This was reported in private eye a few years ago. A family member was one of the people to expose it. Capita are a bunch of crooks. They found the government spent more on fighting PIP claims than if they just granted the money.
**The DWP has forked out more than £350 million over the last decade in staff costs in an attempt to uphold decisions about personal independence payments (PIP), according to a freedom of information request obtained by The Big Issue.**
**But the vast majority (68%) of these decisions are then overturned in favour of the claimant when the appeal is taken to tribunal. The DWP spent £24.5m on this last year.**
**It’s been a similar story with ESA over the decade. The majority of ESA mandatory reconsiderations (83%) go in favour of the government, while 66% of appeals go in favour of the claimant.**
*“It is not coincidental,” Wayland previously told The Big Issue. “It is policy. Where else in society would you keep your job if you failed 60 to 70 per cent of the time? It wouldn’t happen. They continue to employ these people to deal with the most vulnerable people in society and fail at that spectacular rate. How this has not been a bigger scandal, I don’t know. It’s just deliberate cruelty.”*
“There is no magic money tree” except when it benefits the Tories.
**The grand total spent on all of these benefits appeals is nearly £750m – that’s hundreds of millions of pounds of “public money trying to defend the indefensible, money that could be far better spent elsewhere”.**
We are talking of around £500 million savings if the original assessments were fair, that’s a lot of money wasted.
Yep….I’ve only got one leg and applied for pip….they basically said I was lying and made my life hell for 4 years …..eventually they admitted it and paid me back money over 2 grand
Loads of cash is wasted fighting arguments that ultimately lose and could be avoided if parties were just reasonable in the first instance.
More often than not the cash spent outweighs what the initial payout would have been.
I was on Disability Living Allowance – Higher Rate Mobility – 12 points.
“You are being transitioned to the newer benefit, Personal Independence Payment (PIP)”
“We have reassessed your claim and awarded you 0 points, so you are not entitled any PIP”
Mandatory Reconsideration, my condition has not changed, here’s an Xray of my hip
“We have undergone mandatory reconsideration and found the original assessment to be accurate.”
Appeal, wait TWO YEARS without any financial support, lost my Blue Badge which made parking more expensive and painful as bays were not as close to venues, lost access to Disabled Person’s Railcard, Disabled Person’s Bus Card, all of which I used.
Went to court myself, argued my case, Tribunal said “We cannot understand why you were not awarded any points.”
Now I’m back on PIP, they backdated my claim.
Extra parking costs? Bad luck. Compensation for two years of stress, dozens of hours writing forms, appeal, attending appeal, costs for higher rail fare and bus use during period in which they screwed me about?
“Sorry, we can’t cover those costs”
FUCK them.
Ah, PIP. I am one of the incredibly lucky ones that got awarded it first time, without any appeals or mandatory reconsideration.
Unfortunately I was only awarded standard rate when I’m entitled to higher. I was also not awarded the mobility allowance, even though I have significant difficulty in walking long distances.
When my friend went to court for her son who had two types of cancer, the DWP representative couldn’t look at anyone, they were clearly so ashamed they didn’t even try and defend.
7 comments
This was reported in private eye a few years ago. A family member was one of the people to expose it. Capita are a bunch of crooks. They found the government spent more on fighting PIP claims than if they just granted the money.
**The DWP has forked out more than £350 million over the last decade in staff costs in an attempt to uphold decisions about personal independence payments (PIP), according to a freedom of information request obtained by The Big Issue.**
**But the vast majority (68%) of these decisions are then overturned in favour of the claimant when the appeal is taken to tribunal. The DWP spent £24.5m on this last year.**
**It’s been a similar story with ESA over the decade. The majority of ESA mandatory reconsiderations (83%) go in favour of the government, while 66% of appeals go in favour of the claimant.**
*“It is not coincidental,” Wayland previously told The Big Issue. “It is policy. Where else in society would you keep your job if you failed 60 to 70 per cent of the time? It wouldn’t happen. They continue to employ these people to deal with the most vulnerable people in society and fail at that spectacular rate. How this has not been a bigger scandal, I don’t know. It’s just deliberate cruelty.”*
“There is no magic money tree” except when it benefits the Tories.
**The grand total spent on all of these benefits appeals is nearly £750m – that’s hundreds of millions of pounds of “public money trying to defend the indefensible, money that could be far better spent elsewhere”.**
We are talking of around £500 million savings if the original assessments were fair, that’s a lot of money wasted.
Yep….I’ve only got one leg and applied for pip….they basically said I was lying and made my life hell for 4 years …..eventually they admitted it and paid me back money over 2 grand
DWP defending poor decisions
NHS defend the indefensible negligence claims
Pay disputes
Loads of cash is wasted fighting arguments that ultimately lose and could be avoided if parties were just reasonable in the first instance.
More often than not the cash spent outweighs what the initial payout would have been.
I was on Disability Living Allowance – Higher Rate Mobility – 12 points.
“You are being transitioned to the newer benefit, Personal Independence Payment (PIP)”
“We have reassessed your claim and awarded you 0 points, so you are not entitled any PIP”
Mandatory Reconsideration, my condition has not changed, here’s an Xray of my hip
“We have undergone mandatory reconsideration and found the original assessment to be accurate.”
Appeal, wait TWO YEARS without any financial support, lost my Blue Badge which made parking more expensive and painful as bays were not as close to venues, lost access to Disabled Person’s Railcard, Disabled Person’s Bus Card, all of which I used.
Went to court myself, argued my case, Tribunal said “We cannot understand why you were not awarded any points.”
Now I’m back on PIP, they backdated my claim.
Extra parking costs? Bad luck. Compensation for two years of stress, dozens of hours writing forms, appeal, attending appeal, costs for higher rail fare and bus use during period in which they screwed me about?
“Sorry, we can’t cover those costs”
FUCK them.
Ah, PIP. I am one of the incredibly lucky ones that got awarded it first time, without any appeals or mandatory reconsideration.
Unfortunately I was only awarded standard rate when I’m entitled to higher. I was also not awarded the mobility allowance, even though I have significant difficulty in walking long distances.
When my friend went to court for her son who had two types of cancer, the DWP representative couldn’t look at anyone, they were clearly so ashamed they didn’t even try and defend.