Tribunal highlights corruption of disability benefit assessments as DWP tries to rely on disgraced assessor’s lies
The Department for Work and Pensions tried to use the lies of a disgraced and dismissed assessor as a reason to deny disability benefits to a claimant.
The corrupt and cruel Tory-run DWP tried to prolong a seriously-disabled claimant’s four-year fight for benefits by saying an upper-tier tribunal should accept an assessment by Alan Barham.
Barham was discredited after an undercover investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches in 2016.
Private assessment firm Capita dismissed Barham and he was found guilty of misconduct by a professional standards tribunal in 2017.
But the DWP still argued that a hearing by the upper tribunal should rely on his evidence – this month.
The claimant, previously on the higher rate of both components of DLA, was refused PIP based on an assessment by Barham.
On appeal to the first tier tribunal the claimant was awarded the standard rate daily living only. So the claimant appealed to the upper tribunal.
The DWP then produced a new assessment report dated 2017, which was still based in part on the original report by Barham.
The DWP argued that, if the upper tribunal sent the case back, it would be a up to a new tribunal to decide what weight to attach to the report.
Fortunately, our legal system is staffed by intelligent people, and the judge dismissed that DWP’s demand, saying it was
not good enough, because the criticisms of Mr Barham meant that his purported observations and purported examination could not be relied upon.
The judge ended up telling the DWP there was “a wealth of evidence” already in the papers from other health professionals and if that wasn’t enough for the DWP they could order a new assessment.
There was no reason for the case to go back to a new tribunal, the judge said, so either the DWP should come to an agreement with the claimant or the judge would decide on an award.
The DWP climbed down, and the claimant was awarded 11 points for the daily living component, giving them the standard rate, and 12 points for the mobility component, giving them the enhanced rate. The award runs for 10 years from the date of the original decision.
The problem is that the DWP will have absolutely no qualms about trying the same dodge, using material by the same discredited assessor, next time it has the opportunity.
There is no penalty applied to the DWP when it tries this dodge to get out of paying people the benefits they deserve, so there is no disincentive to stop it being used.
And the difference in the stakes is enormous. For a benefit claimant, the difference between no benefit award and an enhanced rate of PIP is often the difference between life and death; for the DWP it is just another day at the office.
This case ended well; the claimant got what they deserved. What happens if the next claimant doesn’t? And when will the DWP take responsibility for the injuries its decisions cause?
Source: DWP slammed by judge for trying to rely on evidence of disgraced Capita assessor
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So happy to have been one of the ones that complained against this individual, he should have been struck of permanently
But if one doesn’t complain about these highly trained HCP then on it go I took my partners HCP all the way to parliament ice but guess who runs this dwp but the nurses union are just has bad you complain chase them the highly trained HCP if you lucky gets points on her record and told to behave for three yes this system is rotten