Afraid of losing car under PIP rules? MOTABILITY TRANSITION

One-off transitional support for customers who lose eligibility to remain on the Motability Scheme From motability.co.uk
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Their Chairman States :

One-off transitional support for customers who lose eligibility to remain on the Motability Scheme

Since 2010, Motability has maintained a close dialogue with DWP as they developed their plans for the introduction of PIP through a number of public consultations. Over the last two years, Motability has also consulted disability organisations including Disability Rights UK, Disabled Motoring UK and groups representing customers with specific impairments, as well as undertaking considerable research with our own customers, to discuss what help would be most useful for those customers who are no longer eligible to use the Scheme. We are very grateful to all of the organisations and individuals who have helped us in developing and prioritising proposals for how we support these customers.

In order to ensure that the Motability Scheme is sustainable for the long term to continue to help the disabled community for at least another 35 years, we have the responsibility to identify risks, long term as well as short term, especially in these uncertain times. Taking account of these considerations as well as of our customers’ needs, Motability and Motability Operations have concluded that the following support can be provided to customers leaving the Car Scheme as a result of a PIP reassessment:

• DWP has already announced that they will allow DLA payments to continue for four weeks after they make their decision regarding PIP. In addition to this, the Scheme will allow customers to retain their vehicle for up to a further 3 weeks from the date the DLA payments end. The customer will therefore be able to retain their vehicle for close to two months after the DWP decision is made.

• Customers will need to return the car to the dealership in good condition and within the agreed timeframe in order to qualify for the following transitional support:

1. For customers who entered into their first lease agreement with the Scheme before January 2013 and therefore could not have been aware of PIP and the associated risks when they joined (the vast majority of customers), we will provide transitional support of £2,000. For many customers, this will enable them to continue to have mobility by purchasing a used car.  
2. For customers who entered into their first lease agreement with the Scheme with an awareness of PIP being introduced and of the risk that they could lose eligibility following a future PIP reassessment i.e. after January 2013 and up to December 2013, we will nonetheless provide transitional support of £1,000.

We will review these levels of transitional support during 2015 to take account of economic conditions and of any possible changes the Government may be making to PIP at that time.

• For customers who have made an Advance Payment (an additional upfront payment to lease a larger or more complex vehicle on the Scheme), the Scheme will continue to refund any Advance Payment on a pro-rata basis. No further costs will be applied to customers whose leases end early as a result of a PIP reassessment.

• We will work with our Scheme suppliers, including RSA and RAC, to provide general information on motoring, insurance and other motoring services outside of the Scheme. This will include information, for example, on buying a new or used car, and arranging insurance and other services such as breakdown cover. In particular, we are working with a leading UK insurance broker who will offer insurance quotes to former Scheme customers that will recognise their no-claims history on the Scheme. We are also working with manufacturers and dealers to ensure that they are aware of the issues faced by these customers and are able to discuss possible alternatives to maintain their mobility once they have left the Scheme.

• The Scheme will offer customers an opportunity to purchase their vehicle following the end of the lease. The payments that they would otherwise have received upon returning the vehicle can be directed towards the purchase price.

• We will work with customers who have Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles on the Scheme on a case by case basis to understand and assist with their future mobility arrangements including, where appropriate, enabling them to retain their current vehicle.

• For customers with adaptations, we will help them with the costs of fitting the same adaptations to a non-Scheme vehicle.

The Motability Scheme will also provide a package of support and advice to customers currently leasing a scooter or powered wheelchair, with the objective of allowing them to retain their current product wherever possible.

As the DWP plans to begin reassessments of existing DLA recipients in October 2013 and each reassessment will take several months to complete, we do not expect any Scheme customers to become eligible for this support until early 2014. We will monitor customers’ feedback on the support and advice we provide and we may make changes to it based on experience. We will also formally review all aspects of our support package in Autumn 2015, to take account of economic circumstances and any possible changes the Government may be making to PIP at that time.

In the years to come, the Motability Scheme will receive applications from recipients of PIP as well as from recipients of DLA and we will continue to meet the needs of disabled people, as we have done since 1977.

Lord Sterling
Chairman, Motability Board of Governors
September 2013 

From an Arse On A Sofa , using fingers and brain...

Cant get out on me crutches due to broken foot, broken ankle. 


Am missing the outside . 



And rueing having the crutches. 

Usually walk is good. 


AND at mo have to have someone else 

walk my dog. 


