Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

Maybe it would be best to put the 'faceless bureaucrats' ie civil servant's back in this role. At least their objective is public service rather than profit. Getting the numbers down is all the Govt. are interested in. Seem to remember them saying PIP wouldn't significantly affect the numbers eligible , codswallop...

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

Problems with DWP decision making were identified by the National Audit Office in 2003. That is more than 5 years ago.

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

You fix the system and train people then. Surely the objective is to make sure the money is directed to the right people. This won't be the primary objective of a private company.

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

Private company? The DWP are the ones making the decisions.

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

And the assessment reports they base those decisions are done by?

How is a physiotherapist supposed to assess Aspergers syndrome? That's the sort of crazy situation happening

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

Nobody, whatever the training is meant to assess conditions. They assess the impact of any conditions.

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

That's right, staff have been leaving because they were not promised redeployment either within their local authority or with the DWP as a civil servant.

Benefit assessors make their decisions based upon evidence supplied by ATOS, Capita etc.

All these companies are interested in is profit, they don't care if the rules are bent or the quality of the information is poor and in turn leads to poor decisions being made that affect our most vulnerable in society.

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

The DWP should be the ones doing the assessments and the decision making instead of the current inconsistent mess we currently have.

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

No imo the NHS should handle medical assessments as they have far more familiarity with the relevant conditions and their effect on a persons day to day life. I cannot understand why we have a health service that all politicians talk up till it comes to benefit medical assessments. As well as saving us upto 3 billion a year it would also cut down the time many doctors have to spend at tribunals testifying on behalf of their patients which is increasing every year.

At a stroke it would remove all controversy on the subject and help the public have more faith in disability benefits, as anyone with a longterm illness is all too aware that consultants don't keep you on their list unless they are personally convinced a problem exists. Only reason i can see for why this isn't how it's done is because NHS doctors are very unlikely to misrepresent their diagnosis to cut the number of claimants something that ATOS did and were even caught admitting on video by both dispatches and panarama.

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

Did they not use NHS doctors privately before they sourced out the contracts to private companies RK?.

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

Yes

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

The promised callback did not happen..... :mad:

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

They rarely do in my experience. Best to keep trying and make full use of the times when they're open and closed. I've found trying early or late often gets me through to these helplines quicker. I just wish they'd use a system which tells the caller where you are in the queue because at least that gives you something to go on and is far less frustrating than that bloody music and/or repeated references to using the internet for your queries or whatever grrrr....

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

That statement is a sub-optimal interpretation of actuality - Local Government employees don't redeploy to the Civil Service.

How can someone from one employer doing a certain job be redeployed to another organisation which doesn't do that same job? :confused:

Re: Worrying news for ESA claimants converting from DLA to PIP.
 

Thanks Hugh for that confirmation.