We cause WCA failures?????

[Dilizjo]

Now we are to share the responsibility of assessment fails......

 

"BLAME SHARED" over benefit test failures

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19906596

 

When will the ConDems stop and look in the mirror to see who actually is to blame....

[debt4get]

well of course WE are to blame!!! i wouldnt have it any other way....its our own fault for giving ATOS all the information which they then proceed to totally ignore..so it has to be our fault

[count orlok]

Well on the ESA50 form they ask for your doctor and specialist's names and addresses, if its not for checking on what you have said why do they ask?

 

I presumed that was what they did. I mean anybody could say they had chronic heart disease couldn't they? Surely they would have checked, as they don't usually believe what you write on the forms.

[debt4get]

in fairness after all the bad press ATOS have been getting over the last few months, once the press had decided that 'oh these stories must have something in them' attitude, then it stands to reason that govt and ATOS would resort to putting some blame onto the claimant....i mean we would all seriously hide the evidence so ATOS f**ked up so that we could happily live on assessment rate ESA for up to a year, and then only produce it at tribunal time....they really take the biscuit!!

[count orlok]

Isn't the judicial review something to do with this. Something along the lines of its the responsibility of the DWP to contact Doctors to get the evidence. After all it is unfair to expect us to do it as most doctors charge.

[Zarbafi]

Us sharing the blame and not providing all the evidence is a joke, it is most peoples experiance that neither ATOS or the DWP who seem to merely rubber stamp the ATOS examiners report looks twice at the ESA50 form submitted by the claiment or any of the additional evidence. Again this is because the WCA exists to remove as many people from the benefit as possible rather than assess real need and is most likely incentivised by either ATOS or the DWP. So from their point of view if they don't look at the additional evidence then they don't have to take it into account. The whole system is a disgusting sham and IDS should admit this and scrap the WCA once and for all.

[Zarbafi]

Well on the ESA50 form they ask for your doctor and specialist's names and addresses, if its not for checking on what you have said why do they ask?

 

I presumed that was what they did. I mean anybody could say they had chronic heart disease couldn't they? Surely they would have checked, as they don't usually believe what you write on the forms.

 

I think they would look for some supporting evidence like recently prescribed medication or hospital appointment letters. I was queries in my assesment because of the dates on one prescrption medication even though it had only been proscribed to me about a week before I sent my ESA50 back, I still had plenty left and only used it for acute attacks the implication was that I was trying to say was on more medication than I really was when these medications of which I use several varieties are never taken daily and would indeed be dangerous to do so.

 

I am fairly sure also that not being seen regularly by a specialist i.e. the NHS has done all it can for you is probably a big reason many very sick people lose all there benefits because in their eyes if your not seeing a specialist they there can't be much wrong with you.

[debt4get]

Us sharing the blame and not providing all the evidence is a joke, it is most peoples experiance that neither ATOS or the DWP who seem to merely rubber stamp the ATOS examiners report looks twice at the ESA50 form submitted by the claiment or any of the additional evidence. Again this is because the WCA exists to remove as many people from the benefit as possible rather than assess real need and is most likely incentivised by either ATOS or the DWP. So from their point of view if they don't look at the additional evidence then they don't have to take it into account. The whole system is a disgusting sham and IDS should admit this and scrap the WCA once and for all.

now lets not be silly...the system that is in place is saving MONEY for the hard working taxpayers, who leave early in the morning looking at the closed curtains of their neighbours sleeping off their benefits....you really should know better....IDS honestly thinks as does the rest of this atrocious govt that we really are the **** of the earth, and should be annihilated at all costs..the only panacea for us is work, work, work and more work....we really are lazy scrounging layabouts who deserve the sympathy of sewer rats.......and ITS ALL OUR OWN FAULT!!!

[count orlok]

All I provided was my script, I did tell them I was waiting to go into hospital for an angiogram had angina, damaged spine legs etc. I just assumed they had written to my doctor for information as I was put in the support group. Perhaps they believed me?

[Nystagmite]

I am fairly sure also that not being seen regularly by a specialist i.e. the NHS has done all it can for you is probably a big reason many very sick people lose all there benefits because in their eyes if your not seeing a specialist they there can't be much wrong with you.

 

Which makes no sense when many of us have incurable medical conditions. There is absolutely nothing that can be done to help me with any of the conditions I have. I have yearly eye tests due to my conditions; but that's it.

[honeybee13]

Hi guys.

 

It does sound like a PR exercise to try to combat the bad press, the way I read it.

 

HB

[osdset]

Maybe if DWATO actually looked at, and considered medical evidence provided by claimants, there would be no need to to appeal in the first place.

[worried33]

the minister blames a lack of evidence but then we see this.

 

"He got his consultant to write a letter to the DWP, but it changed nothing and he had to wait nine months before the tribunal was held and the decision reversed."

 

So the tribunal and DWP had the same evidence.

[debt4get]

the minister blames a lack of evidence but then we see this.

 

"He got his consultant to write a letter to the DWP, but it changed nothing and he had to wait nine months before the tribunal was held and the decision reversed."

 

So the tribunal and DWP had the same evidence.

ah yes but the tribunal is independent, whereas the DWP are govt controlled...we all know that any evidence we produce is simply ignored...

[count orlok]

ah yes but the tribunal is independent, whereas the DWP are govt controlled...we all know that any evidence we produce is simply ignored...

 

and that's our fault, how?

[antone]

Just so's we're all on the same page here, the Tribunals Service is independent of the DWP, yes, but it's part of the Ministry of Justice. It's not independent of the government.

[down'n'out]

They are just blame shifting, waiting for the changes next year.

 

From next year we will see no legal aid for appeal, no benefit paid during appeal, and an unspecified wait time for a reconsideration before being able to make an appeal. So the probability is many less will be able to afford such a wait for appeal. The Government will then be able to put forward how the appeals have been reduced, due to how the WCA is now working correctly.

 

As for the actual appeal(tribunals service), well, what changes will be made by Grayling?

[osdset]

Grayling stated before he departed to mess up the justice system that his department were working 'behind the scenes' with the tribunal service to see if 'improvements' could be made, to my mind this raises certain doubts on the impartiality of the tribunal service, we can pretty much guarantee that any 'improvement' will benefit the DWP rather than appellants.