More disability benefit data refused for release by DWP.

/ jaynel62

Back in January I wrote about how my transition from DLA to PIP lost me £140 per month, and in March I posted about the saga I had with my Mandatory Reconsideration; both of these pieces demonstrated precisely what this loss meant to me in real terms. Since then I have found myself so behind with bill payments, I now am past ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ and am at the bailiffs knocking on the door stage.

The reason for raising this is, today a FOI request asking  ‘The percentage of current DLA claimants, who, on conversion to PiP, were reduced in their claims’…was answered by the DWP. Unsurprisingly their response was “I can confirm that the Department holds the information you are seeking. However, Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act exempts this information from disclosure. This is because the information is intended for publication at a future date.

Once again the DWP hide behind Section 22, but fail to indicate WHEN these figures are to be produced; could this be because the data once revealed, will show another proven case of how the Welfare Reform Act is persistently failing disabled people?

The recent outcome of the 18 month long fight by Mike Sivier confirmed that “10,000 people lost their lives” after being determined they were well enough to be placed in the Work Related Activity Group! Will this latest refusal for information, demonstrate yet a further number of disabled people, who although surviving, being adversely affected by the decisions of civil servants

We were warned back in 2012, by the then Minister for disabled people Esther McVey that, “more than 300,000 disabled people will have their benefits cut” under the transition from DLA to PIP, are the DWP refusing to release this data, because this figure is already much higher?

27 thoughts on “More disability benefit data refused for release by DWP.”

  4. Pingback: More disability benefit data refused for release by DWP. | disabledsingleparent

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  7. I think whoever wrote that request should ask for reconsideration at once, demanding to know exactly what information the DWP is planning to publish and in what format. The key word is “exactly”. DWP claimed it was going to publish information that answered my FoI request but the facts prove that the Age-Standardised Mortality Rates that took more than two years to appear had nothing to do with it. Also in the reconsideration request should be a demand to know when, exactly, this information is scheduled for release.

    Once the answers (or lack of them) come back, they can write to the Information Commissioner for a ruling. The details of this request will depend on what the DWP provides but she should use the ICO’s own advice, as outlined in my own case (ICO reference number FS50557638) as evidence that the DWP cannot hide behind an indefinite date of publication.

    Let’s allow no room for the bureaucrats to manoeuvre.

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  12. More shennegins from the DWP, their refusal once again calls into question their attitude and lack of co-operation.
    I was migrated from dla to pip and lost over £6.5k due to a sneaky law.. if you are being migrated and are paid low rate dla you do not get back pay.. despite the whole process taking nearly a year. My arguement was, if it had not been for their backlogs and incompetence, none of which was my fault, i would have had a decision made a lot earlier, possibly within days of my award running out, as by then they had had the paperwork some 4 months. if the decision was made within acceptable time limits i would have been paid the much higher award a lot earlier and not lost out such a vast amount of money. their response.. the law is the law.

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  17. If DWP has significantly delayed making payments, the person can make a claim for maladministration and receive compensation. The compensation is not usually a massive amount as it is paid from the public purse, but it is worth writing in and asking for it in the case of delays because it affects DWP stats and gets picked up by the Committee for work and pensions.

    http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/reports-and-consultations/reports/parliamentary/archived-reports/putting-things-right

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  18. Good Luck with making a complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
    They are a total waste of time. I urge anybody thinking of making a complaint to them to check out the excellent website phsothefacts.com
    But by all means make a complaint just to make a point.

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  19. Pingback: More disability benefit data refused for release by DWP. | John D Turner

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