Disabled couple snooped on and accused of fraud by the DWP

Jack_green said:
It has grown because people became more aware of p.l claims for their accident.

It was costing the private sector a lot. This was the main problem. Placing barriers to justice is a away to stop victims from getting justice.
It stinks.
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It is absolutely true that some unscrupulous businesses will obviously act in their own favour, but then you seem to be suggesting its all one sided and seem to be coming from an angle that 100% (or as good as) are all genuine claims.. the reality is the same unscrupulous mindset that you attribute to evil private sector companies is entirely present in all of society, on both sides..

Your ire with the government makes little sense in this case, they literally have been endorsing CFAs the entire time, the very mechanism that has seen this huge increase in PI claims.. only when it gets out of hand do they tend to reform.. sure that may be from private sectors complaining that things are out of hand, or it may be that the no win no fee solicitors are employing ever dodgier approaches that is hurting the client..
One recent reform for whiplash and other PI injuries actually doubled the amount you could claim through small claims, that was very much not in the favour of insurance companies or the private sector..

To show the stereo type of low quality and dodgy no win no fee solicitors isn't just some made up nonsense: https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/media/5zon1hb1/250121-complaints-in-focus-cfa-report-v3-140103.pdf

My experiences mean I'm quite sceptical of everyone, people and businesses alike, there are good and bad, and most systems in society work until people find ways to exploit it on either side, then it becomes rife with abuse and eventually it just ends up hurting those its designed to help.

Each to their own.
 
robfosters said:
I’ve been on PIP since 2017 and never had one word from them about reviews, cutting or stopping payments or anything.

Do they just pull names out of a hat or something?
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Utterly random, my mum had it awarded for life as her hip was never going to get better short of a miracle/human cloning/brain transplants, then about 2 years later it was reviewed and revoked.

That one was several years after my mum had a "random" check that came to nothing after she got her first Motability car, we're fairly sure in that case someone had reported that she seemed to have had a lot of money and had bought a new car...and no one at DWP thought to check to see where her mobility award was going (as the car had Motability stickers in the rear window, and a disabled tax disc it wouldn't even have taken more than a few seconds looking at it).

Vidar said:
Depends on the length of your award, I'm now on the 3 year cycle so my next review is February 2027 as they haven't worked out yet that unless I grow a new leg I'm never getting any better. I believe there's 5 year and 10 year cycles.
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Ah yes the "It's something that's never going to get better, we'll check in a year or two to make sure" method of review.

A lot of DLA and PIP reviews seem to be utterly random, and I strongly suspect driven by targets and backlog, as in if you're in an area where they don't have a massive backlog but do have a target because there are "too many disabled" or "too many off sick" they'll do them more often.
IIRC last I heard there were still people on classic DLA because the backlog of moving people over to PIP/UC was so bad that they basically didn't want to touch them and increase it.

Something I have seen suggested is that people who've repeatedly been checked and won tribunals etc in a relatively short time might get checked less often eventually, but I'm fairly sure that is just rumour as I've also heard that the DWP doesn't actually check it's own records for claimants going back more than a few years most of the time..
 
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Jack_green said:
The success fee was one of many things Introduced to stop pi claims. What you linked was mistakes made by the firm such as ate insurance which should have been taken out for many of those cases. Nothing to do with the case itself.
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The report was only to show how incompetent they are:
Example A was a woman encouraged to make a claim with the promise of no win no fee, the solicitors knew it was a 50/50 case but went ahead and when they lost they went against their T&Cs and left her liable for £15k in legal costs.
Example B was someone encouraged to make a claim, and said they’d take out an insurance policy against potential losses, they decided to withdraw partway through the case and it turns out they didn’t take out any insurance range as promised and passed on the £30k bill to the client
Example C - was someone encouraged to make a claim, but they didn’t bother even checking all the facts with her about previous claims and when that was found out after proceedings started, they withdrew and hid behind a definition based term about ‘if new information comes to light’ were as it was concluded they withdrew at that point because the basic information was incorrect and me at it had < 50% chance of success.

