Quote:
Originally Posted by Taf
The changes (ESA and PIP) were brought about to reduce costs, including fraud. But the method has been too harsh, punishing the innocent along with the guilty. And it's costing them (us) more.
The wait for Tribunals, which often overturn the DWP's decisions, are rapidly rising. 18 months in some areas, so the DWP wants Tribunals to be switched to online. Imagine waiting 18 months to fight your case, unable to work, unable to claim Benefits, and sometimes all alone with no support, financial or emotional.
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That's true, they have put sick & disabled through hell these past few years, it is costing the taxpayer more and people have had their support cut or stopped completely.
Government figures show that fraud for these benefits are less than half a per cent of all claims running live on the system. Efforts to weed out fraud have been made by every Government since Major, starting with the 'Benefits Integrity Project'. Each time, the vast amount of payments have been found to be correct, with a small number being overpaid and a small number being underpaid, so the net benefit (after administration costs) has actually cost the taxpayer more. As a result thousands of people have died, either through starvation or suicide.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34074557
Cameron then moved the goalposts and then proclaimed how many claims were not legitimate because his new rules meant people were now being disallowed their benefits on review.
I didn't realise that the backlog was so large for appeals, it's a disgrace. Figures show that appeals not carried out in the prescence of the claimant are less likely to succeed- I think that this is why this is being done.