To dob in family member - benefits

[Dragonsfoot]

I have a relative that does have health problems. They went to tribunal and were awarded higher rate PIP and have a motorbility car apparently supported by a Rottweiler of an advocate. I have no gripe that they deserve something - occasional falls, mild mental health problems, physical health problems that require monitoring and support and mild difficulties dressing themselves due to joint problems but don’t actually need to be helped. They do have a disability.

However, they are able to walk miles most of the time, decorate their home, complete domestic tasks and attend social activities on a very regular basis on foot. Morally torn. They probably will struggle without the money. Would DWP even do anything kind of thing. Either way I feel a bad person.

What makes you more qualified to assess whether someone is disabled than the medical professionals who are involved in the PIP assessment?

Do you have a medical background and access to the claimant's medical files?

Maybe she has magical powers that score worthiness of disability from afar.

Lol, 70% of people go to tribunal and win. What makes you think pip assessors are qualified to assess whether someone is disabled? They claimed I'd grown out of something which is physically impossible

Make an anonymous report that you believe this recipients circumstances have changed and you now suspect there is a possibility they are claiming benefits fraudulently.

There is a scope for reporting suspected benefit fraud. Whether it is true or not and whether anything comes of it is of no concern to you as you say you’ve acted on what you feel is benefit fraud. Whether or not it is or not is irrelevant. Just as there is a mechanism in place to claim benefits there is also a mechanism in place to report suspected benefit fraud. They are independent of each other.

No morals come into it. The facts will be assessed and a decision made.

Maybe that poster knows less than she thinks she does, about her neighbour, just a thought.

If someone went to tribunal and won it means they had a fuckton of evidence.
If they can get out and about and have a life then great. I'm glad pip is helping them do that.

Just out of interest, what do you think the life of a disabled person should look like?

Do you live with them. Do you actually know how able they are on a day to day basis. Not just what you see when you visit.

Right little sourpuss you aren't you.

Op, you're getting flamed on here because people refuse to believe that people play the system. But they do, regularly. It's totally up to you if you dob them in but you wouldn't be in the wrong for doing so.

This is a very good question, in these, absolutely true, accounts of people these posters definitely know who are fraudulently claiming PIP for a bad back while being world limbo champion, I am always surprised by how charmingly garrulous these alleged criminals are.
I imagine that, if one were to commit benefit fraud, one would keep quiet about one's illegal activity, not share it with every nosy neighbour or judgemental distant family member you happen to speak to.
If I were a cynical person, I might be inclined to reach the hypothesis that these flagrant fraudsters are figments of the posters' fevered imaginations, conjured up from a thousand lurid Daily Mail disabled-bashing scare-mongering headlines. However, I am a trusting soul so I would never suggest such a thing!

How do you know that she would not be in the wrong for doing so, do you know her relative as well?

Absolute bollocks. You’re trying to excuse the most entitled attitude that a person thinks they are better placed to determine whether someone is entitled to benefits than the DWP. In this case better placed than an appeal tribunal who have to consider whether the law has been correctly applied. Whether anything comes of it may be of no concern to the OP, but it’s certainly of concern to the benefit recipient who is probably doing nothing wrong, but whose life will be turned upside down by a random person thinking they are entitled to judge based on what they see on the surface - which is rarely an indication of everything that’s wrong. Of course morals come into it. DWP have already assessed on a lot more facts than OP is in command of.

we sound so similar. I don't even tell people what my diagnosis as the response is usually 'Isn't that the thing people make up?'.

Of course people play the system, but they are usually obvious and eventually the DWP will catch up with them. There is no excuse for ‘dobbing in’ a claimant for not being as obviously disabled as you think they should be. Especially when you know absolutely nothing about their condition beyond what you see on the surface, which is rarely all there is.

This. It’s absolute shite.

I agree that this is an issue we should all be annoyed about. That 70% of cases are overturned is a massive waste of time and money on both sides, and things need to change. PIP assessors are being pushed into being too harsh and not applying the law correctly, which is proving costly for the taxpayer and the claimants.

The constant reassessments should change too, especially in cases where the condition is clearly lifelong and/or likely to worsen over time. Unless we believe that amputees might suddenly grow a new limb, assessing them every four years is a waste of taxpayers' money and the claimants' time and dignity.

I still believe a PIP assessor knows more about someone's health than some random neighbour, and the tribunal infinitely more than both, so if someone has been awarded PIP, there is a 99.99999% chance they are wholly entitled to it. Unless you are medically involved with them, it's best to keep your nose out and your opinions to yourself.

The OP doesn't believe their relative's circumstances have changed. They don't believe the person should have been awarded PIP in the first place. They think that a panel consisting of a legally qualified and experienced judge, a health professional and a disability expert knows less than they do.

Nope. It’s not drama. Unfortunately it’s the kind of ableist shit disabled people face every day. I was a disability outreach worker. If I had a pound for everyone who was reassessed because some jealous bastard who had been turned down for the same benefit themselves and had reported them as a result, I’d be rich.

The claimant's case has already been assessed and a decision made. They are not going to listen to some spiteful, envious little weasel!

Haven’t a clue, but here you are contemplating the wisdom of “dobbing in” your own relative’s only source of income.
Good grief OP have a word with yourself!

Or maybe she has had over the years very close contact with people who were on the take and pretty damned shameless about it.

Oh get over yourself. Your thoughts have no bearing on it all. The only views that count are those of decision makers and tribunals. 🙄

Of course you're right,no benefit fraudsters exist anywhere apart from in the minds of Daily Mail readers. What a shiny little bubble you must live in.

Another day, another depressingly familiar disabled-bashing thread which, as always, the MN authorities will do absolutely nothing to moderate.
All the usual greatest hits of ableism have appeared repeatedly on this tedious post, replete with posters opining at length about a subject on which they are so obviously entirely ignorant.
It is reading ill-informed posts from people who think that they are more qualified to make judgements on how disabled someone is than the professionals whose actual job it is to do so and who seem to believe that one can judge the level of someone's disability just by looking at them, that sort of makes me glad to have been born with a severe physical disability which is immediately obvious on meeting me. At least nobody questions my disabled status. Still have to deal with lots of the other tiresome discrimination, both indirect and direct, which is all too familiar to most disabled people.

After you dear,after you.

No. There are just legions of pretend disabled people roaming around doing their best Quasimodo routine, bent over, clutching their backs, and shouting for Esmerelda.

Or, perhaps, ., they are also just in the minds of DM readers. 😂😂😂