DWP reviews and 'no duty of care'

tomwalker

I am going through a nightmare review of our UC benefits where they are questioning how Direct Payments are spent...anyway researching how disabled people are treated by the DWP ..it turns out the DWP has no duty of care towards the disabled or vulnerable...who knew...I just assumed it....this explains everything about how we've been treated...the review is to try and trip you up and stop your money NOT to check you are getting the correct benefits

Rosie_Scope

Sorry to hear you're having a rough time with your UC review @tomwalker. We've had lots of positive stories about these reviews being straight forward, so it's sad to hear that not everyone is having that experience. I hope yours gets sorted quickly and without too much more stress.

I did see some slightly encouraging news about the government safeguarding disabled people using the benefits system. Liz Kendall recently said that she was “open to the suggestion" about creating a new legal duty to safeguard people. There's a little bit about it and a longer quote of what she said on the Disability News Service website:

Kendall compares DWP deaths to Mid Staffs hospital scandal, as she opens door to new ‘safeguarding duty’ – Disability News Service

Hopefully it is the start of seeing some change so more people are kept safe.

tomwalker

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/944185#Comment_944185

Thanks..what's really upsetting is that they want to query how Direct Payments were spent..now I am having issues with the Counsel about these becuase my wife became sicker and they needed spending differently...I just hope they won't use this asan excuse to change our UC oddments until the issues are sorted with me and the Council...seems unfair...also to your knowledge have you heard wether this can be used to stop or reduce payments?

Rosie_Scope

Hi @tomwalker, what have Universal Credit been saying about your Direct Payments?

I don't have a huge amount of experience with Direct Payments I'm afraid, but from what I understand it's usually the council that will address whether they're being spent correctly, not UC.