DWP cuts specialist disability employment advisors in Jobcentres by more than 60 per cent

Last Updated: November 11, 2015By
[Image: Black Triangle Campaign]

[Image: Black Triangle Campaign]

This is not news to Vox Political – or to many of its readers.

Sick and disabled benefits claimants have found their lives seriously inconvenienced. One commenter told This Blog a Job Centre adviser had told them to attend an office many miles away because, while their own establishment had no specialist disability advisers, the other office – which was practically unreachable to a disabled person – had two.

Are you sick or disabled? What does this withdrawal of important – and promised – help mean to you?

Tell us all.

Between 2011 and 2015 the number of Jobcentres employing a full-time advisor to help disabled people navigate the support system and find employment fell by over 60 per cent from 226 to just 90, with reductions in every recorded year.

Charities say the specialist advisors are crucial for people with disabilities who have to navigate the support system and that their reduction will undermine the Government’s own goal of getting people in to work.

But the Government is intent on reducing the numbers of disability advisors and instead wants disabled people to be dealt with by general non-specialist “work coaches” as part of its Universal Credit programme.

The cut to specialist employment support for people with disabilities comes despite Iain Duncan Smith telling the group they should be working their way out of poverty.

Source: DWP cuts specialist disability employment advisors in Jobcentres by over 60 per cent

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4 Comments

  1. Michael Broadhurst November 11, 2015 at 12:13 am - Reply

    the DWP shouldn’t need disability advisors,a GP’s word and evidence should be good enough.

  2. rockingbass November 11, 2015 at 6:59 am - Reply

    What a scandal…I had great service from my Job Centre disability advisor two years ago,She saved my going back into my deep depression…contacted all the right people etc and sorted out the benefit problem ..

  3. toocomplex4justice November 12, 2015 at 2:17 pm - Reply

    I wouldn’t trust them anyway as I don’t know what their goals are. I have had my DLA cancelled and my Motability car taken away before I had any opportunity to appeal. My advocate from a local charity called the DWP to request that the reconsideration wait until my consultants letter had been rec eived and they agreed. The next day my reconsideration was done, based on no evidence at all other than the imagination of the DM. I have made a note of what was said by the officer who called me to trivialise my written complaint. ” I know it’s harsh but we waited two weeks and hundreds of people are going to have the same thing happen”
    I have informed the DWP that being unable to walk I have no means of buying food and will begin to starve. I cannot attend a tribunal hearing so anything can happen behind my back.at this fiasco. They may even be discussing the entitlements of a corpse. I am going to send a photograph of myself to the DWP every day to see if they will watch my progress without taking any action. i will also inform the police and give the names of the people who acted above the requirements of their office to deprive me of medicine and food ( the medicine stopped over a year ago when I was diagnosed with dementia and made a slave for the amusement of income support staff who worked me 24/7 until I broke down) I have to say that the ESA team have been much kinder but the PIP team are a nasty aggressive bunch. Don’t let them anywhere near your relatives.

    • Mike Sivier November 13, 2015 at 12:38 pm - Reply

      A neighbour of mine had a similar experience of mandatory reconsideration. Despite being asked not to do anything until my neighbour had provided further evidence, they went ahead with it immediately. My neighbour has secured an appeal hearing, though, and the evidence of this behaviour is part of the DWP’s own bundle.

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