WARNING!

I am 72 and 15 months ago was awarded enhanced rate care and standard rate mobility. This was after a gruelling two years of fighting following my health assessment then a tribunal and finally an appeal to the Upper Tribunal. I have an invisible disability, Fibromyalgia, together with Osteoarthritis. I was given the award for 3 years backdated to my original claim for transfer from DLA to PIP. After the award my representative told me that I probably wouldn’t be reassessed again for 10 years following Amber Rudd’s ‘light touch’ review announcement for people over 65.

In January of this year I got a letter from the DWP, nine months earlier than the end date for my award, telling me I needed to put in another claim. Ok, I thought, I’ve got to jump through the hoops again but always thinking in the back of my mind that it would only be a light touch review. Filled the form in exactly as before, telling them at the end that my condition had not changed since my award and waited.

Today I got a call from Capita, out of the blue, to book my telephone health assessment! It’s in two weeks time. The whole dreaded process begins again!

My warning is, don’t assume that just because you are over 65 that you will get a light touch review.

Hi, I have noticed several claimants who have been successful at the Tribunal Stage get very early reassessments. I don't say this lightly, but I have helped about nine people change negative results to positive ones, and they have all had very early reassessments. Surely this could not be vindictiveness by the DWP?

Sadly our family experience, and that of a friend who like you helps a number of others, does corroborate your suspicion. Somebody somewhere should try to do some independent statistical analysis.
As far as I am concerned every single traumatic account seen on this forum is one persecution of a claimant too many. And there are an awful lot, especially if you calculated what proportion of all claimants are B&W members and multiplied the horrors to show how many on average there must be in total.
I keep mentioning B&W in conversation to help improve people's outcomes.
Denby

I have never had an easy time with the DWP. I have had to fight tooth and nail to get what I believe I am entitled to; have always had to go to tribunal, then Upper Tribunal and in one case even Judicial review. It has taken its toll on my health and in 2019 I had a complete nervous breakdown. I’m still not back to normal; still on medication yet still suffering terrible anxiety and this starting up again....well you can imagine. Let’s say that the bathroom has become my ‘home’.

I picked out the word ‘vindictiveness’ in your post and I have said all along that the DWP have it in for me. I have had some horrendous health assessments, the last one being a complete work of fiction but what can you do. I will keep fighting because that’s my nature but my health is suffering as a result.

Persecution; another good word and yes I feel I have and am still being persecuted. This forum and one of the moderators at the time, Jim, helped me with a particularly horrendous ‘doctored’ health assessment. It had originally been in my favour but had been altered around 20 times in a different coloured ink to read the complete opposite. The original was still readable so anyone could tell.

My last health assessment was a complete work of fiction but what can we do? Yes, the DWP should be held to account but we are all so busy fighting our own battles with them whilst being ill ourselves that we don’t have the strength or the money to fight the injustice.

What we need is a very kind champion who would fight them on our behalf but I don’t see one of those coming out of the woodwork any time soon.