Disabled Britons struggling ‘unacceptable therapy’ at palms of DWP | EUROtoday

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is letting down incapacity profit claimants and placing them susceptible to better hardship, a damning new report has discovered.

Customer service throughout the entire division can also be criticised alongside the rising subject of underpayments within the wide-ranging doc from the Commons cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Chaired by Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the committee make a number of suggestions to enhance the DWP. These embrace bettering name ready occasions, higher tackling fraud and decreasing underpayments which reached £4 billion in 2023/24.

Their report warns that incapacity profit claimants are receiving an ‘unacceptably poor’ stage of of service from the DWP, because the division continues to misconceive the expertise weak prospects.

It finds that solely half of latest claims of the health-related private independence cost (PIP) profit are processed time, in comparison with 96 per cent of state pension purposes, for instance.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall will announce a package of measures to overhaul the welfare system next week (PA)

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall will announce a package deal of measures to overtake the welfare system subsequent week (PA) (PA Wire)

Meanwhile, claimants of one other health-related profit, employment and assist allowance (ESA) are ready a median of half-hour to talk to a DWP agent, it finds, in comparison with simply two minutes for Universal Credit claimants.

The subject of lengthy ready occasions can also be exacerbating the extent of underpayments, the report provides. This is as a result of many claimants of health-related advantages have to name the DWP to report a change of circumstances that might qualify them for the next charge of cost – however these calls too usually go unanswered.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, chair of the committee, mentioned: “Our report’s disheartening findings illustrate the stark disparity of experience between claimants for disability benefit and other users of the system. In some cases, claimants are literally calling for help and receiving no answer, resulting in increasing risks to their financial security.

“The British public would be forgiven for thinking the state is AWOL just when it needs it most. The DWP must do more to ensure that claimants are reunited with the money to which they are entitled, as well as to understand the needs of vulnerable claimants.”

(PA Wire)

The report comes forward of Labour plans to reform well being and incapacity advantages within the UK as ministers say the variety of individuals claiming them – at present round 4.2 million – has change into unsustainable. A paper laying out the deliberate adjustments is ready to be revealed within the coming months.

Richard Kramer, Chief Executive of the nationwide incapacity charity Sense, mentioned: “It sadly comes as no surprise to Sense that the Public Accounts Committee has found the DWP’s treatment of disabled people ‘unacceptable’. We’ve been told again and again by disabled people that getting the help they’re entitled to has been an ordeal. In our research, half of people with complex disabilities said the benefits application process made the impact of their condition worse – it shouldn’t be like this.

“Disabled people have been paying the price of a broken benefits system for far too long. Sense is calling on the Government to use the upcoming Health and Disability Green Paper to make sure the welfare system allows disabled people to apply for benefits independently and with dignity.”

The PAC report additionally finds that £9.5 billion of profit expenditure was overpaid in 2023/24, recommending the DWP set out the way it intends to make use of the £110 million it was allotted within the Autumn Budget to deal with fraud.

A DWP spokesperson mentioned: “We have reduced phoneline waiting times and are providing tailored help for customers with additional needs while also uprating benefits by 1.7% this April to ensure that customers get all the support they are entitled to.

“The report does not consider that we are already taking action on fraud and error through our new Fraud Error & Recovery Bill which will help us protect claimants by stopping errors earlier alongside saving an estimated £1.5 billion of taxpayer money over the next five years.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/dwp-benefits-number-wait-disability-pip-wca-b2689375.html