wca

Benefits and Poverty

August 16, 2018 0

Disability charity’s appointment of Unum boss as new chair ‘is truly disgraceful’

A disability charity’s decision to choose as its new chair the head of a company closely linked with the government’s hated “fitness for work” test has been branded “a betrayal” of disabled people and “a truly disgraceful appointment”. United Response, which provides a range of support services to about 3,000 disabled people across England

Benefits and Poverty

July 12, 2018 0

DWP silence over ‘thousands of ESA claims lost in IT black hole’

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has told a disabled woman whose benefit claims repeatedly went missing that thousands of other claimants have lost their applications in the same departmental black hole. Vicky Pearson, from Lincolnshire, had to survive for nearly two weeks without food over Christmas and the new year, a distressing

Benefits and Poverty

Outside view of the Houses of Parliament

July 12, 2018 0

Universal credit leaves claimants with mental health problems ‘tangled in bureaucracy’

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People with mental health problems are becoming “tangled up” in the bureaucracy and flaws of the government’s new universal credit benefit system, a committee of MPs have heard. Members of the public accounts committee heard this week that claimants were facing “considerable hardship and considerable deterioration in their mental health” because of universal credit.

Benefits and Poverty

Front entrance of Maximus offices in London

June 21, 2018 0

‘Fit for work’ assessor suspended for describing examination that did not take place

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An occupational therapist who carried out a “misleading” benefit assessment has been suspended for a year after regulators found she reported carrying out a physical examination of a disabled man that did not take place. Paru Vekaria has shown no remorse over the incident, in which she stated in a written report for government

Benefits and Poverty

Paul Litchfield giving evidence to a Commons committee

May 31, 2018 0

DWP ‘has no record’ of whether it showed WCA death documents to reviewer

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) claims it has no record of whether it showed vital documents linking its “fitness for work” test with the deaths of benefit claimants to the expert it hired to review the assessment. Even though DWP possesses the documents, it is claiming it holds no information in its

Benefits and Poverty

Sarah Newton speaking in the House of Commons

May 10, 2018 0

DWP figures on ‘unacceptable’ WCA reports cast doubt on decisions made on tens of thousands of ESA claims

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Tens of thousands of “fitness for work” benefit claims could have been decided by civil servants on evidence from assessment reports that should have been rejected because their quality was “unacceptable”, government figures suggest. The concerns about the way Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) decision-makers have decided employment and support allowance (ESA) claims

Benefits and Poverty

April 26, 2018 0

DWP ‘failed to show WCA reviewer evidence of links to benefit deaths’

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The Department for Work and Pensions appears to have admitted failing to show vital documents that linked its “fitness for work” assessment with the deaths of benefit claimants to an independent expert it hired to review the test. Dr Paul Litchfield published the final two independent reviews of the work capability assessment (WCA) in

Activism and Campaigning

April 26, 2018 0

Letter calls on GP body to denounce DWP’s ‘fit for work coercion’

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The national membership body for GPs is facing calls for it to denounce government attempts to persuade doctors to “coerce” patients with serious health conditions back into work. More than 90 campaigners and concerned health professionals have sent a joint letter to the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), asking the organisation to distance

Benefits and Poverty

Philip Connolly speaking at a conference

April 26, 2018 0

DWP agrees to record PIP assessments but response to MPs’ report still ‘falls far short’

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The government has given a mixed response to a report by a committee of MPs that concluded that the disability benefit assessment system was being undermined by a “pervasive culture of mistrust”. Ministers have agreed in their response to make the recording of personal independence payment (PIP) assessments “a standard part of the process”,

Benefits and Poverty

April 19, 2018 0

Mother of ESA suicide woman pledges to continue fight for justice

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The mother of a woman who killed herself after being wrongly found “fit for work” has pledged to continue her campaign for justice, and for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to admit it was to blame for her daughter’s death. The case of mother-of-nine Jodey Whiting, from Stockton, was highlighted this week

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