Fatigue gets me, and bowels usually a pain, 


but now Having all that AND  now a big set back ,  

 I can see inconvienience FAR FAR more.


Often people dont like these REVELATIONS from people,

 im not glorying a SUDDEN UNDERSTANDING,

 Im saying something that many dont realise,


and that is theres never anything you can understand 

trully regardless of empathy, 

 unless it affects you. 

In the last two weeks Ive seen far more than ever

how the world is so geared for getting about via two working feet and legs. 

Personally. I thought I knew and understood, 

humbly I didnt understand enough.


Regardless of fatigue times, bowel issues, previous muscle injuries, etc....


this is incredibly different and I now do. 


 There are many in disabled community that would dismiss this statement as crass....


It isnt.


YES , i cant get out at all at moment because stairs,

 and on the outside theres little enough stuff to hold on to.


Solidarity in mobility matters is enhanced

now welded, now forever in my soul ,

am I gushing? No, is this crass? NO . 


its truth 


ALL THE BEST - Jules

Why I'm asking for #jobFACTS ON FRIDAY

Im asking for people to tweet using #jobFACTS on Friday 18th July , this could be a one off or repeated. That depends on anyone, its a free world.

What I am thinking on this is theres LOADS of DWP and Govt spin on a fantastic jobs market, reductions in youth unemployment, record numbers in work etc etc.

Is this felt at local levels? Are your papers full of zero hour contracts? How are you excluded from work? Many many questions, or indeed statements of fact can be launched via this hashtag.
Also : upcoming redundancies? How many do you know about? can you tell people?
Do you see how open this can be?

Its a truth versus spin exercise.

Shall we see how people feel at the ground level via a twitter exercise?

Many think we should, and several already said theyd input to it.

Will you tweet #jobFACTS on friday 18th july?

I hope you can.

The one where I... oh just read it..

Yet again the main stream media ignore vox populi.

There are other countries where this has happened prior to civil war,

But I'm not suggesting that will happen in good old blighty.

Last summer there were huge events domestically ignored , well ignored may not be true. Nodded at possibly.

Today fifty thousand people on the ground and many more that couldn't attend were unified in a protest regarding draconian ideology of austerity.

Fifty thousand is estimate. They were in the nations capital.

How this is not a televisual news event when they started off from outside the BBC I am confused at.


Mooting that this government has silenced the media over disagreement to it's fiscal failures and what a lot of people call deliberate removal of all government social duty to citizens.... I honestly can't say if that is true.

But I remember Thatcher times when protest was televised and news worthy.

I ask what's changed?
There is discomfort, and some say great annoyance even anger, that vox populi is excluded from television screens.

Token reporting on internet does not a balanced media reporting make.

Shall I think, or write more on this paradigm shift born from current government that many see as a possible deliberate effort from them to make it appear All is well in this Jerusalem?

I probably won't. For conjecture isn't my favourite thing.

I do feel though there is an agenda existant that history will find abhorrent.

iLegal Press release over DWP figures

Caught out: DWP ministers who claimed a million sickness benefit claimants had been found 'fit for work' - kept real data from
public view







Well over half a million sickness benefits appeals have succeeded - why has the DWP kept this quiet?



DWP ministers said only 9% of ESA decisions were wrong.  Our research reveals the DWP have been quoting from figures which state 151,800 appeals have succeeded.  Our evidence shows the true figure to be at least 567,634 - casting serious doubt over 43% of 1,302,200 'fit for work' decisions.


ilegal Press Release - 16th June 2013


DWP's internal figures reveal a much higher number of successful ESA appeals than have been made publicly available.


A DWP reply on 13 June 2014 to a Freedom of Information Act request made as part of an investigation in to DWP figures relating to the controversial Work Capability Assessment by ilegal.org.uk has revealed that of 1,287,323 ESA appeals, at least 567,634 claimants have had the original DWP decision overturned in their favour.

Government's key defence of the assessments has been that around 9% of all decisions are incorrect.  The most controversial of which are those where a claimant is found fit for work.  DWP figures (for new claims) show that between October 2008 and September 2013 a total of 1,306,200 fit for work decisions have been made.

It is with considerable disappointment noted that the DWP's latest publicly available statistics confirm that only 151,800 successful appeals have been recorded out of a total of 410,400 appeals (for new claimants only).  Our investigations reveal evidence of three times as many appeals being 'internally recorded' of which
567,634 have been successful.  The DWP have revealed to us figures which show nearly quarter of a million internal reconsiderations have led to decisions on new ESA claims being overturned in favour of the claimant; we have added these to figures from HMCTS tribunals which provides us with a much higher figure than the DWP seems to be prepared to admit to in their publicly available figures.

