On the front line against poverty
It is no surprise that one in four new advice issues dealt with by Stoke on Trent CAB in 2008/9 related to Welfare Benefits or Tax Credits.
A complex system whose administration often appears to be driven by the need to save money rather than customer service combined with the severe levels of poverty experienced by many people in the city to create a substantial and sustained need for benefits advice.
A notable feature of the last year has been the increase in queries from people who have recently lost their job and have been signing on, often for the first time. Over the winter period when redundancies were at their height, delays in processing Job Seekers Allowance claims were a major source of problems.
The relative inaccessibility of the Social Fund section, who allocate Crisis Loans to people who have no other means of support exacerbated this problem.
Again we found numerous people who have experienced difficulty accessing the benefit system by phone, either because of health or disability issues or because their first language is not English.
Migrant workers confused by the complexities of the Worker Registration Scheme and its interaction with the benefits system have been left penniless without fully understanding why when they have lost their jobs.
However the biggest single area of benefits work the bureau tackles continues to be related to sickness and disability benefits.
Pursuing its pre recession aim of full employment, the government has continued to (with the best of intentions) try to move significant numbers of people from benefit dependency into work.
Unfortunately, the collapse in the job market and the crude and mechanical methods they use to assess people’s ability to work have failed to achieve this objective and created uncertainty, hardship and distress in many extremely vulnerable people.
287 people received specialist benefits casework in 2008/9, the vast majority involving appeals against decisions about their Incapacity Benefit or Disability Living Allowance.
In eight out of ten cases where we represented enquirers at tribunals the decision was overturned and benefit re-instated.
Of particular concern has been the standard and conduct of the doctors, employed by a private contractor to carry out the Personal Capability Assessments.
These assessments are crucial in determining whether or not someone is deemed able to work and therefore entitled to benefit. In our experience if that Personal Capability Assessment decides someone is fit for work it is very rare that a DWP decision maker will disagree and benefit will be stopped.
If the claimant disagrees with that decision their only recourse is to go through the appeals process.
'Janet's' Story
‘Janet‘ suffered with severe depression, had recently left a violent relationship and was receiving support from a number of agencies. The computerised record of her Personal Capability Assessment medical showed it lasted just nine minutes although the doctor recorded he had spent an additional 19 minutes with her. He also recorded that her mental health problems were caused by “nothing in particular” and that she chatted animatedly about her problems. Neither statement rang true with either her support worker or her CAB representative.Despite representations from her support worker the DWP did not revise the decision and her case went to tribunal. The tribunal panel very quickly realised the flaws in the medical assessment and overturned the decision. They also remarked upon the cursory nature of the examination. As a result of this and other cases we put in a complaint to the company responsible for conducting these medicals who have instructed their doctors not to misrepresent the amount of time spent on assessments.
This case is far from unique and it’s a great concern that people with, often serious, mental health issues are particularly vulnerable to such obviously wrong decisions.
'Paula's' Story
‘Paula’ who experienced severe learning disabilities had been granted one point at a Personal Capability Assessment. On appeal the tribunal easily identified more than the ten points she needed to be deemed incapable of work.We continue to raise our concerns over the quality of medicals and the reluctance of DWP decision makers to challenge such finding with the department.