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Originally Posted by jfman
I would generally agree - however my starting point was that the DWP policy officials develop these regulations and get them wrong. Then DWP operational staff, in conjunction with the third party assessors, get their application wrong resulting in the massive amounts of appeals being lost.
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It's also important to understand the
numbers of appeals against numbers of claims, which a lot of reports seem to miss out.
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It said of 3.3 million PIP decisions taken from 2013 to 2019, only 5% were overturned at appeal, while of 4.4 million ESA decisions made between 2014 and 2019, only 4% were overturned at appeal.
A spokesman said: "We are committed to ensuring people get the support they are entitled to and spend £55bn a year supporting disabled people and those with health conditions."
The Department for Communities in Northern Ireland said about 10% of all of the PIP decisions it handled were appealed, with about 2.5% of the overall number of cases successful.
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I would ask anyone criticising the DWP staff undertaking these assessments to try and have a conversation with the Decision Makers (off duty, obvs.) - it is a soul destroying job, which they (on the whole) try to carry out to the best of their abilities; my wife comes home emotionally drained every day, having read and processed many heart-rending applications. Strangely enough, the DWP staff don't get pleasure out of turning down applications, but they have to adhere to the criteria, and, like many others in other jobs, some make mistakes.
I've convinced my wife to retire early (in May next year instead of November) due to the emotional toll the job is putting on her.