Page 13 - Community Living Magazine 36-1

benefits

reconsideration stage (where a claimant
can challenge a benefit decision), the
tribunal panel gave her 11 points for the
daily living component and 10 for the
mobility component, resulting in a
standard award in both areas.
The fact remains, however, that the
tribunal decision for Denise came three
and a half years after she had first been
turned down for PIP.
Over those 42 months, she had been
confronted by all the hurdles created by
the DWP and had fallen initially at several
of them, only to pick herself up again
and again.

Success, a small compensation
For this long, drawn-out period during
which she endured acute stress that
triggered panic attacks, she had been left
– with no follow-up enquiries from the Delays in personal independence payments damage the health and wellbeing of people with
DWP – in a state of relative poverty. A disabilities, as Disabled People Against Cuts make clear in a protest in Norwich
successful tribunal decision is small
compensation for what she had suffered. special school and taking a special ignoring previous tribunal decisions as if
Such success at the tribunal stage is educational needs course at college, he they had not happened.
typical of the cases I describe in Benefits now lives at home with his mother. Tony Second, it must make reasonable
on Trial. has a learning disability. He is in his 50s adjustments instead of sending a 33-page
and lives with his wife, Jill. Both Tony and PIP application form to someone such as
Jill are unable to read or write. Tony who cannot read and write.
When the DWP has turned What should be done to tackle Finally, the quality of assessors has

down benefit applications and this injustice? to improve.
Above all, DWP culture has to change.
One question at Thomas’s assessment
left people in relative poverty, After it turned down the benefit from the assigned health professional – a
not once has it followed up applications of the people in my book supposed expert according to government
the impact of its decisions and left them in relative poverty, not propaganda – was enough to demolish
once did it follow up the impact of
that expert status. His parents were asked
its decisions. of his Down syndrome: “When did he catch
This utter lack of humanity was justified it?” The crassness of the question would
Denise and the other people in my book by then secretary of state for work and be laughable if it were not so serious.
are not isolated examples of injustice. The pensions Thérèse Coffey in September Until those changes happen – and
DWP’s most recent available statistics, two years ago to the House of Commons’ obviously more are needed than the three
covering three years from 2018 to 2020, Work and Pensions Committee. I’ve mentioned – the DWP will stand
show that the success rate of appeals She asserted that her department had exposed by the evidence in Benefits
against PIP decisions for people with a no such duty to benefit claimants but that on Trial.
learning disability is approximately 90% duty should be left to “the local councils, The current benefits system, with the
of 890 cases. the social services, the doctors and sort of distortions that denied there was
Two of the individuals in Benefits on other people”. any diagnosed sensory or cognitive
Trial figured prominently in my previous impairment in Denise, does not need
book, Austerity’s Victims. Casual attitude minor tinkering; it needs to be replaced
Danny (see box) is nearing retirement Such a casual approach to governmental by one that takes fair assessment as its
age and has an acquired brain injury. responsibility, illustrated by the nebulous guiding principle.
Thomas is in his 40s and has Down and throwaway term “other people”, is If that happened, someone like Denise
syndrome. Both live independently but unacceptable. would not have to wait for 42 months,
Thomas receives support at home from Equally unacceptable is the attritional deep in poverty, to overturn a DWP
his mother and Mencap. approach of the DWP – a key aspect of its decision to deny her PIP. n
The others, along with Denise, are Ben, culture – that attempts to grind people l First names are used here as in the
down until they lose the will to fight back.
book; all are pseudonyms
Jon and Tony. Ben, in his 30s, has
Roger Blackwell/Flickr/CC BY 2.0 the autism spectrum. He, like Danny, culture, so starkly seen in the treatment is available in print and as an e-book
If the DWP changes that attritional
fibromyalgia and ME as well as being on
l Benefits on Trial by Neil Carpenter
attends a day centre and gets support at
of Danny and Denise, specific aspects of
on Amazon
home from both a personal assistant and
l Review, page 29
the way it works then need to be tackled.
a care agency.
First, it must make constructive use of
the information that is already available to Neil Carpenter is an author and
Jon, also in his 30s, has global
volunteer advocate
developmental delay. After going to a
www.cl-initiatives.co.uk its officials instead of, for example, Community Living Vol 36 No 1 | Autumn 2022 13