UK: Disability benefits (UC, ESA and PIP) - news and updates 2023 (including government plans to scrap the work capability assessment)

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DWP issues crucial update for benefit claimants on plans to begin testing matching people’s health conditions to 'specialist assessors'
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is changing the way people on benefits are assessed. The DWP has announced that plans to begin “testing matching people’s primary health condition to a specialist assessor” will start later this year.

The move follows the recent publication of the Health and Disability White Paper, which lays out proposed reforms to the benefits system. Minister for Disabled People Tom Pursglove MP, said that assessors will “take part in training to specialise in the functional impacts of specific health conditions”.
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Sly Saint said:
DWP issues crucial update for benefit claimants on plans to begin testing matching people’s health conditions to 'specialist assessors'
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But the same hea1th condition can affect different individua1s quite different1y. And of course, many c1aimants have severa1, quite different, hea1th conditions. This insistence that every c1aimant has a 'primary' hea1th condition is absurd. It came about due to the desire of the DWP to create broad statistics, it doesn't mean it ref1ects every c1aimant's medica1 rea1ity.
 
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Disability benefits: 200,000 people wrongly denied payments since 2018, sparking fears over tougher new system
More than 200,000 people have been wrongly denied Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) or disability payments in recent years, sparking concerns that plans to increase reliance on the benefit assessments could leave scores of disabled people out of pocket.

Government figures show tens of thousands of people each year are successfully challenging incorrect rulings saying they are not entitled to disability benefits.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is planning to streamline the current system so that disabled people will rely on PIP assessments, not only for mobility support, but for any out of work benefits.

However, a poverty charity has warned that this data highlights the ineffectiveness of the PIP system in accurately determining what level of support someone needs and if they are able to work or not.

Zacchaeus 2000 Trust (Z2K), a London-based charity, said the “deep injustice” is denying people “their rights and vital income” and warned this will become a bigger problem under the planned changes to disability benefits.

Labour MP Marsha de Cordova asked in Parliamentary Written Questions how many people who were denied PIP were subsequently awarded a payment after the decision was challenged.

The Government response shows that, since 2018, the total number of people who fell into this category was 204,000.

Of these, 64,000 had to go all the way to a tribunal hearing to challenge the decision before receiving the payment.

More than 80,000 of these cases were also eventually awarded at least one enhanced element of PIP, which is given to people with low or no incomes.

These people would have been left without PIP and Universal Credit under the proposed changes.
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Disability benefits: 200,000 people wrongly denied payments since 2018, sparking fears over tougher new system (msn.com)
 
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DWP announces Universal Credit phone line changes

The DWP has announced plans to improve its system for dealing with telephone enquiries with a new Virtual Agent system.

The agent will help route calls to the correct channel so a person calling a helpline can get the support they need.

Social Mobility minister Mims Davies recently said the new system will start with Universal Credit before being expanded over the next three years.

Labour MP Rupa Huq had asked the Government what steps the DWP was undertaking the improve the "efficiency and accessibility" of its phone services.

Ms Davies said in her response there is a Modernising and Transforming Telephony Project as part of the DWP's Service Modernisation programme.
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She said of the project: "The first enhancement will involve the introduction of 'DWP's Virtual Agent'. This will support customers through their telephone journey and best determine how to respond or help with their enquiry.

"The objective of this technology is route calls to the right person or support available at the right time and providing a better overall customer experience than now.
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DWP announces Universal Credit phone line changes (msn.com)
 
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I hope it works better than the Inland Revenue Future Pensions service, I have been trying to ring them since mid March. Now if their lines are ‘busy’ they disconnect your call. Have been ringing several times a week when my personal assistant is here and just been cut off after after going through their automated system to be directed to the right person. It seems to make no difference which options you select; we have systematically selected every option whether relevant or not.
 
Peter Trewhitt said:
I hope it works better than the Inland Revenue Future Pensions service, I have been trying to ring them since mid March. Now if their lines are ‘busy’ they disconnect your call. Have been ringing several times a week when my personal assistant is here and just been cut off after after going through their automated system to be directed to the right person. It seems to make no difference which options you select; we have systematically selected every option whether relevant or not.
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that was my exact same thought. Same with the tax office.
Particularly if you have a problem which is not covered in the options.... Apparently you can only have one of 6 problems, no others exist. but as you say Peter, it just disconnects you at the end whichever option you pick anyway.
Same with DVLA.