Our intensive research into the assessment of claimants for the DWP's Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) has, following a freedom of information request to the DWP, provided one of the final pieces of the jigsaw needed to unpick the Department's overly complicated statistics. We now have the final clue which has enabled us to identify that no less than 567,634 ESA claimants have in fact had their initial ESA refusals overturned in their favour.

It is a startling revelation that the government department has apparently been keeping a lid on a set of statistics that clearly shows between May 2010 and June 2013 no less than 820,356 decisions were looked at again by the DWP after claimants had been assessed by the controversial private contractors Atos Healthcare. These 'internal' statistics show that a very substantial 232,782 (28.5%) decisions were then subsequently overturned in the claimant's favour.

What makes this all the worse is that these reconsideration statistics come on top of separate figures that show us that of those claimants who did not have the decisions overturned in their favour by the DWP, 817,102 went on to appeal to tribunals arranged by Her Majesties' Courts & Tribunals Service where a further 332,607 were then overturned in the claimant's favour by the tribunal.

These figures completely negate all of the DWP's claims that it is getting the majority of its decisions right

These figures completely negate all of the DWP's claims that it is getting the majority of its decisions right. Government ministers in conjunction with the DWP's Press office have been telling us that a million claimants have been found fit for work whereas these figures show that in reality this is only a small part of the true story and that huge numbers have gone on to successfully appeal decisions which were wrong.

These new figures highlight the dubious practice of using the unchallenged assessment results, which only encourage media sensationalisation, with headlines such as those appearing in the Daily Express in July 2011 stating that '75% on sickness benefits were faking'. The same article goes on to say that out of '...2.6 million on the sick, 1.9 million could work' before receiving an endorsement from the Prime Minister with an assurance that his government was "producing a much better system where we put people through their paces and say that if you can work, you should work".

DWP and Ministers know the truth, they just aren't telling anyone

These figures have been available to the DWP and its ministers since April 2010 from their 'Decision Making & Appeals Case Recorder (DMACR) – ESA Management Information Statistics'. The DWP confirms this to be unpublished information which is for internal department information only, yet our research notes that the Right Hon Chris Grayling was using the same information in answer to Parliamentary questions on the 10th January 2012.

We question then why the DWP has consistently 'over promoted' only the results of Work Capability Assessments relating to 'initial' decisions (including the opinions of Atos Healthcare in the absence of a statutory DWP decision) when it could instead have come clean and declared how hundreds of thousands of their incorrect decisions have since been overturned in favour of the person appealing.

These revelations seriously undermine the DWP's contention that the initial Work Capability Assessment outcomes are a valid measure of the claimant's ability to work. The DWP has consistently defended its assessments by giving an impression that only a relatively low number of decisions have been overturned whereas the reality is that well over half a million have resulted in a successful outcome for the claimant.

And this DOES NOT include the 712,000 people awaiting assessments BEFORE they can appeal

This news must have come as cause for grave concern when considered in the light of a recent revelation by DWP Minister Mike Penning which revealed that in addition to the figures we have highlighted, a further 712,000 Employment & Support Allowance claimants are awaiting assessments without which they cannot yet appeal.

This hugely unacceptable backlog of cases means people with disabling medical conditions are left hanging for months and months on a basic allowance way below what they are entitled to. This is leaving hundreds of thousands deprived of the support they require and means having to scrape by on money which is wholly insufficient to meet their needs due to disability and illness. It also means many claimants affected by severe and complex mental health conditions are facing prolonged torment as they wait month upon month for their decision to be overturned before they can even lodge an appeal.

Face up to reality: it doesn't work. Scrap the WCA

These findings add considerably to the pleas of disabled groups all over the country to scrap the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and to find a better way to assess their needs.

It is simply appalling that the DWP, along with Ministers and other government spokespeople appear to be feeding the media with misleading statistics that are unrepresentative of the real story and instead encourage headlines vilifying the disabled and the genuinely ill. These figures clearly show the DWP has evidence in their possession which shows how in far too many cases the decisions it is making are dead wrong and they know they're dead wrong.



Editorial notes


Please contact the author of this article Nick Dilworth for verification of any of the figures quoted.  We welcome sharing our findings on social media and allow this information to be produced providing credit is given to the
i-legal website with links to the article produced.

