Beware! DWP will sanction you if you refuse to attend assessments for the ‘wrong’ reasons
People on benefits need to be very careful with the Department for Work and Pensions.
DWP officials are all-too-eager to cut people off from their benefits and claim a benefit saving – and may use objections to their policies and behaviour, raised by claimants, to do so.
I mention this after reading a letter from Robbie Smith, who writes the Wounded Thinker blog. It begins as follows:
Dear Sir/Madam
RE: My conscientious objection to the Work Capability Assessment
Thank you for your letter dated 20/12/2015. I will not be attending the face-to-face assessment on 20/01/2016, in Lewes. This is a moral decision and I have been considering this decision over many months.
My objection to the assessment is that it is not designed and has never been designed to accurately assess ability to work, especially complex mental health problems and fluctuating conditions. You must know this is true by now?
As a result of this failure, there is an extra 6 completed suicides associated with every 10,000 assessments. This sums up to 590 people driven to their deaths in just three years.1 I estimate, that is around 950 deaths during the period of the last Government.
The trouble with this is, objections to the behaviour of the DWP will not be accepted as a reason for refusing a face-to-face assessment. There needs to be a reason supported by the law.
My own partner, Mrs Mike, has been lucky enough to avoid a home visit after I pointed out that there was no legal reason for the DWP to demand it, and her medical condition meant that the notification letter could be considered an act of harassment. I firmly believe that this is the best way to fend off the approaches of these sanction-hungry bureaucrats.
Details of my own experience are available in this blog entry, along with a link to further useful information from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC). Actually, I’ll repeat the link here.
It is right to be angry at the DWP and the Conservative Government over the deaths they have caused, but it isn’t clever to play into their hands.
Let’s be clever. Let’s make sure they can’t touch us.
Source: My conscientious objection to the WCA | Wounded Thinker
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what about turning up with a witness to take notes. has this been tried???
Yes, and it works. What generally happens is they try to pass you ‘fit for work’, you get hold of their documentation and then appeal against every point where they said something that wasn’t said at the assessment.
Twice Ive had an assessment and took my partner along with a clip board, she didnt write anything but it worked
More big stick treatment, when will it end?!
Mike, can you point me to the follow up article of the linked article please.
Do you mean the article to which I linked only a few lines down, just for completeness? http://dpac.uk.net/2015/03/template-letters-for-those-in-esa-support-group-harassed-by-job-centres/#
No I mean the follow up to this article http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/12/01/my-bid-to-foil-dwp-persecution-of-people-in-the-esa-support-group/
Ah! Right. This one? http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/12/23/has-the-season-of-goodwill-infected-the-dwps-compliance-unit/
Yesterday IDS was confronted by furious protesters about the recent disability changes when he visited a job centre, he nearly got lynched with people shouting ”murderer” IDS was photographed by hiding behind his daily news papers…
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/sheila-gilmore/how-much-more-incompetent_b_8958474.html?NCID=edlinkukhpmg00000182&ref=yfp
This detailed piece deserves sharing in its own right but just puts into perspective how DWP are chasing expensive butterflies whilst financial elephants are running loose.
It makes the case all these medically fit for work costs are greater or same as what they are supposed to be saving and led to decreasing the amounts being benefitted to make the case for having the medical reviews.