These are examples that show either greedy incompetence or worse, they are scraping the barrel so hard, they number of losses has broken the no win no fee business model, neither is good.

On your second point, The DBA and CFA mechanisms support PI claims, they literally are designed to remove any risk to the client in being financially liable if they don't win, they 100% encourage people to take a chance on a PI it’s in that report, they then cite the problems it causes with ‘ambulance chasers’ etc.. How is that aimed at stopping PI claims? sounds more like its encouraging them to the point it invites poor business practices.
 
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Hades said:
I do agree and I certainly won't be voting conservative. But if anyone thinks things will be better under labour (or any other party) then they have a shock coming.
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I think in 4 years we're going to have millions of Labour voters gaslighting themselves into thinking things are better under Labour when things are going to be much worse. It doesn't matter who's in charge, things will always go in one direction. The only time in my living memory the country went in the right direction is the first 3 terms of Margret Thatcher and the Labour Party from the election in 97 until 9/11
 
Vidar said:
Depends on the length of your award, I'm now on the 3 year cycle so my next review is February 2027 as they haven't worked out yet that unless I grow a new leg I'm never getting any better. I believe there's 5 year and 10 year cycles.
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Same for my son, amazing that there isn't a lifetime option. He's not going to suddenly grow half of his brain back is he.
It just adds extra stress to a situation that really doesn't need extra.
 
robj20 said:
Same for my son, amazing that there isn't a lifetime option. He's not going to suddenly grow half of his brain back is he.
It just adds extra stress to a situation that really doesn't need extra.
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I'm so sorry to hear about your son, that's really rough! The whole benefits system needs to change, but especially for us disabled people and our families. As I've said before, disability should be put back in the hands of GP's etc. I'm pretty sure the NHS could use the money the DWP gives to the private companies like ATOS who handle all the reviews etc. I mean who's best placed to decide if I need help or not? My GP who physically had to run from the surgery to my home after I'd had a potentially life threatening complication and stayed with me until the ambulance arrived or the surgeon who put my leg back together telling me that theres nothing more they can do but if I want it amputating in the future I can contact them via their secretary and schedule an appointment, or some person I've never met before on the other end of a phone etc.

It's a damn travesty! And a political decision that would probably save the tax payer money but then they couldn't accuse us all of being work shy scroungers! I would absolutely kill to get off of benefits and go back to work but when I can't even wear trousers without risking a DVT and swelling so bad my toes feel like they're breaking what hope do I have?
 
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robj20 said:
Same for my son, amazing that there isn't a lifetime option. He's not going to suddenly grow half of his brain back is he.
It just adds extra stress to a situation that really doesn't need extra.
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Yeah, that's bad.. my sister has scoliosis (her spine is in a massive S shape) it is so bad there is nothing that they can do anymore and thats it for life, yet she is in a 3 year cycle too and she struggles/worries about it a lot.

Vidar said:
As I've said before, disability should be put back in the hands of GP's etc.
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I think what you want is already starting to being discussed and already being trialled.

Fast-track Severe Disability Group criteria revealed, would you qualify?

Get the benefits you're entitled to: help with personal independence payment (PIP), universal credit (UC), employment and support allowance (ESA),disability living allowance (DLA). Claims, assessments, reviews, appeals.
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk www.benefitsandwork.co.uk
 
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Vidar said:
I'm so sorry to hear about your son, that's really rough! The whole benefits system needs to change, but especially for us disabled people and our families. As I've said before, disability should be put back in the hands of GP's etc. I'm pretty sure the NHS could use the money the DWP gives to the private companies like ATOS who handle all the reviews etc. I mean who's best placed to decide if I need help or not? My GP who physically had to run from the surgery to my home after I'd had a potentially life threatening complication and stayed with me until the ambulance arrived or the surgeon who put my leg back together telling me that theres nothing more they can do but if I want it amputating in the future I can contact them via their secretary and schedule an appointment, or some person I've never met before on the other end of a phone etc.

