PIP whistleblowers expose ‘horrific’ target system used to decide benefit claims

6 comments

1. [deleted]

2. All I’ll say is that the system is flawed and broken.

   I can imagine there being some assessors deep down who want to award (not sure if “award” is the correct term here so sorry) people PIP payments but they can’t or as someone else has mentioned said assessors are encouraged to reject applications.

3. My dad who was 60 at the time, had COPD amongst other things for many years and was at the point where he couldn’t even walk down the stairs or go make a cup of tea without needing to sit down and rest for 10 minutes after working his whole life

   Got rejected 2 times before he was accepted, received 2 payments and then they just stopped

   Couldn’t get through to PIP, multiple times of being on hold for 4+ hours just for the call to drop, Citizens Advice drafted a letter to send to them, still got nothing back. Universal Credit couldn’t help us get ahold of PIP until my dad’s terminal diagnosis and then magically Universal Credit managed to get my dad’s PIP approved again. He died a few weeks later before he even got a payment from them

4. I have a PIP award for 4 years since March of this year, and got enhanced daily living, with 4 points for managing interactions as I can hear things that aren’t there (psychosis). I work three afternoons and work for a great employer who puts a team-mate with me, lots of other adjustments too though access to work, but it took 14 months to find through the Shaw Trust who help people with severe mental illness into work. It probably would take someone without psychosis half the time to do the job as I lose my focus often and become distracted; I also work ‘behind the scenes’ as sometimes my behaviour can look strange. The PIP mainly goes towards transport costs. I have been eligible for PIP since 2015 but never applied because I believed ‘no-one gets PIP’. And now it risks being taken away. I just feel I don’t know which hoop the government want me to jump through anymore? No PIP and back on full rate LCWRA, or PIP, a bit of UC, and stay in work. I don’t earn enough to be a tax payer, and the social security spend on me is slightly less than it was before. But this isn’t a sprightly workforce we are talking about – its people with PTSD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and personality disorders who have massive challenges ahead of them to be able to hold down a part time, living wage, role. My income is still way under the full time living wage income on benefits, and I am still in poverty, but its no longer ‘food bank’ poverty.

5. Unfortunately this isn’t news… exactly same thing was reported in 2019 and 2016… Not that it’s bad for press to repeat the point that the system is designed maliciously to harm disabled people tho. You never know, it might get changed eventually

6. I have spent years helping people take on DWP across various Tribunals when their Benefit Applications were declined.
   Throughout that time I have come to see that the Government is out to rob people and punish them for events and situations in their life they have no control over.