United Kingdom: Department of Work and Pensions (DWP)

Discussion in 'Work, Finances and Disability Insurance' started by Andy, Jan 19, 2019.

  1. Andy

    Andy Committee Member

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    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/19/abolish-work-and-pensions-department-demos-thinktank

    Link to Demos report hosting page, https://demos.co.uk/project/pathways-from-poverty/

    and directly to the report, https://demos.co.uk/wp-content/uplo...m-Poverty-a-case-for-institutional-reform.pdf
     
    ladycatlover, Nellie, Sean and 8 others like this.
  2. Wonko

    Wonko Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I'm old enough to remember when jobcentres got people jobs. You found something you liked, took them the details, they'd ring up, get you an interview, even pay for transport, trainfares etc.

    I'm not sure what they are these days but they are not jobcentres in any meaningful sense of the words.

    The DWP is unfit for purpose and always has been.
     
  3. Peter Trewhitt

    Peter Trewhitt Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    My feeling is that the problems in the UK are not with the structures in Whithall but the politically generated culture that has developed in a number of departments over a number of years.

    It has been centrally decided that anyone claiming any form of benefit should be treated with hostility and contempt. Just as the Home Office has become a malignant Kafkaesque bureauracy in relation to anyone perceived as an immigrant, the DWP and its subcontractors have a culture designed to discourage and disbelieve applicants, I suspect even their inefficiency and incompetence is a deliberately accepted consequence of this disrespect towards the people they are meant to help.
     
  4. Adrian

    Adrian Administrator Staff Member

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    Some what off topic but it made me think Back in the DHSS which is a half man half biscuit album from the days when health and social security were all run together.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozJjstZ9TiM


     
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  5. Hoopoe

    Hoopoe Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I wonder if the system was designed by people that are out of touch. They might have lived a life with no problems that couldn't be overcome with some optimism and determination, and therefore expect others to solve their problems in this manner. Life is complex, one strategy does not work for all problems, and some problems are not solvable.
     
  6. Wonko

    Wonko Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    This appears to be the case with most British institutions, it probably always has been.
    The ethos is work hard, you will be rewarded. Therefore anyone who is not reaping the rewards must , practically by definition, be undeserving. The people who end up at the top are the ones where that ethos worked, therefore the system remains.
    Simplistic but not generally far off the mark.
     
  7. Peter Trewhitt

    Peter Trewhitt Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    The political masters have been informed over and over again of the real life the consequences of their policies. In relation to the DWP the government seems to believe that people can be bullied into work or can be ignored into health. They may believe lack of work and ill health are lifestyle choices, but they also have actively chosen to ignore the evidence to the contrary.
     
  8. pteropus

    pteropus Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    i agree re absurd assumptions about unemployment and inability to work

    even if this change was agreed upon (moving employment & welfare into a different govt dept)
    the Tories would find a new way to siphon the funds to their rich mates, while depriving everyone else
     
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  9. Eagles

    Eagles Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    The Canary: A DWP-backed ‘medical scandal’ could be blown wide open

    https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysi...ked-medical-scandal-could-be-blown-wide-open/

    Steve Topple

    11th May 2019

    A contentious Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) funded medical research project – described by an MP as possibly “one of the biggest medical scandals of the 21st century” – is close to being blown wide open. Because a call for a public inquiry into it is now getting the support of numerous MPs.

    The DWP and the PACE trial

    The PACE trial was a controversial research project. It looked into treatment for people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). You can read Canary articles on the disease here. The PACE trial claimed that patients could improve their illnesses, and sometimes recover, by having cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and by using graded exercise therapy (GET)…
     
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  10. Jonathan Edwards

    Jonathan Edwards Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    A doctor is now involved...

    Rather a lot of doctors have been involved for quite a long time. I am afraid that pinning hopes on Sarah Myhill with a flying cape makes the piece fall flat on its face.
     
  11. Esther12

    Esther12 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Thanks to @Mr Topple (assuming this is Steve) for all the work he has done trying to draw attention to the problems around PACE. It's really great to have someone raising this topic with an audience that wouldn't have otherwise even heard of it.

    I share Edwards' concern that a focus on Myhill is unlikely to be the best idea. To challenge the UK medical Establishment on the quality of science we need to be really rigorous ourselves, and Myhill just doesn't have the best record here. IMO her involvement with PACE campaigning is more likely to be useful for the PACE researchers than patients.
     
  12. MeSci

    MeSci Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    DWP 'shocked' by its own disability tribunal record (UK)

    The Department for Work and Pensions has lost more employment tribunals for disability discrimination than any other employer in Britain since 2016.

    BBC Panorama found the DWP lost 17 of 134 claims of discrimination against its own disabled workers from 2016-19.

    And it paid out at least £950,000 in both tribunal payments and out-of-court settlements in that time.

    The DWP said it was "shocked" by the data but was reviewing its processes to ensure all staff were treated fairly.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51756783
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 15, 2024
  13. Andy

    Andy Committee Member

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    If an organisation has a culture that discriminates against the disabled people that it is meant to help, it's no surprise to me that it will be more likely to discriminate against those disabled people that it employs.
     
  14. Kitty

    Kitty Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    They'll faint when they read the stats on lost disability benefits tribunals, then!
     
  15. Wits_End

    Wits_End Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    And there I was thinking the header referred to the number of benefits tribunals they'd lost ... :(
     
  16. MeSci

    MeSci Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Sean, alktipping, Andy and 7 others like this.
  17. Peter Trewhitt

    Peter Trewhitt Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    The DWP lose a much higher percentage of benefits tribunals than they lose employment tribunals. There are probably now more recent articles than this link, but the DWP is losing around 70% of PIP appeals (see https://www.theguardian.com/politic...eals-department-for-work-and-pensions-figures ).

    What this recent finding reveals is that the DWP here in the UK treats its own disabled staff badly as well as, as found by the UN, breaching the human rights of disabled benefits claimants. This finding is not surprising, but does confirm that there is an institutional culture of prejudice against a sizeable portion of the very people they are meant to be helping.
     
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  18. Binkie4

    Binkie4 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    From the MEA fb page


    News from the DWP
    Following on from the story below about the failure of governance at the Royal College of Physicians things are no better at the DWP
    (see https://www.s4me.info/threads/indep...-royal-college-of-physicians-of-london.40208/)

    What a mess…..
    https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/dwp-admits.../...



    "The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has admitted that it failed to appoint a chief medical adviser for more than five years, at a time when its policy decisions were causing countless deaths of disabled benefit claimants."

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2024
  19. SNT Gatchaman

    SNT Gatchaman Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Direct link, avoiding FB: https://www.disabilitynewsservice.c...ar-failure-to-appoint-a-chief-medical-adviser

     
  20. Binkie4

    Binkie4 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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