One of the volunteers I spoke with at Oldham foodbank on Friday was keen for me to report this story:
This volunteer had recently rung the Personal Independence Payment helpline to request an application form for Andrew, a 51-year-old man who has a profound hearing impairment. Andrew was at the foodbank on Friday.
The foodbank volunteer told the woman who answered the PIP helpline that Andrew was deaf.
Nonetheless, the officer on the PIP helpline insisted that Andrew speak to her – over the phone.
Both Andrew and the volunteer were still nonplussed by this on Friday. They were wondering why an officer on a helpline for PIP – which is meant to be a disability support benefit – would demand to speak on the phone to someone who has a serious hearing impairment?
Said the volunteer:
“One of the problems that I had: when I was sending out for a PIP form for Andrew, the woman at the other end of the phone – he [Andrew] doesn’t do text speak – she was saying, “why do[n’t] you put him on the phone?
“I was outside with him. I said, “I’m supporting this man. He is profoundly deaf…”
[The officer on the helpline said] “has he got a phone?”
“[I said], “No, because he can’t hear you.””
[The officer said] “But I’ve got to go through security [with him].”
“Ultimately, she was fine, but she didn’t have the breadth of aspect… [experience] to understand.”
——————–
I wanted to post this, because it was an example of a lack of DWP and provider training for disabled people and people with support needs that I (and many others) come across far too often.
Other examples (of the many) I’ve witnessed first-hand include a man with learning and literacy difficulties who was given an impossibly long civil service url to type into a website on a computer he couldn’t use to apply for a job he’d never get. That was at Wood Green jobcentre. He and I just sat staring as his jobcentre adviser wrote the url out:
There was the Northampton man I wrote about in detail last year who was told to leave his PIP face-to-face assessment. He’d become angry and upset – he couldn’t cope with the pressure of the face-to-face assessment on account of his Asperger’s and mental health problems. No adjustments were made for him at that point. He was sent this Failure to Comply letter.
Last week, I posted a video I made of a woman with learning and literacy difficulties being told to leave Kilburn jobcentre when she attempted to drop in a sick note.
There is an extraordinary lack of expertise at times.
Send the DWP a notice of prosecution! They will soon change their tune and send out forms if they don’t send the prosecution to Caxton house and go for as much compensation as you can. IMHO they don’t want this person on PIP. It’s just another excuse to say claims are lower since the introduction of PIP, they certainly are at fault for not making reasonable adjustments for this person.
How do you issue the DWP with a notice of prosecution? I’d really like to know.
Quite interested in that myself
Yeah I’d be interested to hear this. I’ll bookmark this site.
That is totally disgusting my heart goes out to him well done the person at the food bank they are surpose to help when ever I have had to ring nerver once was helpful sort off nearly I had to cancell a appointment due to a hospital appointment he advised me you can cancell once that’s it do it again they ortamatily stop your money
They have said the same to me and will not pay me until i do.I am disabled wheelchair bound lady with MS and a serious unstable heart condition .im too sick for an Identity interview so no money since January. I cannot afford vital heart medication or diabetic medication. Yesterday i ate half a small banana and a bowl of dried cornflakes..i also have Severe anxiety and depression and PTSD since a serious assault. My heart goes out to this man.we must all stand together against this barbaric Government.
Jane, you should qualify for a medical exemption certificate and not have to pay for your prescription medication! https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-prescriptions.html
Also, if anyone has been sanctioned and has lost their income as a result, it may still possible to continue to get free prescriptions. https://www.nhs.uk/Healthcosts/Documents/HC1%20Front%20Page.pdf
Are you in the U.K? If you are in America then I understand but if you are in the U.K and you have Diabetes then I don’t understand because there is a specific criterion where diabetic people get an exemption from payment for prescription medication.
Only for insulin dependent Type 1 diabetes. Type 2 diabetics have to pay for their tablets and other meds they may need
erm….you may have been advised incorrectly there.
both my parents and my husband were diagnosed type 2 and they all get free meds….you need to ask your GP for a form to fill out which you then send off.
No, they don’the.
I’m type 2 and I’m exempt.