We apologise for the slight delay in publishing this release.  This was due to a need to align the figures to ones recently produced by the DWP in their Work Capability Assessment figures released on the 12th June 2014 which relate to the most recent statistics up to September 2013.

A full supporting explanatory memorandum will be published very shortly.

The Reconsideration statistics relate to new ESA claimants only (excluding incapacity benefit to ESA conversion cases) whereas HMCTS figures refer to all ESA claimants.  It is our contention that had the DWP supplied all of the information we had requested, the figures for reconsiderations would have been considerably higher.

We acknowledge that not all appeals will be against fit for work findings for new claimants but given the DWP's emphasis on this claimant cohort and the lack of information to the contrary we are of the contention that other appeals relating to claimants being moved from the Work Related Activity Group to Support Group are likely to be of a much lower volume and more likely to be contained within the cohort relating to incapacity benefit/ESA assessment.

We would like to express our thanks to Anita Bellows an i-legal member for her cooperation and for making the freedom of information request upon our guidance and our thanks extend to the DPAC organisation with whom Anita is also a member.

Next DWP questions session in Parliament 23rd June

I emailed my MP re attending 23rd DWP questions

Hello Sir Gerald
I note you didnt attend Sheila Gilmore Mps debate this evening on assessment delays. I can understand that your schedules may have not permitted.

I would request, as a constituent, that you try to attend DWP questions on 23rd.

There is a huge void between what is being said by DWP, and what is actually happening. And many injustices I'm sure you have in your case files.

There are numerous issues with that department that im sure you are very aware of.

Your input to the debate on 23rd would be extremely valuable to many constituents in Gorton , and I know very well you know area demographics.

I hope your health is as well as can be, and lodge this request respectfully to you.

Many Thanks

Jules ((redacted address))

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You can write to yours in your words
www.writetothem.com

VERY IMPORTANT regarding 700000 waiting ESA ASSESSMENT

Everyone, the ESA DELAYS HAVE AN ADJOURNMENT DEBATE HoC this MONDAY.

Should you have the energy and will, ask your MP TO ATTEND, because this is a NATIONAL DISGRACE.

Ilegal . org . uk Calls for IDS to sink under his dodgy stats

Via : http://ilegal.org.uk/

It's time he went under

Seriously, IDS is getting away with blue murder and it's time he was seriously challenged.


In the previous two posts I've drawn attention to what I consider to be a major inconsistency in the DWP's Employment & Support Allowance statistics.  By major I mean major as in three quarters of a million.


This is the latest figure I've unearthed by making a simple comparison between two sets of DWP statistics.  The two I compared were:


The DWP Work Capability Assessment statistics which crucially tell us (1) How many claimants have been found fit for work and (2) How many claimants stop claiming without an assessment.  These figures tell us lots of other things but for the purpose of this latest comparison only (1) and (2) are relevant. 


The DWP 'off flow' statistics which tell us how many claimants have come off Employment & Support Allowance ever since it first started in October 2008.


It is to me logical to base an assumption (there are exceptions which for now I would ask you to put on hold) that those found fit for work and those who have ended their claims as shown in the Work Capability Assessment statistics will translate in to a minimum number which I would expect to see in the off flow statistics.  


What these figures show is that the actual numbers of claimants is far less, by over three quarters of a million, than the assessment figures suggest.  


This discrepancy highlights, to a considerable extent, the enormity of a problems which exists within the Employment & Support Allowance assessment programme.  These figures show that despite the purported assessment outcomes. 2.1 million claimants remain entitled to Employment & Support Allowance rather than over 2.8 million claimants being removed from their benefits as implied by the assessment statistics.  


What these figures show is a huge disparity between the 2,882,500 claimants identified as moving off Employment & Support Allowance in the assessment statistics and the 2,125,830 shown in the claimant figures as the real number of claimants who ended their claims - a difference of 756,670 claimants.  It's not a figure which IDS can easily explain away.


It should also remembered that the higher figure of 2.8 million is very much a minimum baseline because it only relates to findings at or near the point of assessment.  Many more will have ended their claims for all kinds of other reasons, these won't be picked up in the assessment figures but the higher the figure the greater the three quarter million discrepancy.  This is because the actual numbers ending their claims is a figure depicted by the DWP's actual records of claimant's movements on and off the allowance. 


So why haven't 756,760 ESA claims ended as depicted in the assessment statistics come off the allowance?


Unfortunately I can't pretend this isn't complex and something which can be easily followed by all, none the less I'll try and put it over in a way which I hope followers will understand.


