Health Transformation programme

Ray212
Ray212 Online Community Member Posts: 512 Empowering
in Benefits and income

So according to the article below it looks like WCA and PIP will be assessed at the same time. Does that sound right? What if your WCA and PIP reviews are normally far apart.

Like I just had a WCA review last year but pip is due to be reviewed a year today so does that mean that both the WCA and PIP will be done next year at the same time??

Or have I got it wrong?

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/changes-way-dwp-pip-universal-9524850?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1725275690

Comments

  • Jimm_Scope
    Jimm_Scope Posts: 5,409 Scope Online Community Specialist
    edited September 2

    From what I can see they are referring to this Health Transformation Programme management information to April 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

    Reading through this, what is happening is that PIP assessments and WCA assessments will in future both be done by the same provider.

    Under the current system the contracts are given out separately, so a region can have two companies. One which does PIP assessments and one which does WCA assessments.

    The Health Transformation Programme is merging these two separate contracts into one contract. So now in a given region the same company will do both PIP and WCA assessments.

    There is zero evidence or suggestion they are merging the two assessments into one. They explicitly state the two assessments as separate (and even state UC WCA and ESA WCA separately) and I cannot find a single mention of even considering rolling them all into one assessment.

    I feel like this news has either undergone some chinese whispers, where it's been mistakenly reported and now local news sites that do not bother to check if what they're posting is true are putting up articles about it. Or worse, they know it's not true but know it will gather clicks and activity.

    I think I managed to track down the first instance of this article to the Daily Record, but linked above is from the government itself.

    I'm not even sure how you'd manage to merge both PIP and WCA, it would require a massive rework of one or both of them.

    Too long; didn't read version: The assessments are not being merged, but the contracts of who carries out the assessments are being merged into one contract.

  • Ray212
    Ray212 Online Community Member Posts: 512 Empowering

    Thanks Jimm for the comprehensive reply. I know the Herald isn't really a great source of information to be honest but thought it was worth checking.

  • ellie_lou
    ellie_lou Online Community Member Posts: 12 Listener

    In my experience things online can often be misinformation. I wouldnt worry too much, just make sure you have some organised notes together for both assessments so you are prepared for any sudden changes in the system

    Ellie:)

  • ellie_lou
    ellie_lou Online Community Member Posts: 12 Listener

  • Jimm_Scope
    Jimm_Scope Posts: 5,409 Scope Online Community Specialist
    edited September 2
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/905582#Comment_905582

    I've read so many articles that say outrageous things that I tend to almost immediately jump to the gov.uk website to look for information on it. While I certainly don't trust the government in many aspects, one thing it does tend to do is put all relevant information on gov.uk. It's honestly quite shocking how easy it was to search and look up the Health Transformation Programme and get the correct information about what it's a plan for.

  • Ray212
    Ray212 Online Community Member Posts: 512 Empowering
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/905586#Comment_905586

    Normally yes, but this is a newspaper. You expect it to be correct.

  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 62,393 Championing

    It's known as "click bait" the fact it says that UC and ESA assessments are separate, which isn't correct. They are both exactly the same, with the same assessors and the same descriptors for each group.

    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/905614#Comment_905614

    Why? a newspaper is never correct and usually they pick bits and twist them several times. When you see articles like this please pass on by and don't click them.

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