Capita Pay Substantial Compensation To Family Of Philippa Day

At long last Capita have had to pay for their gross misconduct and so should the DWP, and I hope there is more to come, but will it make a difference?

Well, it might, if this is not a one off, so everyone who has suffered at the hands of Capita and DWP should put in claims. But really this gross misconduct should not be occurring, is it too much to ask for Capita and DWP to put their own houses in order, well that depends on whether the gross misconduct was deliberate or done by accident, I know which one I believe so no change and gross misconduct will continue until they learn that when they do, it will cost them.

Same Difference

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

Capita have paid ‘substantial’ compensation to the family of Philippa Day, a single parent who took her own life after she was told that she had to attend a face-to-face PIP assessment in spite of her anxiety, depression and agoraphobia and in defiance of pleas by her CPN. It is believed to be the first such payment made by a DWP health assessment provider.

Ever since her death in 2019, Philippa’s family have been fighting to make the DWP and Capita admit their role in her death and to change the way vulnerable claimants are dealt with.

In a call the DWP tried to prevent the coroner making public, a clearly very distressed, sometimes crying, Philippa told a DWP call handler she was “literally starving and cold”, “genuinely can’t survive like this for much longer”, was “in…

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PIP Assessments Now Being Audio Recorded

This appears to be good news for claimants with regards to ATOS, but not so with regards to Capita.

The recommendation for people to make their own covet recording is also sound advice for it will also be evidence if the recording do not match.

Referring to Capita, surely the DWP should make this part of the contract and if, Capita do not comply then they should be removed as authorised agents.

The more that can be done to make the process more transparent the better.

What would be even better is to cancel all the contracts with Atos and Capita and any other outside agencies as soon as possible, then we would only have to contend with the DWP, which alone is more than enough.

The whole benefit processes need to be more user friendly and based on a person-centred approach, rather than a system approach.

Same Difference

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

 

IAS (Atos) have begun recording telephone assessments for personal independence payment (PIP) Therese Coffey, secretary of state for work and pensions, told the Work and Pensions Committee on Wednesday 30 September.

Coffey told the committee that IAS had begun recording the assessments on 21 September

“But that has not yet started with Capita. That is under, I can assure you, active management to get Capita going quickly on this”

This means that claimants can now ask for a copy of the audio recording of their assessment if they wish to challenge the decision or if they simply want to have a copy for their own records.

We’ll be updating the PIP guide later this week and the latest version will include a simple Subject Access Request you can send to request a copy of the audio recording.

We don’t know when…

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Disabled people forced to go through two disability benefit assessments : Welfare Weekly

The Benefits and Work website have reported that a number of their members in recent weeks have been been made to go through a second Personal Independent Payment (PIP) assessment before a decision is made on their award, because there was a problem with the first assessment report.

One member faced a two hour assessment on Christmas Eve. In January they were contacted by Capita and told that the assessment was “incomplete” and that someone was to be “sent round to finish it.”

Capita have refused to say what information was missing and would not provide a copy of the report until it was complete.

 

Source: Disabled people forced to go through two disability benefit assessments : Welfare Weekly

Stroke Victim Has Mobility Car Taken Away

This just shows how evil the DWP are, they lack understanding, empathy, common sense and many more.

People want to show their best and get penalised for doing so.

People have good and bad days, so how can one assessment decide how many good or bad days there are. Do they take into account pain thresholds and any other aspects.

From these reports it appears their first priority is to turn down claims, perhaps there is a target, or a reward for doing so.

Many people will give up or not appeal because they are so depressed by the process. Unfortunately this is but one process the disabled, the poor, the vulnerable, etc have to go through and all are demoralising be they Government, Local Authority or Health (Continuing Health Care).

It is as though the system is against them and more likely it is, this is not welfare, but punishment.

“I can’t live the life I choose without PIP.”

This is the PIP process and then does it all start again when the rollout of Universal Credit comes around.

Not counting all the various illnesses, conditions and disabilities, stress itself can kill you.

I am of the frame of mind that this is the whole intention of this Government for when you are dead that is one less claimant for them to consider.

No one in any Government area cares and this could also be said of the local authorities and CCG.

Thousands of benefit claimants with Multiple Sclerosis told they are ‘not disabled enough’

The whole process is geared to find claimants are not entitled to the benefits, as in many instances the assessors do not listen to the claimants, already have preconceived ideas about a claimants condition, the majority if not all of theses preconceived ideas being wrong and also blatant lying by some assessors.

The whole process is weighted against claimants.

Where incorrect decisions have been made, these should be investigated by an independent body to see if any illegal or dishonest actions have been undertaken by any assessors and where found these assessors should be prosecuted.

