Cheaper to have a MR & appeal than for the DWP & assessors to spend the time doing a proper job

gruber

Hey everyone I am new on here. This seems a good source of information after looking around other sites. I don't have any immediate questions as such as my next assessment for PIP in next year.
But I have been reading B&W and there is a piece on there that shows that the DWP and assessors don't care about doing a good job. For them it is cheaper to fail people as the costs of the appeals and MRs are less than the time it would take the case managers and assessors to do a proper job like review all of the evidence before making a decision.

Is this true? I think the best course of action then is to get to the appeal people asap Don't bother spending time worry about the claim form or the assessment

CockneyRebel

gruber said:

Hey everyone I am new on here. This seems a good source of information after looking around other sites. I don't have any immediate questions as such as my next assessment for PIP in next year.
But I have been reading B&W and there is a piece on there that shows that the DWP and assessors don't care about doing a good job. For them it is cheaper to fail people as the costs of the appeals and MRs are less than the time it would take the case managers and assessors to do a proper job like review all of the evidence before making a decision.

Is this true? I think the best course of action then is to get to the appeal people asap Don't bother spending time worry about the claim form or the assessment

The majority of claims are setted without the need for appeals and this is achieved by submitting a claim form correctly filled in along with relevant evidence

Gerald

O my god my form was done by CAB and correctly filled in along with relevant evidence but if there not going to read your evidence how is that right and even when you do the MR and point that out 9 times out of 10 still go with the assessment how is that right.

[Deleted User]

I'm not sure that mine was, so I've asked Welfare Rights for a copy of it so I can have a look as the assessor says in his report several times "didn't state it on the questionnaire". I have a different officer now so he's going to try and help me with it all when the decision comes through.

Oh and there was evidence with it, more than there was the first time around lol.

gruber

So it is all down to the assessor that looks at the claim and whether the claim is so convincing that they would have a hard job going against it. Those then get the award they should have.
The rest that are refused which appears to be about 45% of the claims made are then in this limbo land. 

[Deleted User]

All I know is that with my first benefit claim there was little info on the form, one or two letters for evidence and I was awarded PIP enhanced based more or less on my mental health, this was in 2014, fast forward to 2019, I had an assessment last month and the assessor has decided that I no longer have mental health problems, dropped the rate to standard for both and made it about my physical health plus there's a lot of discrepancies in the report, how an assessor thinks he could possibly know better than the claimant, their son, the gp they had been seeing for over 10 years and a psychiatrist is beyond me and all because he did his MSE and stated that he declared I wasn't a certain way for 50% of the time.. LOL, you can really tell that in 60 - 65 minutes right? I have to wait for the decision letter before Welfare Rights can help with the MR (if I do need to do one) and the complaint which I am going to do regardless of me getting anywhere with it or not.

gruber

From what I have read it is cheaper for the DWP to let this happen than it is to have the decision makers spend more time with the case trying to make the correct decision first time. If that is actually true, then there is no incentive for the assessor to put themselves out and do a proper job.

Fetlock

1) Person is awarded PIP first time.

Persons involved-

1 Case Manager

1 Assessor

2) Person not awarded PIP and proceeds to tribunal

Persons involved-

1 Case Manager for the original decision

1 Case Manager for the mandatory reconsideratin stage

1 Case Manager pre-appeal

1 Case Manager post-appeal

1 Assessor

3 panel members at the tribunal (including GP and judge and related fees/salary)

1 DWP representative at tribunal

Legal bod within DWP to decide whether to request statements of reason etc

How is it cheaper to let it go to appeal?