ESA NEWS
There has been a massive fall in the number of employment and support allowance (ESA) appeals according to official figures released today. ESA appeals lodged in the January to March 2014 quarter were down by 89% on the same period last year.
As well as the introduction of the mandatory reconsideration before appeal system, another cause of the unprecedented fall is likely to be the huge slowdown and resultant backlog in dealing with ESA claims. The number of ESA claims awaiting a decision is now over 700,000.
The result is that IB to ESA reassessments are now down to 5,000 a month and very few claimants with existing awards are likely to be re-referred. There’s more details on which groups are likely to have an assessment here.
It is not surprising then that Judge Robert Martin, the outgoing president of the social entitlement chamber which deals with benefits tribunals, has claimed that the work capability assessment (WCA) process has virtually collapsed as the DWP goes into a welfare reform induced meltdown.
It’s a claim which has led DWP minister Mike Penning to – somewhat bizarrely – accuse the Judge of being paid by the session and therefore having a conflict of interest.
Finally, the fifth and final independent review of the work capability assessment is now taking place and Dr Paul Litchfield has invited individuals and organisations to give their views.
PIP/DLA NEWS
Fewer than a quarter of the of personal independence payment (PIP) claims submitted between April 2013 and March 2014 have been decided, the DWP has revealed in its first official statistical report on PIP.
However, the award rate for people who are not terminally ill has increased to 50% – up from 36% according to earlier experimental statistics. This is something which the DWP are likely to be extremely worried about, given that disability living allowance awards were only made to around 45% of new claimants.
Meanwhile, the DWP is overturning a huge 55.9% of its own DLA decisions under the new mandatory reconsideration before appeal system, it has been revealed by the same Judge Robert Martin we mentioned above. The rates for other benefits have also been disclosed.
OTHER BENEFITS NEWS
It appears that the DWP believes that universal credit (UC) is dead. Officially the department insists that ‘the vast majority’ of around 7 million recipients will move onto the benefit during 2016-17. Privately, however, the department is no longer predicting that there will be any universal credit appeals between now and 2019.
Yet only last year the DWP estimated there would be 77,926 UC appeals in 2014-15.
Their lack of faith is perhaps explained by the fact that the DWP have so far succeeded in getting just 5,610 claimants onto universal credit (UC). This means they would have to transfer more claimants to UC every single day than they have managed in the whole of the last year in order to meet their target of 7 million UC claimants by April 2017.
Either that or, at the present rate, it will take until the year 3262 to complete the transfer process.
Though perhaps we should be careful about how openly we criticise the DWP. The chair of the Trussell Trust has said that the charity made a decision to tone down its criticisms of the benefit system after someone in power warned them that they could get shut down.
Since the revelation was made, the Independent has revealed that the DWP has also made changes to food bank vouchers issued by Jobcentre Plus with the aim of preventing links being made between problems with the benefits system and use of food banks. The newspaper also identified the IDS aide they claim is responsible for threats to the Trussell Trust.
BLOG ROUNDUP
We came across this blog via twitter. Em has ME and writes about her latest medical with Atos for ESA and demonstrates some exemplary assertiveness skills.
There’s also Em’s twitter page, for more regular musings.
CAMPAIGN NEWS
A shocking report published last week by Mind has found that the back to work support provided through the Work Programme and Jobcentre Plus is causing severe anxiety for people with disabilities and pushing them further from the job market.
‘Fulfilling Potential? ESA and the fate of the Work Related Activity Group’ is based on data from over 500 people with a range of physical and mental health problems. Following on from the report, Mind has launched a new campaign: People need support, not sanctions.
Nearly 60,000 people have pledged to eradicate the stigma associated with mental illness on Time to Change’s pledge wall. The campaign is led jointly by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness.
Members might want to add their name to this campaign, which aims to educate others and raise awareness of the discrimination that those with mental illness face in society.