Watchdog’s ‘issues of concern’ over regulator’s treatment of PIP complaints | DisabledGo News and Blog

A regulator has been told there are “issues of concern” about the way it deals with complaints against health and care professionals, including those who write dishonest benefit assessment reports.

The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) agreed in January to look at concerns about the way regulators deal with complaints about nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics who carry out personal independence payment (PIP) assessments for the outsourcing giants Capita and Atos.

It agreed to act after being contacted last year by disabled activist Mark Lucas, who has twice appealed successfully against the results of what he believes were dishonest PIP assessments.

Hundreds of disabled people have come forward over the last 18 months to tell Disability News Service (DNS) how assessors working for Atos and Capita wrote dishonest PIP assessment reports on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Many also raised concerns about the apparent refusal of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to take their complaints about these assessments seriously.

Only this week, Lucas received an email from HCPC, explaining that it would not take any further action over his complaint about an occupational therapist who had assessed him for PIP.

He believes the assessor deliberately downplayed the seriousness and frequency of his seizures, but HCPC told him it did not believe this had happened and even if it had, “it would be considered a minor error, which would not be capable of amounting to an allegation of impaired fitness to practice”.

Lucas has twice been found ineligible for PIP following assessments, but on both occasions was later awarded eligibility for the PIP standard daily living rate after appealing to a tribunal.

 

Source: Watchdog’s ‘issues of concern’ over regulator’s treatment of PIP complaints | DisabledGo News and Blog

The PIP Files: Data shows multiple complaints made against scores of Atos assessors | DisabledGo News and Blog

Scores of healthcare professionals may have been able to continue carrying out disability benefit assessments despite being the subject of multiple complaints about their behaviour, competence and honesty, confidential new documents have revealed.

The official reports, prepared by outsourcing giants Capita and Atos for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), show that up to 180 personal independence payment (PIP) assessors were the subject of at least four complaints each in three-month periods in 2016.

The documents, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that 161 assessors working for Atos had more than three complaints made against them in a three-month period.

And 19 Capita assessors were also subjected to at least four complaints in a three-month period in 2016.

Neither Atos nor Capita, nor DWP, will say what action was taken against these assessors and whether they are still carrying out face-to-face assessments of disabled PIP claimants.

The revelations provide fresh evidence of failings by the two private sector outsourcing giants in delivering PIP assessments across England, Wales and Scotland.

Disability News Service (DNS) has been investigating claims of widespread dishonesty by PIP assessors for more than a year, and has now heard from about 300 claimants who say their assessment reports contained clear lies.

The new reports include details of the “management information”

 

Source: The PIP Files: Data shows multiple complaints made against scores of Atos assessors | DisabledGo News and Blog

The PIP Files: Nearly one in three Capita assessments were flawed, reports reveal | DisabledGo News and Blog

Nearly one in three of the disability benefit assessment reports completed by a private sector contractor were significantly flawed, confidential Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) documents suggest.

The figures were revealed through a government audit of personal independence payment (PIP) assessment reports that had been written by staff working for under-fire outsourcing giant Capita in 2016.

The audit, which examined more than 4,000 of the 190,000 assessment reports completed by Capita from April to December 2016, found that about 7.5 per cent of them were so poor as to be deemed “unacceptable”.

But with another 14 per cent of assessments, DWP concluded that the report was so flawed that there was “learning required” by the healthcare professional who wrote it, although the report was of an “acceptable” standard.

And in a further 12 per cent of cases, the report needed to be amended because of even more serious flaws in the assessor’s report, although again the report was still said to be of an “acceptable” standard.

In all, nearly 33 per cent of the Capita reports audited during 2016 were found to be of an unacceptable standard, to need changes, or demonstrated that the assessor had failed to carry out their role properly.

If the findings of the audit – which examined just over two per cent of all reports – were applied to all 190,000 of the assessments completed by Capita in that eight-month period, more than 14,000* PIP claimants could have had their claim decided on the basis of a report that was of an unacceptable standard.

And more than 62,000* could have been based on a report that was of an unacceptable

 

Source: The PIP Files: Nearly one in three Capita assessments were flawed, reports reveal | DisabledGo News and Blog

Stephen Fry and Alex Brooker explain why the Tories screwed up PIP so badly : Vox Political

This clip from The Last Leg is pertinent now, even though it’s more than a week old, because of the recent “satisfaction” survey of PIP claimants.

It features co-host Alex Brooker and the legendary Stephen Fry explaining exactly what’s wrong with PIP.

Watch:

Source: Stephen Fry and Alex Brooker explain why the Tories screwed up PIP so badly : Vox Political