New DWP sickness/disability assessment trial could be more confused than current system
As seen on Twitter: we may hope the new assessment is better than this. We may HOPE…
I had hoped that perhaps I was the only one who was confused by the latest Tory plan for sickness and disability benefit assessments.
They said they were planning to merge the assessments for Personal Independence Payment (disability) and Employment and Support Announcement (sickness)…
But instead it seems the new trial is for a single “digital platform” that many claimants may not be able to access because their sickness or disability means they can’t cope with computers.
Didn’t they say they were going to make it easier, not harder?
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has caused confusion after refusing to say if a newly-announced trial will test the idea of merging assessments for its two main disability benefits.
Justin Tomlinson (pictured), the minister for disabled people, announced this week that DWP would be trialling the use of a new single “digital platform” to help deliver assessments for both personal independent payment (PIP) and employment and support allowance (ESA), and the equivalent of ESA under universal credit.
Such a move was first suggested 12 months ago by the then work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd.
The new system would aim to ensure that people in receipt of more than one disability-related benefit do not have to provide the same information multiple times.
But ministers have also spoken previously of testing whether they could merge the processes for PIP and ESA (the work capability assessment) into a single assessment.
Both the assessments have been blighted by years of criticism and repeated links to the deaths of claimants.
Source: DWP adds to confusion over ‘single assessment’ plans – Disability News Service
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It’s a cynical ploy to take all your money. If you have pip or ESA and you fail the assessment, you can’t claim either . If you are in receipt of both, and you fail the assessment, you lose all your money. So you can’t live on or claim ESA if you lose your pip, or vice versa. In one fell swoop you lose it all.
Hmmm dwp sais it’s a bloody farce a Brian fix
Has their reply to merge two into one doesn’t make sense has they hold the information about us so they only have to look at your records to c info double Dutch once again from them who should b helping those who need benefits