It's a damn travesty! And a political decision that would probably save the tax payer money but then they couldn't accuse us all of being work shy scroungers! I would absolutely kill to get off of benefits and go back to work but when I can't even wear trousers without risking a DVT and swelling so bad my toes feel like they're breaking what hope do I have?
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This last time was actually much easier as he had his diagnosis but up until about age 4 the filling in the forms was so stressful, even though everyone aged his issue was what it was he didn't have it on his file as a diagnosis, so we had to list all the reasons he required support, such as not able to feed himself, not able to walk by himself, not able to toilet himself.
Each year I watched my wife cry her eyes out as she was forced to list everything that's "wrong" with her son.
The GP thing im not sure about either, ours is pretty useless they aren't much help, really hard to see when you need them. Not sure I'd want them making any decisions.
 
The UN are calling for the UK to talk about disability violations.

UK Government Faces UN For Violation of Disability Rights | Disability Rights UK

www.disabilityrightsuk.org www.disabilityrightsuk.org

On March 18th, the UK Government will finally face up to the United Nations (UN), giving evidence on their violations of Disabled people’s rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The UN investigated the UK Government in 2016, with the UK being found guilty of systemic violations in 2017. As a UN committee spokeswoman declared, “the committee can confirm that some violations were grave, some others were systematic, and some were both: grave and systematic.”
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So far the UK government keeps no showing.
 
Getting back to one of the topics ie disabled people should work if they are able. I certainly can think of a severely disabled person who managed a very successful career.
 
tonys said:
Getting back to one of the topics ie disabled people should work if they are able. I certainly can think of a severely disabled person who managed a very successful career.
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I can think of 1 person who managed to create Amazon.

Not everyone can be the next Jeff Bezos.

For every 1 who manage to still have a successful career, there are hundreds - probably thousands - who struggle every day of their lives and are not so fortunate.
 
Devilman said:
I can think of 1 person who managed to create Amazon.

Not everyone can be the next Jeff Bezos.

For every 1 who manage to still have a successful career, there are hundreds - probably thousands - who struggle every day of their lives and are not so fortunate.
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That's very true, I was thinking of Stephen Hawkins myself. I know what problems disabilities can cause in life and I agree with you one hundred percent. It is the attitude of those who are able-bodied that need to change, support needs to be targeted for that person for their particular problems.This is certainly not happening at the moment.
It's like someone else said one plaster on top of another on, then a bandage and tube grip on just for good measure
 
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Jack_green said:
Well, I can think of many none disabled people that have a very successful career. But there are many that do not.
And Hawking wasn't disabled at the start Hawking gained his academic and scientific credentials whilst still very much able-bodied.
Plus he had funding.
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He still worked though, some people are not disabled from birth either
 
Jack_green said:
Well, I can think of many none disabled people that have a very successful career. But there are many that do not.
And Hawking wasn't disabled at the start Hawking gained his academic and scientific credentials whilst still very much able-bodied.
Plus he had funding.

Different disabilities impact people differently.
The greatest minds on this planet were disabled.
Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein... I would say disabled people have contributed more than none disabled people.
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Probably because they have more to prove and overcome, good on them I say
 
tonys said:
Yes the support that should be in place to help others work aswell if they are able.
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Which will frequently cost far more than supporting them when they aren't forced to work.

It's worth noting that Hawking was only able to work because he was an utter genius who did most of his training and got the reputation needed to enable him to get the funding to continue working, before he was disabled.
Most people will never have that sort of high value output that means it's in any way economical to basically provide a team to let them work.
IIRC Hawking had nurses and assistants including someone who was basically his "chair tech/PA" to enable him to get around and do his work, he was amazing but got a level of assistance that is pretty much unheard of in a country where things like help for the blind of deaf can take months/years to get sorted out, and where you need a good level of personal funding if you are an amputee and need/want a "good" prosthetic that works well for you (and isn't the bare minimum).
 
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