Interesting watch although very long.

Frank Field (Committee Chair) commented that it was the longest evidence heard (other than the BHS boss) because they are so concerned.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/c...committee/news-parliament-2017/pip-esa-17-19/

http://www.parliament.uk/business/c...committee/news-parliament-2017/pip-esa-17-19/
 
Merged thread

UK: PIP assessment companies admit ‘unacceptable’ failings on quality of reports

The committee was also told that both Atos and Capita employed only two doctors each within their PIP operations, with their assessments instead carried out by nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
......
Dr Paul Williams, the WCA [Work Capability Assessment] programme director for Maximus, said the company was due to carry out about one million WCAs this year, but would only perform about 8,000 to 9,000 home assessments.

Labour MP Ruth George told him and Wolfe that one of her constituents had been denied a home assessment, despite sending a letter from his GP telling Maximus that he had a fractured vertebra, and so should not be forced to attend an assessment centre.

Williams told George that he would be “really quite cross” if he heard that his staff had refused to carry out a home assessment in such circumstances.

George said she had been forced to intervene on Monday to prevent her constituent having to attend the assessment centre.
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https://www.disabilitynewsservice.c...-unacceptable-failings-on-quality-of-reports/

So, if we accept the figure of 250,000 PwME in the UK. 25% of those are estimated to be, at best, housebound, if not bedbound, which equates to 62,500 PwME. The question obviously would be how many of those 62,500 are attempting to draw benefits but given that, at best, only 9,000 home assessments are done, it's easy enough to see that there is a major problem.
 
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Merged thread

Ministers have backed down – at least temporarily – from plans to force all sick and disabled people on out-of-work disability benefits to take part in compulsory work-related activity.

There was an outcry among disabled campaigners last year when the government’s work, health and disability green paper suggested that claimants of employment and support allowance (ESA) with the highest support needs could be told to stay in regular touch with their local jobcentre, or risk having their benefits sanctioned.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department of Health (DH) finally published their joint response to the Improving Lives green paper last week, and it stressed that respondents to the green paper had been “clear that accessing any support [for claimants in these groups]should be voluntary”.

A DWP spokesman said the government had listened to responses to the green paper and was now “researching and trialling activities people in the support group would be able to undertake on a voluntary basis”, although he refused to rule out the possibility of compulsory work-related activity being introduced in the future.
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and

Dr Jay Watts, a consultant clinical psychologist and a member of the campaigning Alliance for Counselling and Psychotherapy, said: “Increasing focus is given to the role of ‘work coaches’ who are expected to conduct ‘health and work conversations’ with claimants.

“These conversations are based on principles from positive psychology to change mindsets, yet there is no consideration to the ethics of holding dual roles as coach and punisher (for it is work coaches who decide on sanctions).

“How is informed consent possible in such a scenario? How is this anything but psycho-compulsion?”
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https://www.disabilitynewsservice.c...-on-mandatory-activity-for-esa-support-group/
 
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Fairly sure I've replied to a thread on this subject before with - the whole idea of compulsion for those in the support group is absurd, as by definition, i.e. to get into the support group, everyone in it has already been defined, by the DWP's own "medical" people, as unable to undertake any "work related activity" for health reasons
 
I know the figure of 250,000 is the one popularly touted about, but I'm not confident that it is a fair number. The study, whose name I forget and that looked at 4 GP surgeries in different parts of the country, came up with data that suggested the total would be around half of that. Looking at the whole of the group of patients in 4 different surgeries is probably the best method I have seen yet of estimating the numbers involved. My feeling is that perhaps 250,000 would fit the more general criteria of, say, CFS, and that is consistent with the PACE trial finding that half of its sample satisfied the London criteria for ME. It's all sloppy estimation, of course.

Mind you, if a quarter of these are housebound, that still means 30,000, and we haven't even counted other crippling conditions.
 
So far I think the select committee are doing ok (I've been following some of this on parliament tv) but of course it remains to be seen what if any good comes of their work.
Should be in every newspaper, with factual detail.
 
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