Actually you are incorrect. Anyone prescribed Metformin medication is eligible for exemption from having to pay for NHS prescription medication in England.
I have an exemption card and I am type 2 so you need to ask for your gp’s help there!
You shouldn’t have to pay anything. Any lifelong medication gives you an exemption certificate which then gives you all prescriptions for free. Ask at your doctors surgery.
You shouldn’t have to pay anything. Any lifelong medication gives you an exemption certificate which then gives you all prescriptions for free. Ask at your doctors surgery.
This is what happens when you base a system on ideology rather than common-sense and humanity. All the administrators and promoters of the system operate within a fixed, narrow mindset.
They know about the cruelty and difficulties, but they push these to one side and ignore them. The system is everything and nothing, no other concern, must stand in its way.
They muddy the water to make it seem deep. – Friedrich Nietzsche
Why didnt they just email him that stupidly long url as a clickable link? Writing it down like that is defeating the object of having IT. As for the guy with Aspegers having difficulty with face-to-face interviews, I sympathize as I experience similar difficulties EVERY fortnight when I sign on, which makes me feel very anxious.
I called the DWP to claim ESA for my son. The woman I spoke to was really aggressive and insisted that she had to speak to him, even though I’m his appointee. I tried to explain that he has autism and doesn’t use any verbal language. She actually screamed ‘Put him on the phone’. When the phone call ended I was in tears and shaking. I am a confident, articulate person but I felt I’d been bullied by someone who is allegedly supposed to be helpful.
That’s vile and I’m sorry you had to experience that from this moronic imbecile who shouldn’t have the job she has as she seems seemingly unclued up on whom someone’s role is as an ‘Apointee’ ..My Mum applied for Appointeeship for myself several years ago when I was going through a particularly bad patch as I have diagnosed Paranoid Schizophrenia and I’m not an unintelligent person. I’m 31 years of age but I still have times where I break. I have relied heavily on my own Mum (who is now 60) and my Husband (who has Aspergers on the Spectrum Of Autism himself) and we both get ESA and PIP and it’s amazing the amount of idiots who are at the other end of the line (DWP) who can’t understand that I have to speak for my Husband sometimes and then vise-versa for me. Everyday is a gamble and neither of us know how that particular day is going to affect us. I really feel for you.
Why the hell is it so difficult just to claim State Benefits in this country? How can this be happening? The Social Security system in the 1970s worked better than it does now. One can only assume that it is deliberate, either that or the Government are incompetent. Either way, the Tories need to GO!
I genuinely think it all is dependent on how severe an individuals circumstances are (in relation to say cognitive/physical health) and the genuinely ill will get exemptions. I do find it unfair how low the payment is for say JSA claimers, claimers of Income Support in conjunction with Carer’s Allowance and I think it’s absolutely disgusting that Asylum Seekers are entitled to ANYTHING at all. This is seemingly the founding nation of ‘Father Feed’Em-All’!
So someone who is fleeing persecution in their own country – could be death, torture or incarceration for things things we would see as human rights – should have no access to food or shelter. I hope you don’t seriously mean that.
Yeah, no. Genuine asylum seekers would stay in the first country they got to where there was no fear of death, torture or prison. Not pass through multiple safe countries to get here.
Doesn’t this come under Disability discrimination laws? They should definitely complain to the DWP and if possible Equal Opportunities commission.
it won’t make a blind bit of difference.
we’ve been criticised by the UN on how we treat our less able folx and the govt merely said they would take the recommendations into consideration!
See also:
“But Mordaunt [the Disability Minister] told MPs on Monday [9 October] (pictured) that the Office for Disability Issues was looking at the UN report and that the UK government had “volunteered to put ourselves through this process”.
“The process that led to the report is not voluntary, as is made clear in articles 35 and 36 of the convention….”
Source: Mordaunt misleads MPs yet again.
