Video Recorded PIP Assessments...

The assessment contractor I would think.

If the recording does not contain personally identifiable information such as Full name, National Insurance number, Date of Birth, it would both be exempt from the Data Protection Act, and unusable as proof of the assessor's conduct or actions as it couldn't be linked to the claimant.

Afraid not, It's on an inaccessible computer. I'm afraid unless I can find one, you'll have to treat my information as unverified.

The following can be ignored if you don't want to read further

My reasons, apart from remembering it being mentioned somewhere, for believing that recordings exist are:

• The assessor's are audited, both randomly and in other ways (less doubts raised, less audits).
  
• The audits have to be done by both the provider and the DWP.
• They are useful as training materials.
• When the assessor starts, they are supervised until they meet a standard.
• After personal supervision they are still audited.
• How can an audit be performed of the assessors accuracy and evidence gathering when they are not supervised by another in the room?

To make a recording that is allowed to be kept, I would guess that the recording is not started at the beginning of the assessment. After the checking of your proof of identity at the beginning of the assessment, a recording could be started. If this is so, it would not be required to give you access to it under the Data Protection Act.

I would think that the only recordings that are saved, are when an assessment/report are flagged for audit. You could easily have a day of recordings collected at a centre that will be wiped. It wouldn't require vast amounts of computer hardware to store the fraction of assessments that would be saved. After the audit has finished, it could be destroyed. Delete and write over, similar to how premises with CCTV deal with their recordings.

As the recording would not be under the Data Protection Act, they would be under no obligation to share information about it with you, or even admit that it is being recorded. It would just be a recording of a face to face interview, with personal information, but crucially, no personally identifiable information. A random person listening to the recording would not be able to identify you from it.

Unfortunately, this is all conjecture, but that is how I would organize it. The proof is probably in early documents or the audits done by the DWP.

Or maybe I'm a paranoid idiot.[/QUOTE]

 

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3844-28-november-2018-update
28 Nov 2018

According to Benefits & Work, Sarah Newton has stated 'the live testing trial' of video recording of PIP assessments is starting this month.

 

I suspect that somebody has picked up a very juicy contract to store all that video, and part of my grounds for suspicion is that video files are so much larger to store than audio, thus creating a higher price per unit of storage and a larger contract. I look forward to the usual competence and care these contracts bring.

Why not offer the option of either video or audio?

 

Because being video recorded when you are ill, stressed and vulnerable is more intimidating? Especially, when you aren't given a choice.

Also it provides great training material, the better to create a hostile environment for an assessee. I can picture them reviewing the recordings and showing how the assessor could adapt their body language to maximise the discomfort of the assessee. Or use their body language and tone to try to draw them into implicit agreement to something they didn't say.

Use of body language "experts" to deny appeals. Look - the assessee scratched/ touched her face 5 times! Clearly a liar. Eczema and allergies have nothing to do with it.

And so on.

 

I really think this is a scandal, absolutely terrible. Human rights - goodbye!

Edit: Isn't there something like a constitutional court in UK? Or what about the EU court? (Well...Brexit...)

 

Yep and it's deliberate. They want claimants to feel like they have absolutely no rights. In exchange for having the temerity to apply for benefits, you forfeit your rights to be treated honestly, fairly and without intimidation, soon you'll have to forfeit your rights to any privacy as the DWP and NHS start to work closer together and employment advisors start to seek access to medical records.

 

And the next thing will be they'll force you to hand over all your supermarket receipts (or they'll just take them) to prove that you're eating the wrong kind of food, or drinking too much, or taking too many over the counter painkillers or whatever. They prob look at your bank accounts already. No privacy in this country unless you live off grid. And don't get me started on Smart Meters!

 

This is a bit off topic, but same theme -

Did you know that with the advent of the new "paperless" driving licences that your driving licence is now connected with your national insurance number?

A friend is hiring a car abroad and they will want to see proof that there are no endorsements on the licence. Instead of having to look it up by the old, unique driving licence number, it's done by national insurance number instead!

For non UK - the national insurance or NI number is the number that identifies you to the taxman etc. and identifies contribution and entitlement to the state pension. It is also quoted on all correspondence with the DWP and those handling benefit claims.

 

The degree of "talk" and data sharing between state institutions is crazy - it sometimes reminds me of Stasi.

For the Jobcenter, for instance, you must reveal nearly anything. A woman was asked about her sexlife in order to find out who was the father of her child (to put him on alimony). A court said that's not allowed; in fact, at least 50% of decisions of the Jobcenter are against the law. But that's how it goes...

I wanted to apply for cost reductions for medical drugs; for this, I must name any contribution, including gifts and free living. So I would have to name the price for, say, a chocolate bar, too. And everything - gifts, flat, food etc. - is added up and this is viewed as my "income". So I decided I will have to go without several things; I will not reveal our entire cash flows - this is not ok.

Everything will be stored, and every institution can call that data. The insitutions share that data with each other.

Honestly, yes, all this feels like Stasi&Co.

The shocking thing for me is, somehow most people view that as ok, à la "If you want our help, you must do everything the helper demands of you". Like you're the Untermensch now...just an object...and it's ok to treat you badly.

 

Commendable self restraint on display here. Not a single reference to the "undeserving poor", or any allusion to them, in whatever context and with whatever intent.