The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has dropped a bombshell on hundreds of thousands of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants, announcing they’ll need to show up for face-to-face assessments. The DWP is cranking up the number of in-person evaluations, it told benefit recipients this week.
This move follows objections, which indicated the surge in virtual meetings was leading to too many approvals.
Face-to-face assessments took a nosedive after COVID hit, and the existing Labour government has taken a swipe at Tory-agreed contracts that specified 80 per cent of assessments be done virtually.
The DWP has confirmed plans to ramp up the percentage of in-person assessments. For PIP, the percentage will leap from 6 per cent in 2024 (57,000) to 30 per cent of all assessments, while the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) will jump from 13 per cent in 2024 (74,000) to 30 per cent.
In addition, the DWP is stretching out the time between check-ups to see if a claimant’s condition still qualifies them for PIP. This move, it says, will free up health professionals to conduct more face-to-face assessments and deliver more WCA reassessments.
It said it underscored the crucial role of reassessments in tracking how changes in health conditions and disabilities impact people over time.
All told, the DWP considers these steps will pocket the UK taxpayer a cool £1.9 billion by the close of 2030/31. This comes hand-in-hand with employment initiatives targeting sick or disabled people, including Connect to Work and the deployment of 1,000 additional work coaches.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden commented: “We’re committed to reforming the welfare system we inherited, which for too long has written off millions as too sick to work.
“That is why we are ramping up the number of assessments we do face-to-face and taking action to tackle the inherited backlog of people waiting for a Work Capability Assessment.
“These reforms will allow us to save £1.9 billion, creating a welfare state that supports those who need it while helping people into work and delivering fairness to the taxpayer.”
Of course, some people are work-shy and don’t want to work, but the system works; people will always fall through the cracks because those who work in DWP are not infallible, and I suppose that makes the system flawed to a point.
You also have to remember that not everyone claiming a benefit is a blagger and is actually in need, even if it’s not observable, but once the brush is tarred, people believe that everyone is a blagger, but that’s what our government want you to believe, and don’t even believe that they don’t mess with the numbers!
However, making them do a face-to-face like they’re the Starzi is not the way to go about it. There has to be a more compassionate way? What will it be next? Burning people at the stake, or submerging them in water, and if they don’t drown, they’re not benefit scroungers. Better still, why don’t they all get them to do a lie detector test? Not the claimants, the people who work there!
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 