new changes

Molly wrote: hi
I sent in a mandatory reconsideration 4 weeks ago,I sent my gp letter the week after that, which was 3 weeks ago,I rang up last week and the DWP told me my form was with the decision maker but could take up to 6 weeks for it to be read.Will these new changes that come into force tomorrow affect my claim

The new regulations are due to come into force on 16 March and will affect new claims made from that date onwards, as well as review decisions made from that date onwards.

In general current claimants should not be affected.

However, if you have an award where psychological distress was taken into account to give you points for descriptors (c), (d) or (f) in relation to planning and following a journey, then you may be affected when your award is reviewed.

However, as the Social security Advisory Committee have already pointed out when claimants have multiple difficulties with following a journey, it may be impossible to “strip out the element of psychological distress from other factors when making a decision. As a result it may well be that it is not consistently treated in these circumstances.”

In other words, the newly drafted regulations are going to be very hard to apply consistently and the courts are bound to be involved in defining how the new regulations should be interpreted.

So, it’s much too soon to say whether and how any individual might be affected. The best thing to do at this stage is to make sure you keep yourself updated about any changes in the law and, if you do lose out, consider an appeal.

Gordon