More than 40 per cent of the reports carried out on disability benefit claimants by the back-to-work assessor Atos are flawed and unacceptable, according to an audit commissioned by the Government.
The cost of appeals against Employment and Support Allowance decisions (ESA) - a benefit for sick and disabled people unable to work - has soared to a record-breaking £66 million, up £21 million since 2009/10.
A minor little campaign victory achieved at NDCS the other week: the Department for Work andPensions (DWP) accepted that deaf people should not be forced to use the phone to make a claim for the new Personal Independence Payment (PIP) benefit.
Following the independent Triennial Review of Equality 2025 and the
Continuing their series on the Coalition's secret cuts, Kate Belgrave and Alan White investigate the problems arising from outsourced face-to-face assessments. Does the DWP even know what its policy on recording PIP face-to-face assessments is? And why can't people with hearing impairments get video recordings of assessments?
