Has the DWP changed the rules on mental health

SusiQ

"It’s a shame but there’s a lot fear involved in esa and pip, basically because they have the power to totally ruin your life!" 
I think you'll find that in life outside the DWP that's called "Blackmail"! - not that I'm cynical at all

leeCal

It’s right that the dwp have people checking every claim as it comes in and probably right that they check on your condition periodically because if there were no checks and balances people would just lie about their conditions to get free money obviously but, and it’s a big butt, these days they are ruthlessly trying to pay the bare minimum or nothing if they can. Personally I believe it has got worse since the number of claimants rose dramatically, definitely the welfare overhaul/reform resulted in some benefits being stopped altogether and universal credit will pay less overall than working tax credit and other benefits. The system has been put under tremendous strain by the rapid increase in the claiming population, it’s obvious. We already had financial problems caused by the bankers greed Andy then we had a sudden increase in the poor. Something had to give, and it wasn’t going to be the government?    
So now we all have to suffer.

CockneyRebel

Budgie2 said:

@wildlife will she need to go through this with ESA she's been getting ESA for a few years now but I never knew how long for it is she gets it for i always thought she got it as long has DLA/ now PIP was in payment ?

ESA is an open ended award. Reviews can happen anytime from three months following the award. Usually the longest review time is 3 years for SG but some are being defered

CR

[Deleted User]

Thankyou @CockneyRebel

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi all,

Cockey Rebel has given excellent advice on this thread and I can't add any more to it apart from to leeCal, the DWP amended the descriptors in March 2017 so it's only decisions from that date onwards that they need to look at again to see whether they were wrong. In my experience the DWP have always been considering 1c, 1d and 1f excluding "overwhelming psychological distress" even before the descriptor amendments so I can't see how anything will change in their decision making now.

Lee

Albus_Scope

Thank you for your insight there @albertlane and welcome to the community. 😊