The assessment statistics show a total of 2,882,500 claimants who have come off ESA between October 2008 and June 2013.  Of these we know for certain that 1,393,700 are claimants who have ended their claims before an assessment. Once these claims are ended they come to an end, there's no going back so this is a firm figure which is non - reversible.  


Instead of deducting the 1,393,700 closed claim figure from the assessment total, we can deduct it from the actual numbers of claimants who have closed their claims.  This means deducting the figure from 2,125,830 which gives us 732,130.  


What's strange about this is how it very firmly bites in to the numbers the DWP say have been found fit for work. We can safely deduct the 732,130 (because we know for sure all closed claims before assessment would definitely have ended their claim) from the 1,488,800 claimants found fit for work - a difference of 756,670.  The reason we can safely deduct from the fit for work figure is that it is reversible - it can be changed after the assessment results by people appealing or asking for reconsiderations.  


The irrefutable fact is that despite whatever the fit for work figures say around 50% of claimants are not in fact ending their claims at all, if they were the overall number of closed claims would be much, much higher.  So something very substantial isn't adding up. 


The only explanation to this three quarter of a million discrepancy is that the 1,488,800 found 'fit for work' figure has been changed to one of two different status:


(1) The claimant has appealed and their appeal is still ongoing (which is why they do not come off the allowance). This is possible under the Employment & Support Allowance rules up to October 2013.  Upon electing an appeal, the claimant moves/stays in the Assessment Phase up until their appeal has been heard.


(2) The claimant has appealed and the appeal has been decided in their favour in which case the claimant remains on Employment & Support Allowance within either the Work Related Activity Group or Support Group.  


Cases which the DWP depict in the assessment statistics as 'still in progress' can be eliminated from the possibility that they contribute to the three quarter of a million figure because I have excluded them from the calculation. 


So how is the 756,670 figure made up?


In dealing with (1) by looking at more DWP statistics we can ascertain that in May 2013 there were 70,940 ESA claimants of 'unknown' status and 490,260 in the Assessment Phase.  All of these claimants will either be awaiting an assessment or will have been found fit for work and appealed, there is no other way of being placed in the Assessment Phase.  There is no way of distinguishing between the two.


In dealing with (2) we can look at separate records held by the Her Majesties' Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to see how many claimants had successfully appealed up to June 2013, the majority of these will be appeals against fit for work decisions. 


The DWP maintain in the assessment statistics that they only had been able to retrieve data from HMCTS Tribunals relating to 125,600 ESA appeals overturned in the claimant's favour.  I would however suggest that the three quarter of a million discrepancy paints a very different story.  


The way to get to the root of this is to look at the Tribunal overturns shown below: 

Year / Quarter	ESA appeals cleared	% in favour	Number of appeals in claimant's favour
2008/2009	27	4%	Not shown
2009/2010	50,791	37%	18,793
2010/2011	127,114	37%	47,032
2011/2012	168,020	39%	65,528
2012/2013	224,375	43%	96,481
2013/2014
Q1 Up to June 2013	77,227	42%	32,435
Total			260,269

The figure of 260,269 is well above the 125,600 recorded in the assessment statistics and would therefore appear to suggest that the DWP have updated all of the 260,269 overturns in the claimant count.


If we deduct the 260,269 from the 756,670 figure we arrive at 496,401
which more or less mirrors the 490,260 in the Assessment Phase in May 2013.  So it is possible that these will represent a fair number who have appealed. 


Can we simply say of the 756,670 figure; 260,299 are the claimants who have had their decisions overturned and the remaining 496,401 are in the appeals process?  


The answer is no.


Why?


Because of the 2,125,830 number of claimants who have definitely ended their claims (as shown in the off - flow statistics) a fair number (not fully disclosed by the DWP) will have ended their claims in either the Work Related Activity or Support Group of their own accord.  


The more claimants who end their claim of their own accord, the higher the number will be of fit work decisions which have either been overturned or appealed (because these claimants remain on ESA and will not show as off - flows).


The other consideration is that the DWP are overturning far more decisions from fit for work to entitled at the reconsideration stage than they are currently conceding to.  


The fact is there is a three quarter of a million discrepancy between those identified in the assessment statistics and those actually coming off ESA.  

