DLA to PIP assessment

moose1982

Has anyone else been contacted about the assessment that DWP are going to be doing to see if the PIP assessments are suitable or need changing or adjusting?

I had a call from DWP earlier as I receive HRM currently. Apparently G4S are doing the PIP assessments and not ATOS (yay!). For the assessment I would receive a small amount (£30 I think he said) in vouchers for spending as a thankyou for helping DWP, plus the usual travelling expenses.

I was just wondering if anyone else had received a call like this?

DX2

moose1982 wrote: »

I had a call from DWP earlier as I receive HRM currently. Apparently G4S are doing the PIP assessments and not ATOS (yay!).

Is G4S not a security company?

jetta_wales

Can only hope that anybody should be better than ATOS?

black1974

Yes I had same phone call today too. I get LRM and LRC. Did you agree to do it?

Sounds to me that they need volunteers to test assessments.

moose1982

G4S are a security company, but they also do various other things. The one other thing I know them most for is hospital transport as they take me each time I have to go up to London instead of my local one. Maybe they are branching out? I'm just glad they got the contract and not ATOS, not many people like ATOS (who are actually an IT company and even supply South West Trains with their ticketing machines).

moose1982

I did agree to it black1974, did you? My thought was that if it helps DWP develop a good system of testing people, then it's very much worth my time. They did say that I can back out at any time and not agree to carry on without prejudice to my existing claim.

black1974

Yes I agreed to it too. They also told me I could say No at any time and gave me a phone number to ring incase I did change my mind. I was thinking the same as you though, if it helps DWP to make sure that the new system assesses people fairly then it has to be worthwhile.

moose1982

Ooo, I forgot to report how the assessment went.

Assessor was very polite and explained everything as we went through the questions. A lot of it seemed to be around the questions that are aimed in the questionnaire followed by a short physical of things like 'moving arms', 'moving upper torso to each side' and 'lifting legs'. Nothing complex at all.

Has anyone had the assessment and wish to comment on how they felt it was handled?

rogerblack

moose1982 wrote: »

Ooo, I forgot to report how the assessment went.

Assessor was very polite and explained everything as we went through the questions. A lot of it seemed to be around the questions that are aimed in the questionnaire followed by a short physical of things like 'moving arms', 'moving upper torso to each side' and 'lifting legs'. Nothing complex at all.

Has anyone had the assessment and wish to comment on how they felt it was handled?

I question that this has much meaning at all.
How a limited trial is done, with initially selected testers of a small number of people, compared with how it's done in practice with many hundreds of not specially picked people doing it all day every day may cause rather different results.

The other question is how the legislation is designed.
An appraisal can be quite fair and accurate, with the best will in the world, and utterly misrepresent the state of someone.

As a contrived example, a system for assessing disability might give points for 'able to stand for long periods' due to being in a full-body-cast.

As I understand it, the weightings for the various tests in PIP have not been done yet, which can lead to unfairnesses of its own.

To take as an example DLA.
The overwhelming majority of the time, I'm less mobile than someone who 'just' has no feet.
(assuming that I could use prosthetics well).
Yet, someone who has this disability automatically gets DLA HRM, without having to produce any more evidence.

The fundamental problem is that any points-based system is broken, yet possibly the best solution available.

Take for example someone with autism, that while mostly able to cope, makes cat noises more-or-less continually to 'defuse' the stress they feel.
(this is a real case, though of course very rare).

They will likely not score enough points to qualify for ESA, but are less employable - than many people who score higher than them.

Richie-from-the-Boro

DX2 wrote: »

Is G4S not a security company?

Welfare to Work, tried under the Margaret Thatcher years .. .. is reborn !

cit_k

jetta_wales wrote: »

Can only hope that anybody should be better than ATOS?

Cant imagine they would be any better, cant imagine the dwp wont just give them a copy of lima and say 'get on with it' the way atos do.

The DWP do own the intellectual property rights/source code etc to LIMA. So they can give a copy to anyone they want.

Apart from of course, claimaints, tribunals, laywers, law lords, mps, etc who want to verify its operating legally.