Figures releases by the DWP prove that independent decision making by the DWP is a sham, with PIP decision makers disagreeing with assessment reports in just 3% of cases.
In March of this year a request was made to the DWP for information on the number of cases “where a decision maker or senior decision maker has not followed the descriptors recommended by the health care professional in a PA4 report?”
Initially the DWP refused to answer, claiming it would cost too much to provide the data.
Eventually, however, they did disclose that:
“Between February 2023 and January 2024, there were 22,000 cases where the decision
maker did not follow all the descriptors recommended by the assessment provider. In the
same period a total of 679,000 assessment decisions were made.“
This amounts to a little over 3% of all reports
In other words, for every thirty three assessments that cross a decision makers desk, only one will be disagreed with in any way whatsoever.
Yet, according to the DWP’s PIP handbook:
“In all cases the decision maker will make a decision based on all the available evidence, such as:
- the report from the assessment provider
- the ‘How your disability affects you’ form
- any additional evidence that the claimant has provided, or
- further evidence that the assessment provider has given”
If this was genuinely the case, then you could expect there to be a significant percentage of cases where the decision maker attached more weight to the evidence given by the claimant themselves or to medical or other evidence provided by the claimant.
In reality, no matter how poor the PIP assessment report is, it is almost always simply rubber stamped by the decision maker. In fact, t would be reasonable to question whether decision makers even read the majority of reports, rather than simply totting up the scores and calculating any award.
It seems to be only at the mandatory reconsideration or appeal stage that there is any real possibility of a decision maker actually considering evidence other than the assessment report.
Last month, we revealed that the DWP is testing sharing PIP assessment reports with claimants before making a decision.
The comments below the article show that many readers are in favour of the idea:
“This would be a welcome part of the procedure as it will allow you to clarify information and if needed supply further evidence and information.”
Woody
“I think this would be of tremendous benefit to claimants especially in the case where information has been blatantly altered or omitted completely. It gives us the chance to make sure our voices are heard.”
Zara
But others doubted that it would make any real difference to the initial decision.
“Surely it's only going to be as 'Good' as the DWP's willingness to actually action any discrepancies claimants & their advisors wish to 'Clarify' with them! As has been shown time & time again, the DWP is an unwilling participant in its own policies & the cynic in me remains sceptical of this 'Test' & left wondering what their ulterior motive might be!”
Sue C C
Here at Benefits and Work, we have our doubts about how much notice would be taken of corrections by claimants, if they were made at the initial decision stage.
But claimants would get the chance to see at the outset how poor the evidence being used to decide there claim really was. Many would be astonished and outraged by seeing what had been written about them.
This might encourage many more claimants to go on to challenge the decision rather than giving up at the first refusal. And that can only be a good thing.