This isnt an improvement its a way to avoid speaking to people which looking as if theyre 'improving' things. There is no need for the changes they are making, the issue with DWP phonelines has never been that you cant get to the right person, the problem is that there arent enough people answering calls and the ones that answer give out wrong information. 3 different phone calls 3 different answers.

The contempt is baked right in.
 
The Future Pensions Service has been in major overload because of the deadline for making voluntary NI payments for pre-2016 years which was meant to be 31st March this year and has now been extended to 31st July. (Blame Martin Lewis for flagging this up)
See below:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/

The moneysavingexpertwebsite has useful information and their pensions forum has a lot of knowledgeable people on it. You don't have to sign up to read posts. I'm trying to help a family member with this who isn't online.
 
Ebb Tide said:
The Future Pensions Service has been in major overload because of the deadline for making voluntary NI payments for pre-2016 years which was meant to be 31st March this year and has now been extended to 31st July.
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Yes, I had hoped things would get better after the end of March, but there has been no improvement in getting through. Fortunately I want to talk to them about contributions after 2016 so I have more time, but it is still very frustrating.
 
Presumably you've tried pressing the hash key as soon as it connects? This works on fewer and fewer systems now (it used to work on nearly all of them), but I can still get straight through to the GP surgery if I time it exactly right.

Since it only takes a second to press a button, I always try it. It's unlikely to disconnect you, so if it doesn't work, the call will just proceed as normal.

It seems least likely to work once the recording of the spoken options has started to play.
 
Kitty said:
Presumably you've tried pressing the hash key as soon as it connects? This works on fewer and fewer systems now (it used to work on nearly all of them), but I can still get straight through to the GP surgery if I time it exactly right.

Since it only takes a second to press a button, I always try it. It's unlikely to disconnect you, so if it doesn't work, the call will just proceed as normal.

It seems least likely to work once the recording of the spoken options has started to play.
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I noticed with BT this week, when none of the options covered what I needed he1p with, after the recording went through twice it then automatica11y connected me to an advisor (not sure what their specia1ity was, but they were ab1e to he1p with my bi11 and give technica1 advice and book an engineer). Of course I have no idea if this wou1d work with other systems.
 
Simbindi said:
I noticed with BT this week, when none of the options covered what I needed he1p with, after the recording went through twice it then automatica11y connected me to an advisor (not sure what their specia1ity was, but they were ab1e to he1p with my bi11 and give technica1 advice and book an engineer). Of course I have no idea if this wou1d work with other systems.
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It used to work with lots of systems, and previously with some systems you could press ‘0’ and cut out the whole multiple choice nightmare, but in general they are cutting out options that allow people to actually speak to someone. Certainly the Future Pensions Service now just cuts people off if the lines are busy, with no way on the phone to get out of the system.

BT are a bit better and if you formally complain to the chairman, you can get a direct number for a named person in the chairman’s office. Last time moved I had a nightmare and was without broadband for two months, despite having previously had broadband with then on the same exchange. But I kicked up a fuss, involving my MP and the local paper and complaining to the chairman. Getting a named contact made life much easier.
 
As I understand it Civil Servants who were working from home are expected to be in the office minimum 3 days each week now.

And they were only working from home if the work could be done from home which depending on technology didn’t include people who work on call centres for example. Stuff like dealing with receiving incoming physical post would definitely need to be done in the office which for DWP I believe is centrally handled at Wolverhampton and scanned so it can then be uploaded.
 
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Fit For Work - BBC Radio 4 - should have a health warning -
"For 30 years, governments have tried to get disabled people into work by toughening up benefit rules. Part of the motivation has been to cut the welfare bill, but it's also been framed as an attempt to stop disabled people "languishing" on benefits. But the policy has had tragic consequences, particularly for people with mental illness, who have felt coerced and pressured, as the department for work and pensions has deemed them fit for work. Many - maybe hundreds - have taken their own lives. Jolyon Jenkins investigates how the policy came about. In this episode, he looks at how, despite evidence that the Fit for Work test was failing, governments of both main parties ignored official warnings and pressed ahead with it, expanding the scheme dramatically. Producer: Jolyon Jenkins An Off Beat Media production for BBC Radio 4
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001mlym
 
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