£100 lost by not attending ESA appointment

Bogof_Babe

NYM wrote: »

Blooming heck! Bogof_Babe got there first!

Not by much, and at least we are agreed! :T

NYM

Great minds and all that....

red_devil

dktreesea wrote: »

There are good DWP employees in job centres, no doubt, but there are also those who delight in torturing vulnerable people, imposing unfair sanctions that are not within their remit to impose , e.g. sanctions that go on for six months, for two missed appointments, both self certified for being unwell, which is allowed under DWP regulations. Even though, in that particular case, a tribunal hearing went in favour of the claimant and their monies due were backdated, it was a harrowing process and that claimant needed a lot of support to go through that process. The farce should have been stopped at the mandatory reconsideration phase but dragged on, presumably because the DWP is banking on the claimants not being able to face going on to the tribunal.


I, for one, am sick of DWP staff who don't know their jobs and of managers who don't do their jobs properly, one of which is to monitor their staff and call them to account, and indeed protect claimants from them, when they are being sadistic.

well said the advisors must have such an awful life that they want to ruin others. I says a lot about these type of people that they are doing this work in the first place. Sanctioning is a violation of human rights. No wonder Torys want it scrapped.

dktreesea

red_devil wrote: »

well said the advisors must have such an awful life that they want to ruin others. I says a lot about these type of people that they are doing this work in the first place. Sanctioning is a violation of human rights. No wonder Torys want it scrapped.

The Tories? Not a chance. They are the ones behind all the sanctions, the lack of accountability etc. The SNP want sanctions scratched. Not sure about labour, though Corbyn is on record as wanting to scrap the benefits caps.


Still, even though I would think "uneasy rests the crown", when it comes to Cameron and the Tories, he personally should be happy. Many people sitting on the fence will probably vote to stay in the EU, even if they are from England, because they don't trust the current government when it comes to protecting their human rights.


People on ESA are long term sickness beneficiaries, every single one of them. There's no other way to get ESA, i.e. you have to be signed off by a doctor for more than 13 weeks to even get it.


Sanctioning the sick is a terrible thing. We may not want a Labour/LDP/SNP coalition (probably the only combination that could defeat the Conservatives) and I doubt if the UK could afford to have socialists in power (the SNP are okay because they don't believe in wasting money, typical short arms, deep pockets Scots), but the problem with benefits is everyone is aware that at some point along the way this could be their fate.


So do people care about this, and what will they do about it? If they care enough, first they'll vote to stay in the EU. The next, more reliable, test will be local government. Conservatives will lose control of their local councils.

red_devil

dktreesea wrote: »

The Tories? Not a chance. They are the ones behind all the sanctions, the lack of accountability etc. The SNP want sanctions scratched. Not sure about labour, though Corbyn is on record as wanting to scrap the benefits caps.


Still, even though I would think "uneasy rests the crown", when it comes to Cameron and the Tories, he personally should be happy. Many people sitting on the fence will probably vote to stay in the EU, even if they are from England, because they don't trust the current government when it comes to protecting their human rights.


People on ESA are long term sickness beneficiaries, every single one of them. There's no other way to get ESA, i.e. you have to be signed off by a doctor for more than 13 weeks to even get it.


Sanctioning the sick is a terrible thing. We may not want a Labour/LDP/SNP coalition (probably the only combination that could defeat the Conservatives) and I doubt if the UK could afford to have socialists in power (the SNP are okay because they don't believe in wasting money, typical short arms, deep pockets Scots), but the problem with benefits is everyone is aware that at some point along the way this could be their fate.


So do people care about this, and what will they do about it? If they care enough, first they'll vote to stay in the EU. The next, more reliable, test will be local government. Conservatives will lose control of their local councils.

I meant the Tories want the human rights scrapped.

micky2phones

SingleSue wrote: »

Yes they do.

A friend of mine (sorry no link available, just personal experience), had been claiming ESA for a mental breakdown, he also has Aspergers. He didn't receive the required amount of points at his assessment and so had to sign on for JSA.

It was at this point that the attitude towards him completely changed, he was going to organisations to help him return to work (which he had been referred to by the job centre whilst on ESA and waiting an appeal) but all of a sudden, this became a reason for a possible sanction.

The pressure put on him was absolutely immense and because it was threatening his rather delicate mental health, he signed off. He found the whole process very intimidating, very scary and he felt completely unsupported and scared about having the rug pulled from under him and getting a sanction for some wrong doing that he had no idea about.

Now this is not someone who had spent years on the dole or even years on ESA. Up to that point he had spent about a year on ESA, the rest of the time he had been working full time (so well over 30 years).

He now receives no benefits apart from council tax (I think, he might even have hit that on the head such is his fear) and is reliant on his mum (after spending his savings to live) and a few odd jobs he can do when he is well plus selling bits and pieces in his home to survive as and when needed...the fear and initimidation was far too much for him to even contemplate trying to go through the system again. Thankfully, he owns his own home (mortgage paid off about a year before he became ill) so he doesn't need to worry about the roof over his head!

Hi, your friend was treated badly IMO as i was lead to beleive that a person taken off ESA goes on to JSA to wait for a MR and the Job Centre knows that person may still be unfit for work.

They wait for the MR result and to see if that person wants to appeal if MR was unsuccessful, until all this has taken place that person is still unfit for work

missapril75

Alice_Holt wrote: »

For your information CPAG (Child Poverty Action Group) provide the reference materials and training for CAB's. Should you ever find yourself in the back office of your local CAB, you will spot a 400ish page CPAG book on welfare and tax credits.

On a general point, CPAG always provided brilliant handbooks.

I was in DSS/DWP for over 30 years and I used to buy myself a copy. It was far easier to find what could and couldn't be allowed and easier to follow than most of the official stuff. Accurate too.

There were two big advantages. If it said something could be allowed for, and how/why, then it gave one the will to look further for official justification, which wasn't always easy.

Conversely, when someone didn't believe me because I was obviously not going to be truthful given I was a big bad employee of the DSS, I could show them this independent book to prove it. It saved some arguments.