PIP ASSESSMENT POLL RESULTS - WHAT DO CLAIMANTS PREFER?
Last month we asked you to tell us what sort of PIP assessment you would prefer.
Judging by the results, a very large percentage of you should consider exercising your right to a review of the type of assessment you are told to attend – and a further review if you are still not happy.
At present, the DWP says 77% of PIP assessments are telephone, 16% are paper, 5% are face-to-face and 2% are video assessments.
Meanwhile, Scotland is introducing paper-based assessments by default for claimants of ADP, its replacement for PIP.
According to our readers, neither the DWP nor the Scottish government are getting it right.
875 readers voted in our poll and 225 left a comment as well, explaining the reasons for their choice.
The final results were:
- Paper 59%
- Phone 20%
- Face-to-face 20%
- Video 1%
So, what is clear is that a majority of voters preferred a paper assessment, but a significant minority would opt for a face-to-face or a telephone assessment. Only a tiny proportion would choose video.
Many who prefer a paper assessment see little point in giving detailed information on their ‘How your disability affects you’ form only to have to give the same information again in an assessment.
Many also do not trust the assessor to accurately record their answers and some feel that the main purpose of the PIP assessment is to try to trip people up by asking the same questions repeatedly in slightly different ways.
But for one out of five claimants, a face-to-face is preferred.
For some this is because they believe the assessor will be able to better understand the physical difficulties they have or see their emotional distress and thus write a more accurate report.
For others it is more about watching the assessor and making a judgement about whether they are being listened to and understood, so that they can give further information if necessary.
For another one in five, being assessed by telephone is the best option.
For some this is because they find travelling physically painful or distressing but still want to have a dialogue with the assessor.
For others it is because social anxiety makes face-to-face assessments distressing and ineffective for gathering evidence, but they can manage a telephone call to an acceptable standard.
Despite, or perhaps because of, having lived through years of a pandemic where much communication has been via Zoom, video assessments are not popular.
Unfortunately, this is an assessment type which is on the increase.
The numbers are still small, but they are rising, whilst paper assessments have remained the same or fallen in the last three quarters.
Our poll results suggest that whilst the Scottish government have got it partly correct in making paper the default assessment, it still isn’t the right answer.
What claimants really need is to be able to choose the form of assessment that they think would best allow them to give detailed and accurate evidence.
In fact, although very few people are aware of it, PIP claimants already have the right to ask for a review of their assessment type. We don't yet know if the same applies to ADP in Scotland.
If you are still not happy you can ask for a second review.
Once this second review has taken place, you do not have the right of appeal to an independent tribunal, you must abide by the decision or look for another course of action. This could be a discrimination claim if the request for a different type of assessment could be viewed as a reasonable adjustment.
We don’t have any statistics on how many people ask for a review of their assessment type or what the success rate is.
But there is a reasonable chance that the assessment provider will find it easier to change the assessment type rather than go through two reviews and face the possibility of a discrimination claim.
There’s detailed information on how to ask for a review, including time limits and sample letters, in our Members guide to PIP Claims and Reviews.
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WHY ARE UNIVERSAL CREDIT WCA STATISTICS STILL SECRET?
The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) is demanding to know why the pass and fail rates for the WCA for universal credit are still secret, nine years after the benefit was introduced.
The question is becoming ever more pressing as 1.7 million ESA claimants are due to be forcibly transferred to UC by the end of 2024.
The proportion of claimants who are found to be capable of work or to have limited capability for work (LCW) or for work-related activity (LCWRA) have been regularly published for ESA since 2010.
Yet the same figures have never been published for UC, ever since the benefit was introduced.
As far back as 2017 the government promised that UC WCA statistics would soon be available but still none have been provided and there is no longer any indication that they will be.
The Disability News Service has been pursuing the DWP over its lack of openness on the subject for some time and approached the OSR for help.
The OSR have now written to the DWP asking why the figures have not been published.
The concern is that UC claimants may be less likely to be found to be in the LCW or LCWRA groups for UC than they are for ESA, even though the tests are virtually identical, and that the DWP is covering this up.
The lack of transparency over this issue will only add to the concerns of people waiting to be forcibly moved onto UC.
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DEAF AND HEARING IMPAIRED CLAIMANTS HAVE MISSED OUT ON PIP POINTS
The DWP have started yet another review to look for claimants who may have been underpaid PIP because the department got the law wrong.
This time it is deaf and hearing impaired claimants who may be entitled to more points, if they are unable to hear a fire alarm when bathing or showering.
In upper tribunal case [2020] UKUT 252 (AAC) the claimants needed to remove their hearing aids to shower or bathe.
As a result they would be unable to hear a fire alarm or smoke detector and so could not carry out the activity safely. Leaving the door open would not allow them privacy and so they would not be carrying out the activity to an acceptable standard.
The judge found that the claimants would be able to use a visual alarm to bathe safely and thus should score points for needing an aid or appliance. If they had not been able to use a visual alarm they would have scored points for needing supervision.
In both cases, this meant that the claimants got an additional two points added to the six they had already received for daily living and were thus awarded the standard rate.
The DWP are now conducting an exercise to identify claimants who may have missed out on an award because the department was applying the law wrongly.
They are reviewing claims made on or after 21 August 2020 and up to 17 May 2021, when they say they began applying the law correctly.
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HOW IS THE BIGGEST REAL-TERMS CUT IN BENEFITS FOR 50 YEARS AFFECTING YOU?
Claimants are facing the biggest cut in the value of their benefits for 50 years according to the Joseph Rowntree Trust (JRF).
The fall is due to the government’s decision to only uprate benefits by 3.1%. This is in spite of the fact that inflation is projected to be 7.1% by the end of this month.
The increase in benefits in April each year is based on the rate of inflation the previous September. But this year it means that the uprating figure is based on the rate of inflation before the cost of living crisis took hold.
JRF say that benefits were already at historically low levels and that this new real-terms cut will push an additional 600,000 people into poverty.
What difficulties will you face and what choices will you have to make over the coming months?
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