There is an email address to claim PIP but the DWP will not publish it –
I have tried every legal avenue I know of to make them. RFP1.PILOT@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK
I have had this argument with them about phones many times as I am deaf. Sadly the way UK law works is individualised, so they will expect every single deaf person to explicitly refuse to talk to them or to use a third party or use text relay or sign video. I won’t use text relay cos the accuracy is dreadful, but I’m educated and articulate and am not afraid to say “provide alternative to telephony as a reasonable adjustment for disability under section 20 of the Equality Act or else I will sue you and I won’t ask twice”. Most deaf people don’t have that knowledge or education. 🙁
Yes. The Disability discrimination Act was brought in and all employers and Govt agents have to make reasonable adjustments. Surely its reasonable to let a disabled person who is deaf to make an appointee to speak on their behalf. It seems to fit under reasonable adjustments.
The DWP is full of staff with low or no qualifications, who went into it straight from school, and time-servers with limited ability who have finally drifted into management. Compare the ‘management’ of your local Jobcentre with any you have known in the commercial world. The difference is sadly obvious.
The DWP have never been the smartest people in the room, and this is why so often their advisors make these stupid remarks such as requiring to speak to a profoundly deaf man on the telephone.
Yep and I definitely get the feeling with the pip helpline that people are reading from a script at the top of which are large letters which read YOU MUST TALK TO THE APPLICANT REGARDLESS. I have had a couple of weird conversations with people on the application line. One woman denied that the guy I was with existed because she couldn’t find him on whatever lookup they use
Just read of a man named Nev Cartwright who successfully used a transcript of a sound recording of his PIP assessment at an appeal tribunal to prove that they had produced a fraudulent report of his health condition. This man has one lung and they removed his mobility car by falsely recording details of the assessment. Google it.
That is good news particularly in the sense it was admissible. Wonder if that sets a precedent. People must be able to record their own assessment. A Wellingborough woman I am working recently had her ESA ftf recorded by Maximus. They gave her a cassette which unravelled when she tried it at home
A cassette? Wtf? May as well have videoed it on betamax.
The headline here reminds me very much of a blog post I composed in 2015 with reference to a 2008 Community Care magazine article.
I quote from my blog post while the original source article seems to have ‘gone walkabout’ on the Community Care website as evidenced by ‘Database Error’ response to the original blog link and ‘search results link’:
‘In the wake of the launch of Labour’s 2008 Welfare Reform Green Paper, a Community Care magazine blog piece, The Misery of Welfare Reform, highlighted the case of ‘J’ who had a history of depression and anti-depressants on the dole that the antics of the DWP had done nothing to help. And that J had subsequently been denied Incapacity Benefit when she applied for it, and her doctor — who had prescribed the anti-depressants — would not put a finger out to write even a sick note in support of J’s case. J’s doctor argued that whatever he wrote, the DWP would ignore it.
‘That The Misery of Welfare Reform blog piece as a whole is extremely well worth reading over six years later for the resonances with the Work Capability Assessment fiasco that has emerged since then and the subsequent phenomenon of doctors charging as much as £100 for a letter in support of a claimant’s tribunal case. But for now, as a lead-in to the latest pattern that the KUWG’s case workers have uncovered, I shall just quote the Community Care blog piece reference to witch trials:
“So the DWP has come up with a modern equivalent of the medieval witch trial (float and you’re a witch, drown and your’re not) — starve to death and you are mentally ill; buty food and you’re fit for work.”
— The Misery of Welfare Reform
‘The latest development uncovered by Kwug’s caseworkers has come to light through attempting to get Atos to issue appointments for Kilburn folk at assessment centres closer to their abodes than Richmond, Deptford or Dagenham. (Instead of,
“The computer says, ‘No’,”
“The computer says, ‘Go miles out of your way’.”)’
They’re selling off the Welfare state the same as they did the NHS – Atos walked away from their contract then rebranded so they could get the PIP contract. They still work with Maximus doing ESA assessments. Serco and Capita (Part of Virgin Care) Virgin Care, Concentrix, G4S and other multinational corporations (Also deep into the Australian health and welfare systems) and others have all been buying up NHS and Welfare contracts since 2011
NHS Contract Awarded To Private Firm Despite Rival Bid Being “£7 Million Cheaper”
https://www.buzzfeed.com/solomonhughes/nhscontractstokeutm_term=.ymVAWOrq2#.sl83AN8vD
All have vast health and employment insurance arms. Also involved in MOD and government IT contracts. I believe this is all part of the government push toward the so called trade deals. TTIP, NAFTA, CETA and the rest – All of these companies are almost certainly already neck deep in these trade deals which means they will be in place ready to push us into the US health and welfare systems.
