Latest podcast episode – in which we look again at a benefits system in terminal shambles.
New DWP head Pat McFadden says he’s going to put jobcentre advisers into GP surgeries to target sick and disabled people for work. Righto, Pat.
That idea in itself is cack, but another important point is that the DWP will screw it up whatever happens, because things already go amazingly wrong. They mix up people’s files, lose their medical evidence, scan it upside down, lose sick notes – the works.
In this episode, we hear from Michelle Cardno who is a benefits lawyer at Fightback for Justice in Bury.
Michelle tells an interesting story about the DWP scanning people’s medical evidence the wrong way up, so that a tribunal judge at appeal only had blank pages to look at.
She also talks about the way that the DWP randomly allocates PIP – ie, awarding PIP to one individual, then taking it away from that exact same person even though their situation hadn’t changed at all.
There’s also a covert recording from a meeting between a social worker and a homeless woman where the social worker reads from the wrong file entirely – it’s another family’s file altogether.
Public sector systems have been decimated by years of cuts. McFadden needs to look at that and make that work before he gets into his other big ideas.
Things don’t improve then!? Back in the day I did volunteer advice work with the unemployed and sick. The lost documents award then went to Housing Benefits. The number of people who weren’t hearing back and waiting months was phenomenal, when they came to us and we tackled Housing Benefits we were told oh we must of lost it… Even when it was sent registered post or hand delivered? One poor old boy had it worst than most and in the end I said despairing on the phone, when you get a claim form, what do you do with it? Use it as toilet paper? Just bin it unread? Make paper aeroplanes and have Wacky Races? In the end we were told, yes it’s sorted and his cheque has been printed he’ll get it on X date. X date came and I went to the office, he was waiting in reception. Oh no said I please tell me it came? Come it did. Hand delivered by courier because the cheque was for such a huge amount?!! True tale
This is one of the reasons why the parents of disabled kids in the podcast had to leave work. They have to spend half their lives and more trying to work out what the DWP and/or their council has done with their benefits or housing applications or medical evidence or whatever it is. Total clown car.