Yes, the benefits appeal process is flawed. How many people even get to appeal at all?

Last Updated: October 14, 2016By
Disabled people protest about cuts to benefits and services [Image: Alamy Stock Photo].

Disabled people protest about cuts to benefits and services [Image: Alamy Stock Photo].

The Guardian‘s piece on the PIP benefits appeal panels is great – as far as it goes.

It’s good to know that there is a person on each of these panels with experience of disability who can see claims from the disabled person’s point of view.

It’s good that there is a person who appreciates the frustrations of filling out the extraordinarily manipulative PIP claim form, and who advocates that claimants get advice from a benefits expert before even attempting it.

It is good that there is a person who is prepared to admit the assessment process may be extremely poorly administered, and that people should not just accept a refusal at face value.

But the number of appeals has fallen precipitously, from more than 20,000 in the third quarter of 2013 to 2,800 in the second quarter of 2015 (the most recent time for which statistics are available).

That is because the Conservative Government has made it more difficult to appeal.

The proportion of successful appeals remains steady at around 60 per cent, but that is no consolation for those people who weren’t given the chance to do so.

Look at the article below. There is genuine shock at the number of poor assessments being made – and that’s just among that that get to the appeal stage.

How many more people are being denied what is theirs by right, because the system is – in This Writer’s opinion – deliberately flawed?

“Do you ever hang on to the sink to help you get up off the toilet?” Not necessarily a conventional conversation piece, but occasionally a question I ask in a personal independence payment (PIP) appeal tribunal.

I sit on tribunals an average of two to three times a month, and am the so-called disability-qualified panel member. The other two are a lawyer and doctor, and between us we decide whether someone meets the criteria for a benefit award and will have their appeal upheld.

When deliberating the case above (let’s be original and call him Mr Smith, a middle-aged man with a musculoskeletal disorder), the doctor mildly chided me for asking such a direct question, suggesting that I had perhaps led the claimant to a “yes” answer, and pointing out that the claimant had said nothing on his form about needing help to get off the toilet.

As panel members, we have to be impartial. I reminded him that many people don’t understand how they should fill in the form and struggle to follow the logic of how the decisions are made about who gets benefit. Many people who come before us haven’t even thought about, let alone got, advice from a benefits expert (which they should always do, if they possibly can). Any half-decent adviser would have found Mr Smith needed help getting off the loo.

It’s part of my job to look at a claim from a disabled person’s perspective. I can ask questions about how someone has filled in the form and get an understanding of the implications of what they have (or haven’t) said.

Sometimes we can’t give an award because the rules don’t let us, and that can be frustrating. Often we are genuinely shocked because the quality of assessments are so incredibly bad that we can’t believe that someone has been forced to appeal to get a benefit they clearly qualify for. Some assessments would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so serious.

Mr Smith got his benefit, unanimously agreed by the panel, because of my question. Was the decision the right one? Yes, of course. Would he have got it if I hadn’t been there? I don’t think so.

Source: Disabled people are being wrongly denied benefits. I help get them back | Anonymous | Society | The Guardian

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7 Comments

  1. jeffrey davies October 15, 2016 at 5:48 am - Reply

    the proportion of successful appeals remains steady at around 60 per cent, but that is no consolation for those people who weren’t given the chance to do so yet we see those who get through the first stages of pip telephone then fill out this form themselves has they believe this government to be true ha ha ha yes there are vast amounts of people who still think they going to see a board doctor oh ho ho yet getting through to some that they will get stopped at the first hurdle unless they get help

  2. Rupert Mitchell (@rupert_rrl) October 15, 2016 at 7:42 am - Reply

    There needs to be a professionally qualified person available to advise genuine applicants on how to fill in their claim forms and also to accompany them, if requested, and the consultations should also be recorded. A professional of this calibre could also save the DWP time and money by advising any dubious applicants accordingly.

    I suggest that a fund is set up to provide such a service and that all fair minded people would be happy to contribute a small monthly sum towards the cost of such a service.

  3. Barry Davies October 15, 2016 at 9:28 am - Reply

    Unfortunately the panels don’t always appear to have anyone “with experience of disability” whatever that broad term may mean. Also they seem to be dominated by the lawyer who is there to decide whether the assessment was legally conducted, which as you fill out an idiot sheet is highly unlikely to have not been the government set the rules and the government paperwork is obviously legal. I have been to many of these appeals concerning he rejection of any benefit despite having been early retired due to ill health, which prevents me form working, but the panels seem to be hamstrung by the assessment papers rather than medical incapacities

  4. Jenny Hambidge October 15, 2016 at 11:09 am - Reply

    I feel certain – but can’t remember where , that there is government proposal to cut the number of people on a tribunal- in particular the expert with personl lived experience of disability.

    • Mike Sivier October 16, 2016 at 2:27 pm - Reply

      I bet they’re so stupid they’ll still call it a tribunal.

  5. Brian October 15, 2016 at 1:21 pm - Reply

    I would like to see a cross party inquiry into how the architects of the welfare claim forms justify the questions, format and limitations off these ‘rejection’ forms. The logic is clearly to deny people their rights.

    Whoever passed these forms as fit for use (& I have my suspicions), carries the same burden of guilt for neglect as the rest. Your recent exposition on ‘e’ forms, with web submission highlights the conspiracy.

    Fields that must be completed are limited to an inadequate number of words, the words must be in capital letters, the words font is automatically entered as 12 point. The questions that must be answered by these words are deliberately ambiguous. The simple reason, as we all know, is to deprive people of their entitlement to benefits at some stage or other of a rigged system. All part of Camerons and Ian Duncan Smiths plot.

  6. mrmarcpc October 26, 2016 at 3:35 pm - Reply

    They’ll rig anything just so they get the decision that goes in their favour which is against us!

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