Disability Benefits

[LIVVI1234]

Can someone advise - I keep seeing everywhere, Labour supporters saying Conservatives plan on dropping disability benefits - is this true?

I have never actually seen this anywhere? I understand they didn't have many changes planned to the current benefits we already have, which isn't great but I hadn't heard they were dropping them.

@Talula1993

But why cant they trust the word of the specialists who are working with the person in question. Why do they need additional assessment from some other nurse or doctor who knows nothing about the person they are working with? Then we wouldn't have these stories of people who are obviously in need of benefits rejected by strangers. Some people are also in denial about their condition and their GP can give a clearer picture. My exes ex was left disabled after a car accident and was left with some memory problems but she doesnt realise the extent of them sometimes. You have to remember that you have forgotten to know. Her GP knows her abilities though and would give a better picture than she could. She is still a capable mum but memory can make her unorganised.

GailCindy2

The pip criteria is basically quite simple. Too much so that it does not consider a lot of factors.

In a nutshell, someone makes a statement such as "I struggle to cook as due to pain I can only stand for very short amounts of time" you then have to find 2 to 3 pieces of evidence to either support, or dispute that claim. So what could be used as support could be that they take a lot of pain relief, it could be that they have specialist input for the pain or it could be that they really struggled in the physical eximation or a doctors letter. However, if there is any evidence to dispute that such as they might have a hobby that involves standing, they might not have appeared in pain in the assessment. Then that will be used against them. When we are trained we are basically told to "weigh up" the evidence, which is a complete lie. It basically means to find something that goes against them and latch onto it and if you dont do it you'll get made to change your report. I never did this, and was effectively pushed out job as I kept getting challenged on my scoring and put on performance reviews. Hence why I only lasted a few months and why many others do too!

I don't want to make any assumptions on your exes ex, but hypothetically I'll list some of the reasons why she might not have scored.

Such as if she no longer receives any specialist input (which is a stupid reason as many people are discharged from services after they have exhausted treatments), if she did not show any obvious memory loss in assessment or if she has any other hobbies or jobs that on paper contradict memory loss. If someone had any of the above that would go against them despite having a supportive letter.

(Fyi I'm not saying I agree I'm just saying how it works)

The Appeals are the real decision makers. I have twice appealed successfully after mistakes from assessors.

It is sad that people don't realise this and the perseverance needed to keep going to this stage and stress involved may impact on the most severely impacted to an even worse stage than in the lesser impacted.

The two things which I would say after all this and having gone through 3 assessments since 2014, (now got a longer 5 year award) is-

Persevere and see Appeals as final decision makers
Really gather any evidence and discredit any reports using facts.

For PIP appeals, the Tribunal consists of 3 impartial people, a Judge, a medical expert and a disability expert.

They are all independent of the DWP who may or may not send a representative along.

The assessor at my DH’s face to face assessment was a physiotherapist. My DH’s primary disability is complex co-morbid MH conditions. Yet a physiotherapist has more knowledge of his condition and how it affects him than consultant psychiatrists and psychologists. Yeah, right.

If you really struggle with stress / MH for example you can ask for a paper appeal. This can work well if you have good evidence on paper and they have made mistakes.

I did this and it is also far quicker that the other kind of appeal. As in weeks not months. This seems to be because they can just slot it in and send it to a far iff court with low wait lists rather than nearby. I just got a letter with the decision and the whole thing from MR was about 6 weeks (with couple weeks faffing from DWP)

For those suggesting that PIP is a tightening up of the system due to fraud, it isn't.

The philosophy behind PIP is in line with the Tory value of 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' ie that everyone can improve their lot if they work hard enough. The belief is that the right thing to do is give people a hand up, BUT that people should then be able to do it by themselves. I'm not being facetious with that - I researched universal credit and PIP prior to its introduction, and that it one of the fundamental principles of the Tory benefit system.

This philosophy underpins the Tory welfare system. It is the reason for reassessments, as the Tory view is that 'anyone can adapt'. The example in their literature was about a war veteran 'adapting' to life with a physical disability and the assumption that once you've got certain aids and adaptations that you will be more independent.
This reasoning is also behind why a lot of welfare services - parenting support, homelessness, mental health support worker, supported housing etc - are very time limited (eg 12wk, 6month or 2yrs). The expectation is that you train people up and they should be fine. The Tory philosophy is that to do otherwise condemns people to the scrapheap and creates independence, and that this system respects the individuals ability to change, and their self determination.

The way they wrote it sounds almost ok, until you remember that there are huge numbers of people with severe and enduring illnesses/disabilities that don't improve AND that we as a society do not adapt to that individual. It leaves the onus entirely on the individual to change and does not recognise how inaccessible the world is, or what barriers there are (eg lack of employment or education, benefits trap due to cost of housing etc)

Reassessment doesn't save any money either. Any 'savings' from getting people moved over to cheaper benefits is swallowed up by the cost of monitoring and reassessing.

I'm sure it's obvious that I'm not a Tory supporter, but this concept of 'everyone can adapt/get better' is genuinely the reasoning that underpins these policies.

It may be scaremongering but basically the Tories can do what the fuck they want and the people involved can’t complain.
The system is tied up with Atos and capita who are a shower of shits. The questions at the farces called “medical assessments” are not directed or suitable for people with MH issues. In fact, they are incredibly damaging to MH.
The system is incredibly flawed and unless you are in it, I’m afraid you haven’t a clue how bad it is to try and jump through hoops when you are ill. If I didn’t have experience of it I’d assume there was some kind of fairness or logic but imo there isn’t.

If you really struggle with stress / MH for example you can ask for a paper appeal. This can work well if you have good evidence on paper and they have made mistakes.

You can, but it should always be remembered that paper appeals have a lower success rate

That is why the proposed changes which would mean you don’t get the choice if e panel feel they can make a decision, or to have telephone conference appeals, should be strongly resisted. Face-to-face contact with the panel massively increases people’s chances of winning and that needs to be defended

I have won at paper appeal twice - well the second time Pip called before and changed their mind.

Honestly, after the posts I've seen on her the last week... I think some people are genuinely happy about this, too.

I just can't believe any human being would be genuinely okay with seeing another human 'manage' and just about get by, through no fault of their own. It's a lottery whether you have a disability or not. A lot of us could be more grateful it wasn't us. And help those who need it. Everyone deserves a good quality of life.