DWP's Twisted Logic - It's What George Orwell Warned Us About

Reblogged from Work Test Whistleblower:

PIP Roll Out Delays

The introduction of PIP, to replace DLA, was supposed to have started at the beginning of April. Ministers went on Radio 4 to tells us how great it was all going to be. But little happened in reality before a second deadline in late October. When that deadline came and went, the DWP had to admit that PIP assessments would not in fact be taking place across large swathes of the country at any time in the foreseeable future -  the old DLA assessment system would remain in place. The real reason was not given, but it was noticeable how the areas affected by the delays corresponded to those zones where Atos had previously won the contract. Instead, the DWP claimed that:

• The delay is a result of the backlog of cases since April.

Now call me a bluff old traditionalist, but it's normally the case that the delay causes the backlog, not the other way around. A road accident causes a build up of traffic behind it - the traffic jam doesn't cause the preceding collision.

DLA Entitlement Will Be Decided Without An Independent Medical Report

So DLA assessments will continue for the time being.

Disability News Service has however discovered that Atos - the sole provider of these DLA assessments - has stopped doing them, except in cases of terminal illness and for some children's claims. This was Atos's choice - one it was entitled to make because the contract had come to an end, presumably in the expectation that PIP would have largely taken over by now. So from now on, they say, the DWP decision maker - a civil servant - will decide entitlement based primarily on the GP's report. Previously, the decision maker could ask an Atos doctor to make an assessment of the level of disability [Since 2010 I have been asked to do hundreds of these, and the reason usually given was that the GP had not provided a report - or occasionally because the GP's report could not be relied upon].
But the DWP now seems to be effectively saying:

• We don't need an independent opinion on the level of functional ability after all; the GP's opinion will do just fine.
• In fact we don't even need a GP's report!

If that's the case for DLA - arguably the costliest of the medical benefits - then why are hundreds of millions of pounds being paid to organisations in exchange for assessments of entitlement to PIP and ESA? Until now, the DWP has always stressed the need for a supposedly independent health care practitioner to give their opinion. According to the DWP, these HCPs are:

• Independent
• Impartial
• Trained to accurately gauge the level of disability
• Able to understand the criteria used in disability legislation

But now it turns out that that isn't the case after all. Or it is, sometimes: the assessment criteria shift back and forth according to the DWP's needs at the time.

"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." George Orwell.