Hello all,
Anyone interested in th topic, tonight Channel Four Dispatches, The Great Benefits Row. Should be worth a watch.
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thanks dollydaydream
iāve just set it to record.
carole x
Thanks. I`ll be watching.
pollx
I think thatās the program I also posted about. It should certainly be interesting!
Expecting my blood pressure to be sky high !!!
I think we should keep our expectations low for this program. Donāt forget itās half an hour long less adverts, and theyāve got a hell of a lot of basic info to cover in that short time. If you already have a rough understanding of the changes, then it probably wonāt tell you anything you donāt already know.
Plus, letās not forget the recent programme about HSCT. It was at best slightly misleading and at worst crap.
I suspect this programme, if itās any good, will do more to educate the general (non-disabled) public about what all the fuss has been over rather than giving any information thatās especially helpful to people claiming.
Hopefully Iāll be proved wrong.
Sue
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According to the papers I think you might be surprised and probably disgusted when you see it Sue.
whoops not sure why that posted anonymously, fall fingers and thumbs this evening. LouLou
Nope, Iāve just watched a witch hunt against Capita. Statements like āIDS resigned over the PIP rowā (or words to that effect) are not exactly 100% correct. IDS was the architect in charge of the change from DLA to PIP. Heās resigned at a very convenient moment (for the anti Europe campaign) and I personally donāt entirely accept it was over the aids and adaptations changes to PIP.
Where was the evidence about Atos, the other company employed by the DWP to deliver assessments. Secretly filming one specific individual who seemed to have very extreme views about the claimants is actually I felt, unfair to the majority of PIP DAs. Most people who do that job are also human beings, you are going to find bad people, who conduct bad assessments within the company; you are probably also going to find people who struggle against the limitations of their jobs.
There was an awful lot of information about the problems in assessing mental health problems. Which obviously is a concern of many MSers. But little said about physical assessments.
There was also very little said that would help a person confronted by the application form. In fact, I felt that the program was more likely to frighten and worry people rather than help them to deal with the problems inherent in a system that by necessity requires an awful lot of face to face assessments.
Those of us who have already had PIP assessments (I have not - yet) already know that there is very little time given, they know that explaining their problems, both physical and mental is difficult given the assessors limited experience and knowledge. They also know that the entire process is a worrying and unpleasant experience. One to which many of us still have to face.
I did not feel that this program was helpful. Feel free to disagree.
Sue
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I watched it as well. Being too old to be bothered by DLA and PIP, I am not quite so sure it was a witch-hunt against Crapita (who did seem to deserve it).
We have Crapita saying we get paid by the number of assessments we do ā¦
We have the DWP saying that this is just not true ā¦
We have an assessor saying that he could get more in a month than many people earn in a year - if he did enough assessments.
Who do you believe?
Geoff
First of all I should say that I havenāt watched the programme yet - I will when I get home today.
I went for my assessment (with ATOS) a few days ago and it was nowhere near as bad as Iād thought it would be. The assessor was a nurse who seemed to have read all of my form and accompanying reports. She also seemed to have some knowledge of RRMS and how variable it can be.
She was very pleasant and thorough and put me totally at ease (even though I was very anxious to start with). I had no sense that she was trying to ācatch me outā (which was one of my biggest worries - that I would say something entirely stupid once I started to babble!!).
Iām sure some people have had bad experiences, but I just wanted to show that thatās not the case for everyone.
Having said all that, of course I donāt know whether Iāll actually get anything - Iāll keep you posted in around six weeksā time!
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I watched it tooā¦it was not a shock to me. The assessor getting paid 20k a year with is awful attitude will not be a one off, where there is one bad apple theres usually a bunch of them.
It did remind me to make sure that the pip assessment is being recorded,they remove the sign so that people are unaware that it can be recorded. For me its important, so many times people say one thing then when you recieve a report/letter and its totally different.
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I had an ATOS assessment and they were fine. The report was exactly as it happened and the award was what I expected.
i did not see the program and avoid them as tv companies sometimes sensationise things. Reporters, tv programs, newspapers, magazinesā¦ There are bad apples in many walks of life.
paul
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I have finally watched the Despatches piece. I fully endorse what Sue has said, but I would like to add the following.
If you have the inclination, or require help with insomnia, I would recommend a look at the following pdf file, freely available on the gov.uk website.
There is a wealth of data, but I have extracted the following as it relates to the Despatches programme. It provides data on PIP applications up until the end of January 2016.
āBy the end of January 2016, 1,531,200 claims to PIP had been registered. Of these, 370,100 (24%) were reassessed DLA claims.
