This bit rings true

" People with mental health problems are especially likely to suffer
from poor assessments - forms provide insufficient space to describe
the impact of a mental health condition, and DWP doctors frequently
fail to investigate the impact on people's lives. Worse still,
Citizens Advice Bureau advisers often find these clients are unable
to face the stress of an appeal, and will accept loss of benefits
even if they stand a strong chance of success.

Most of the forms, including dla forms are designed around physical
health. There are a lot of people with severe MH problems getting
really worried about all of this.

I wonder if the suicide rate or people living on the streets will go
up as a result of these reforms.

And how many firms will exploit people for cheap labour as I remember
happening when there was an employment scheme a few years ago where
by firms were paid to employ people who were on the dole, for 3
months with a view to permanent employment.All the claimants were
paid, was an extra £10 on top of their dole money. Where I worked
this happened and once the 3 months was up another batch came in and
so on.

P

--- In
Carersforumuk@yahoogroups.com, "ifyoudonttryyourguaranteedtofail"
<expertsbyexperience@...> wrote:
>
> Source: The Guardian, 02/03/2006
>
> Reforms need doctoring
>
> The process used to decide who qualifies for disability and
> incapacity benefits is deeply flawed, a report published today by
> Citizens Advice claims. John Wheatley argues that the government's
> proposed welfare overhaul does not properly address the problem
>
> Welfare reform plans propose to transform the gateway to incapacity
> benefit, by reforming the benefit itself, rolling out the more pro-
> active and work-focused Pathways to Work programme to the whole
> country, and revising the process which currently judges whether
> people are incapable of work, and entitled to incapacity benefit,
or
> if they are fit for work, and entitled only to claim jobseeker's
> allowance. The Department for Work and Pensions says it carries out
> around 1 million medical assessments for benefits each year. A new
> briefing from Citizens Advice, What the Doctor Ordered?, explores
> evidence on medical assessments for incapacity and disability
> benefits.
>
> An incorrect decision can cause great hardship - people refused
> incapacity benefit who decide to challenge the decision cannot
claim
> jobseeker's allowance of around £56 per week, instead they receive
> income support less a penalty of 20% - a weekly income of just £46
> per week. An appeal can take months, but success rates are very
high -
> almost 60% for both disability living allowance and incapacity
> benefits at oral appeal hearings rising to 70% when clients are
> represented by an adviser.
>
> People with mental health problems are especially likely to suffer
> from poor assessments - forms provide insufficient space to
describe
> the impact of a mental health condition, and DWP doctors frequently
> fail to investigate the impact on people's lives. Worse still,
> Citizens Advice Bureau advisers often find these clients are unable
> to face the stress of an appeal, and will accept loss of benefits
> even if they stand a strong chance of success.
>
> Sir Thomas Boyd Carpenter, former chairman of the government's
social
> security advisory committee, said in his final report last year
that
> the "prime focus on 'welfare to work' must not be allowed to
obscure
> the fact that there will always be a significant number of
> individuals who will never be able to sustain paid work - or in
some
> cases any form of work at all".
>
> Numerous official reports have been highly critical of DWP's
> standards of decision-making. The National Audit Office found
> that "with a fifth of benefit decisions containing errors of some
> kind [there is] scope for improvement in the quality of decision
> making".
>
> The DWP standards committee concluded in its last annual report
> that: "It is not clear that the department gives high priority to
the
> quality of decision making."
>
> Judge Michael Harris, president of appeals tribunals, was sounding
> exasperated in his most recent report: "There seems little point in
> my colleagues and I providing more feedback or the department
> commissioning further studies from the appeals service or their own
> standards committee when no discernible improvement in decision-
> making is the result."
>
> Welfare reform proposals will not succeed unless they recognize the
> need for improvements in the quality of medical assessments, and
> offer a more modern approach to those who have to rely on the state
> for their income. A quantum leap in the quality of medical
assessment
> and decision-making is needed for welfare reform objectives to be
> realised, so that applicants are spared distress and hardship when
> they are wrongly denied benefits to which they are entitled and
which
> can support a return to work; the DWP can save resources devoted to
> unnecessary reconsiderations and appeals; the appeals service has
> fewer appeals to deal with; and advice agencies spend less time
> helping clients challenge poor decisions.
>
> The green paper acknowledges that current arrangements fail
> recipients because DWP has taken virtually no interest in providing
> constructive help to people getting incapacity or disability
> benefits. DWP simply decides whether a person qualifies, gives them
a
> work-focused interview and pays them until they stop claiming or,
if
> they fail an assessment, decides they no longer qualify. Benefits
> stop instantly even if someone has relied on the income for many
> years. This is an inhumane and outdated approach.
>
> · John Wheatley is the senior social policy officer for welfare and
> work issues at Citizens Advice john.wheatley@...
>