This animation explains how the trade deals work –
As an example the largest fracking company is in process of suing the Scottish government for banning fracking stopping them making profit from it yet in England the government is fully supportive of fracking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLKBYO8-u64&feature=youtu.be
We are all very much aware of the vast amounts of money that has been thrown at DWP benefit IT systems for Universal Credit (BT is one of the IT contractors) almost £1 billion and they’re now giving the (Rebranded ATOS) another £200m for the PIP contract. They say that all of the cuts (Part of the lie of the need for austerity) are required to pay off the national debt but they’ve tripled it and more. It’s as plain as the nose on your face.
Nine times more spent pursuing claimants than employers not paying minimum wage https://corporatewatch.org/news/2016/apr/01/nine-times-more-spent-pursuing-claimants-employers-not-paying-minimum-wage
I rest my case..
Austerity is a lie alright, just an excuse for massive wealth transference. The companies & corporations you mention are making millions hand over fist at our expense & it will all end up stashed away in offshore tax havens. Pretty damned galling when I’m existing on £69 per week JSA and persecuted for it, sat here with just a small handful of loose change to last ’til the end of the week. It’s a disgusting & outrageous state of affairs. A huge injustice is being done to all of us.
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I don’t want to believe you are really as heartless as you make yourself appear. I’m sure if you were actually there when a refugee family arrived with nothing, you would want to give them a helping hand till they were on their feet again. You wouldn’t really stand by and watch them starve.
When I hear the acronym ‘PIP’ in connection with right wing ‘welfare reforms’, I am reminded of a phrase originally attributed to ex-Daily Mirror proprietor and ‘socialist multi-millionaire’ Robert Maxwell. That phrase was in relation to his approach to Human Resources Management, but has since been more popularised in relation to how Labour governments would tax the wealthy.
That phrase as originally related to me orally was, “I take people and I squeeze them until the pips squeak.” It seems to me that that prhase may also have occurred to whoever devised that acronym with regard to a disability benefit.
In preparing to give a brief presentation to my local Green Party branch about ‘full roll-out’ of Universal Credit coming to the area, I just came across this headline in response to a “Green Party” “Universal Credit” search: Green Party: Government must refund Universal Credit helpline bills.
From my recollections of what I’ve seen you reporting on re DWP call lines, Kate, it would seem to me that the Universal Credit ‘helpline’ is not the only DWP pay per minute number. I wonder how many such lines there are?
DWP debt management line is certainly still charged for – rang that the other day. Two calls on hold for more than 20 mins. Apparently charges are to be dropped for lines at the start of next year (?) but they seem a little vague on which ones. Hoping my FOI will come back this week. Dunno why I’m hoping. Should have learned by now.
I have promble too because I am half deaf I was receive ESA for volunteering but Making Space recovery mealth health say can’t do befriended volunteering because Half deaf haven’t’ got money feel with half deaf. I dispont lost my flat because could not afford rent and get no help in Stafford Staffordshire just wanted move out Staffordshire live in West Midlands don’t believe in hope my Christmas is ruin so not happy
Been disabled for twenty five years had Motability Cars for over twenty years now I am losing my Car because I have been awarded Standard Rate Mobility. I can not stand for very long dependent on my car for shopping even thou can only get small amount each time and getting out and I am so afraid of losing the fight already asked for Mandatory Review but will probably end up having to go to Judicial Review have no support nothing. Husband passed away fours ago. If I lose my car will be housebound. I suffer Arthritis, Inflammatory Disease and Chronic Pain in all joints.
My wife has M.S and this includes terrible incontinence and major mobility issues. she was told to travel 20 miles for an assessment. I she can not travel this far and for this long without wetting herself so is there changing facilities to which she replied you will have to lay her down on the toilet floor! This was a pip assessment centre for goodness sake!