PIP clearances increased significantly between June 2014 and January 2015 with an average of around 60,000 claims being cleared per month during this period (peaking at 82,000 in January 2015). Since January 2015, monthly clearances have fallen, as the number of claims the Department had to process fell back to normal levels.ā
No wonder with assessors such as the one shown on Despatches. Perhaps he was fired in February 2015?
According to DWPās own statistics only 47% of all new claims since the inception of PIP were awarded the benefit, in some form. For reassessment claims, ie DLA to PIP, only 74% were awarded some form of PIP. There is no information relating to whether the applicants received the award they expected.
DWP supplies a graph breaking down all applications to the end of January 2016 by disability category. No exact figures are given but the following is the best I can do from the poor graph supplied. No wonder the programme focussed on psychiatric issues.
Psychiatric disorders ā nearing 250,000 claims
Neurological disorders ā well over 50,000
However, I found it staggering that only 47% of new applications were successful and only 74% for DLA to PIP conversion. This is at January 2016, of course.
Here are further interesting statistics from the same DWP file relating to Mandatory Reassessments (MR), the first line of recourse when the applicant is turned down or does not receive the expected award.
āIn total, 234,200 MRs for normal rules claims had been cleared by the end of January 2016 (180,000 new claims and 54,200 reassessed DLA claims). Of the new claim MRs cleared, 26,800 (15%) led to a change in the claimantās award, and 15,000 (28%) reassessed DLA MRs led to a change in award.ā
Contrast this with the statement made by the DWP to the āDespatchesā journalist.
āSince April 2013, just 5% of decisions have gone to appeal and only 2% of all PIP decisions have been overturned.ā
The first part of the sentence well be true in its literal context, but the second part is deliberately vague and requires a little deconstruction.
The percentage of changes to decisions is a lot higher if the MRs are included. Therefore to claim that āonly 2% of all PIP decisions have been overturnedā is patently not true and only serves to obfuscate the true position.
Still, for a 30 minute programme it was pretty good, although it lacked balance. There was no corroborating evidence of poor assessments and no interviews with people who had received a satisfactory service. I wonder if the supervisor was also investigated, as she seemed equally culpable.
Alun
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Only just seen this and will try to use ācatch upā facility to watch it later. Meanwhile, thanks to other posts, it highlights some of the difficulties for the people currently receiving higher rate DLA mobility & care. I fall into this category and have to admit, Iām quite worried. I have ppms, evidence of deterioration and, of course, like all MSers, no hope of getting better or even improvement.
I had a letter a few years ago saying Iād be written to in October 2015 as I was in the āindefinatelyā period of time under DLA. Around March this year, another letter confirming the rates of DLA and a paragraph saying a PIP assessment will be carried out when they contact me. I must admit, it really does concern me. I donāt use a mobility car as I cannot drive anymore (DVLA stopped me on dx). But Iāve read that many people have had to āgive upā their mobility car due to the PIP assessment. This must be beyond upsetting.
Alun, your post is very informative and has given me a slightly different view of the assessment, many thanks for your facts and figures (it must have taken some doing and some time), so many thanks are justified.
I noticed Sue has mentioned the CCTV and secret filming, I wonder if we can do our own recording of the assessment, not just to double check all was correct when I get home, but also as evidence if my case went to appeal. I do know that if the assessment results in significant financial support, I will certainly appeal until Iāve exhausted all avenues, even though Iāll physically exhaust myself in the process.
Has anyone been through an appealā¦to success or otherwise? Is the assessment conducted by a panel of ājudgesā sitting above your height, thus rather imposing? I might be thinking way ott but I accompanied a friend to an appeal for dla and it was like a court session!
Chrissie x
Chrissie,
Thank you for taking the trouble to read my post. I have to admit that I did enjoy the little bit of research involved and it certainly perked me up. I am not a journalist only a retired bog-standard FE lecturer and AQA A level examiner.
I am sure that you will have no trouble at all completing the PIP application form and providing the relevant information. I have been assessed twice for PIP in two years. When I was first diagnosed with PPMS in 2014 I applied for a PIP and was awarded the standard Daily Living Allowance. As my mobility deteriorated I reapplied in December 2015 and they added the standard Mobility Allowance. This was what I had hoped for. I was fortunate that both processes were straightforward.
I have no knowledge of the appeal process. I do not think you need to worry as long as you can provide the evidence on the form and references from specialists such as your MS nurse, physio etc. As you know from all the recent press coverage, points mean prizes. Like I used to tell my students, you have to provide the evidence for each criterion.
I hope the migration to PIP is painless for you and I hope you keep us all updated with your progress in due course.
Best wishes,
Alun x