UK: Disability benefits (UC, ESA and PIP) - news and updates 2023 (including government plans to scrap the work capability assessment)

DWP issues crucial update for benefit claimants on plans to begin testing matching people’s health conditions to 'specialist assessors'

 

But the same hea1th condition can affect different individua1s quite different1y. And of course, many c1aimants have severa1, quite different, hea1th conditions. This insistence that every c1aimant has a 'primary' hea1th condition is absurd. It came about due to the desire of the DWP to create broad statistics, it doesn't mean it ref1ects every c1aimant's medica1 rea1ity.

 

Disability benefits: 200,000 people wrongly denied payments since 2018, sparking fears over tougher new system

Disability benefits: 200,000 people wrongly denied payments since 2018, sparking fears over tougher new system (msn.com)

 

Merged thread

DWP announces Universal Credit phone line changes

DWP announces Universal Credit phone line changes (msn.com)

 

I hope it works better than the Inland Revenue Future Pensions service, I have been trying to ring them since mid March. Now if their lines are ‘busy’ they disconnect your call. Have been ringing several times a week when my personal assistant is here and just been cut off after after going through their automated system to be directed to the right person. It seems to make no difference which options you select; we have systematically selected every option whether relevant or not.

 

that was my exact same thought. Same with the tax office.
Particularly if you have a problem which is not covered in the options.... Apparently you can only have one of 6 problems, no others exist. but as you say Peter, it just disconnects you at the end whichever option you pick anyway.
Same with DVLA.

This isnt an improvement its a way to avoid speaking to people which looking as if theyre 'improving' things. There is no need for the changes they are making, the issue with DWP phonelines has never been that you cant get to the right person, the problem is that there arent enough people answering calls and the ones that answer give out wrong information. 3 different phone calls 3 different answers.

The contempt is baked right in.

 

It seems the UC te1ephone he1p1ine has been too efficient, so it's obvious1y time to bring it in1ine with their disab1ed ones

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/uc-calls-answered-24-times-faster-than-pip-calls

 

The Future Pensions Service has been in major overload because of the deadline for making voluntary NI payments for pre-2016 years which was meant to be 31st March this year and has now been extended to 31st July. (Blame Martin Lewis for flagging this up)
See below:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/

The moneysavingexpertwebsite has useful information and their pensions forum has a lot of knowledgeable people on it. You don't have to sign up to read posts. I'm trying to help a family member with this who isn't online.

 

Yes, I had hoped things would get better after the end of March, but there has been no improvement in getting through. Fortunately I want to talk to them about contributions after 2016 so I have more time, but it is still very frustrating.

 

Presumably you've tried pressing the hash key as soon as it connects? This works on fewer and fewer systems now (it used to work on nearly all of them), but I can still get straight through to the GP surgery if I time it exactly right.

Since it only takes a second to press a button, I always try it. It's unlikely to disconnect you, so if it doesn't work, the call will just proceed as normal.

It seems least likely to work once the recording of the spoken options has started to play.

 

I noticed with BT this week, when none of the options covered what I needed he1p with, after the recording went through twice it then automatica11y connected me to an advisor (not sure what their specia1ity was, but they were ab1e to he1p with my bi11 and give technica1 advice and book an engineer). Of course I have no idea if this wou1d work with other systems.

 

It used to work with lots of systems, and previously with some systems you could press ‘0’ and cut out the whole multiple choice nightmare, but in general they are cutting out options that allow people to actually speak to someone. Certainly the Future Pensions Service now just cuts people off if the lines are busy, with no way on the phone to get out of the system.

BT are a bit better and if you formally complain to the chairman, you can get a direct number for a named person in the chairman’s office. Last time moved I had a nightmare and was without broadband for two months, despite having previously had broadband with then on the same exchange. But I kicked up a fuss, involving my MP and the local paper and complaining to the chairman. Getting a named contact made life much easier.

 

What happens if we write snail mail? Obviously slower but do they still reply?

 

Trouble with snail mail is that if they're all working from home it's possible that nobody will be around to read it.

 

Fit For Work - BBC Radio 4 - should have a health warning -
"For 30 years, governments have tried to get disabled people into work by toughening up benefit rules. Part of the motivation has been to cut the welfare bill, but it's also been framed as an attempt to stop disabled people "languishing" on benefits. But the policy has had tragic consequences, particularly for people with mental illness, who have felt coerced and pressured, as the department for work and pensions has deemed them fit for work. Many - maybe hundreds - have taken their own lives. Jolyon Jenkins investigates how the policy came about. In this episode, he looks at how, despite evidence that the Fit for Work test was failing, governments of both main parties ignored official warnings and pressed ahead with it, expanding the scheme dramatically. Producer: Jolyon Jenkins An Off Beat Media production for BBC Radio 4
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001mlym

 

I just had a PIP review and had award removed and it triggered an ESA review and housing benefit on temporary,things just got messy quickly

 

Commiserations. Do you have all the resources you need to appeal? It sounds like a very difficult situation and maybe a members only thread would allow the hive mind to offer support?