PIP claimants: All 1.6 million claims to be reviewed

leamspaceman

The government has decided not to appeal a high court ruling that recent changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are discriminatory to those with mental health conditions.

As a result, all 1.6 million current claims will now be 'reviewed', at a projected cost of nearly £4 billion with approximately 220,000 claimants expected to receive more financial help.

This whole PIP system is in disarray and has become an administrative nightmare.

The government are facing defeats left, right and centre to challenges against the criteria and individual as well as collective decisions.

As someone who used to support claimants, I still hear about some cases.

A support worker has recently told me about a case of someone in the process of applying for PIP. The claimants GP wrote a hugely detailed 4-page report on their conditions... signed, dated, surgery stamped. The report could not have been more thorough. It also explicitly used the descriptors, the mechanism used for awarding points, as a basis for the report.

What did Capita do? Sent a form to the claimants GP asking for details of their health conditions and how they affect them. The GP was paid £35 for this, by Capita.

Totally unnecessary and a complete waste of everybody's time and money.

Having said that, what do you expect from the DWP/Capita, a department and organization that still considers tape recorders to record assessments and fax machines to send documents to be the latest in technology... and considers a chiropodist appointed by Capita to be the most suitable person to carry out an assessment of someone's mental health condition.

Indeed, I have just been listening to an interview with the Conservative MP Heidi Allen who, in her own words, described herself as a "thorn in the side" of her own government regarding these issues and how the proposed changes would be seen.

She pointed out that "the whole benefits system needs to be looked at from scratch."

She cited the problem of the administrative costs involved. She specifically mentioned that claimants could use technology, scanning and emailing as an example, to expedite their claims.

The government has had to concede to making the whole procedure more transparent by trialing mandatory recordings of assessments in the West Midlands.

How many more times is the benefit system going to be looked at again 'from scratch?'

How are these 'reviews' of claims going to be carried out and over what timescale? Will they be paper based reviews using existing supporting evidence, or will claimants once again be put through the lottery that is face to face assessment?

Personal Independence payments: All 1.6 million claims to be reviewed

And what of the person overseeing all of this... Esther McVey.

In my opinion a failed TV career has now morphed into a political career that I find mystifying as to how she has reached such lofty heights based on previous views.

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mij

It is a mess isn't it, it seems that almost unlimited amounts of time and money can be spent on trying to punish the people least able to look after or defend themselves.

I have always believed that the strong should help and protect the weak, it feels like I am in a minority of one sometimes.

Bl4ckGryph0n

With regards to the opinion element regarding fax machines. Perhaps you aren’t aware of the legal situation around those. A confirmation is a formal receipt that it has been received. Not something you have with more current technologies. As far as I am aware the law has not been updated. As such there is very good reason to use such devices.

rancidpunk

Unfortunately our society is more willing to exploit the weak, and reward the 'strong' for doing so.

leamspaceman

So how about when you send documents in the post... you don't get a formal receipt that they have been received?

Obviously sending documents 'signed for' would get around this but the DWP very rarely send documents this way.

Seems odd to me that documents sent by fax require a formal receipt whereas items sent in the post do not?

It seems that the formal receipt is needed because a fax is being used... not that a fax is being used in order to generate a receipt?

And would it really be beyond the boundaries of modern technology that, if someone sends documents electronically, they receive an electronic receipt?

Just poor excuses not to use modern technology.

EarthRod

Quite right and it is unfortunate.

It's the same throughout the animal kingdom - weakness means poor survival chances and strength gives excellent survival chances.

Humans are animals, so strong survival instincts are natural. Our society, developed with reasoning and thought, unfortunately goes against our natural instincts.

tapzilla2k

I've been through the Pip assessment, it's an utter joke. You can't accurately judge mental health based on a tick box exercise often where assessors have no direct experience of treating people with mental health conditions. The nurse who did my assessment, did not accept that the head of Oxford Universities Psychiatry department could diagnose me (this was mentioned in Parliament to the work and pensions select committee by Mind late last year). That pretty much set the tone for the assessment, if he wasn't going to believe what an expert had to say about my mental health he wasn't going to listen to me about how it effects my daily life.


It was clear to me, even in my anxious and manic state (I have insight into my condition, but no control) that he was going to score me Zero points on everything, which he did based on his report the DWP said I did not qualify for Pip and that I could manage my own condition. Fast forward 8 months and the Appeals Tribunal overturned the DWP's decision within about 30 or 40 minutes. My GP's evidence along with the diagnosis letters from Professor Geddes were what won the appeal. I see no point in doing these assessments if the DWP is going to ignore the medical evidence entirely. It's just an exercise in ticking boxes and crushing people's physical and mental health. Pushing the costs onto the NHS and Police when somebody inevitably suffers a mental health crisis.  

If people actually knew what was going on with Pip and ESA, and in some cases how they've contributed to people's deaths then I guess the whole scrounger myth would come crashing down (so called scroungers are a minority). The DWP has made every effort not to publish it's impact assessments on changes to the benefit system or release it's data on deaths in full and not in a redacted form as IDS managed to get away with.

All I will to say those who don't need benefits is this - Don't become sick and don't have an accident. Once you use up your contributions the DWP will treat you like everyone else, doesn't matter how much you've paid in tax over the years. The safety net is to all intents and purposes gone. Likely a factor in the rise in homelessness over the last 7-8 years.

SyStemDeMoN

Unfortunately its the non genuine cases that are ruining it and making it hard for the genuine ones.

My son gets it but then with him its bloody obvious that he needs it as he is in an electric wheelchair and cant talk or use his arms properly.

But there are people out there that just dont want to work and so lie about their health so they dont have to.

leamspaceman

What is this myth with the government demonising the sick as scroungers?

I've never heard any government minister say anything other that we need a proper safety net.

IronGiant

It's not so much what they say... but what they don't say.

They allow the myth to persist by not making it clear that the false claims are a minority.

They also create phrases like "blinds down Britain" that the public then quote ad infinitum.

I know a lot of people who aren't disabled and who don't claim any sort of benefit who have their blinds closed a lot of the time.

Then there's people like McVey who believe people with disabilities will "get better." Yes, some with short term conditions will. But many won't. But in making statements like this she's giving ammunition to the ill-educated, ill-informed, apathetic masses.

And unless she is aware of the imminent second coming of the baby Jesus when all ills are cured, she shouldn't be spreading such dangerous, off the cuff remarks.