Report to the Labour Party by the Disability and Poverty Taskforce April 2014

Via : > http://vsocjustice.blogspot.co.uk/



Promotion: Report to the Labour Party by
the Disability and Poverty Taskforce April 2014

Breaking the Link between 

Disability and Poverty

Report to the Labour Party 

by the Disability and Poverty Taskforce

April 2014

This ground-breaking report was launched today 24 April 2014. Alas it has been said the Labour party, who commissioned the report, will not be promoting it. This leaves disabled people to do the promoting themselves.

This blog post today is soley for promoting this report.

Below are tweets I (vsocjustice) sent today outlining the report in brief. I (vsocjustice) also created a pdf version specially for those who wished it. Here is the link. DOWNLOAD FROM FOLDER

Breaking the link between Poverty & Disability - report by Bert Massie http://t.co/gipgALEm5Y #disability #poverty Apr 24, 2014 

Bert Massie & his Poverty Taskforce says DLA/PIP are not doing the job. There needs to be a third element to these #disability benefits 1/2 Apr 24, 2014

2/2 The mooted Disability Costs Allowance will accurately reflect its purpose & would comprise elements for mobility, care & general costs. Apr 24, 2014

Massie's Disability & Poverty Taskforce also say the 20 metre limit imposed by IDS should be removed and made 50 meters once again. Apr 24, 2014

Massie's Disability & Poverty Taskforce says more effort should be made to give disabled people their rights and better access to justice. Apr 24, 2014

Massie's taskforce: There should be investment…a sea-change in employer behaviour on recruitment, development & retention of disabled people Apr 24, 2014

Joseph Rowntree Foundation: “The effect of removing DLA & Attendance Allowance from incomes is to double the number of people in poverty" Apr 24, 2014

Massie's taskforce: Disabled people’s financial status also makes them disproportionately vulnerable to financial exclusion & exploitation > Apr 24, 2014

> that can further erode their capacity to escape poverty." "Disabled adults…twice as likely as non-disabled…to live in persistent poverty." Apr 24, 2014

"Other European countries…Sweden, Iceland, Estonia, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany all achieving disability employment rates above 50%" >> Apr 24, 2014

The employment rate in UK for disabled people's significantly lower than in many European countries according to Bert Massie's task force. Apr 24, 2014

Massie's taskforce says: "Disability is expensive. Disabled people experience both an income penalty & a cost of living penalty: they are > Apr 24, 2014

>likely to face complex barriers to getting & keeping a job…be unable to work or…work full-time; they have costs…non-disabled people do not" Apr 24, 2014

Bert Massie's taskforce report on Disability & Poverty is in .doc format only. Ive created a PDF version: http://t.co/s83KzaPOSx Apr 24, 2014

#luxuryonthesick NOPE.

Nope . 

ESA+h/ben +council tax support for ME as a total, is below The poverty line which is 

" A family or individual is considered to be in poverty when post-tax income falls below 60 per cent of the national median – £367 a week, which is £220 a week." 

As all three added up is below that £220 definition. And With the contribution to council tax , thats a tax. So I am correct that ESA, for me,  is below the poverty line.

Media often is on about people Raking it in . *coughs* its a media myth. 

Mental Health failures in welfare system ...

UPDATE ON THE MHRN COURT CASE FOR THOSE WITH MHP's

WCA JUDICIAL REVIEW UPDATE.

There will be a three day hearing in the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 22, 23 & 24 July 2014 in an attempt to establish what the DWP is going to do to remedy the substantial disadvantage that people with mental health problems suffer when being put through the Work Capability Assessment. This will follow a directions hearing that will take place in May.

Everyone knows that the only real remedy to our plight will be when these mock assessments are abandoned but, until then, we will continue the fight to try to improve them.

The case centres around the importance of further medical evidence for a person with mental health problems and on who is responsible for obtaining this evidence. Both the MHRN and the judges believe that such evidence is vital and that the DWP should be responsible and proactive in obtaining it. For their part, the DWP don't want to know about medical evidence from a claimant's own mental health professionals because the WCA is not an assessment of a person's mental health condition but a dummy assessment that pretends that how a person functions can be separated from any condition they live with. The last thing the DWP want is real evidence from someone who might be qualified to comment!

It is possible that some kind of pilot study will be undertaken by? maybe Atos? to try to establish how they could go about obtaining this evidence. Under the Equalities Act, the DWP should be making reasonable adjustments to the assessment to accommodate our problems and it has been successfully argued that obtaining such evidence would be a reasonable adjustment. We can probably predict that they will try to show from a pilot study that such adjustments would be too expensive, unhelpful and unworkable, and therefore unreasonable. It will be for us to keep an eye on the progress of any pilot and to make sure they know that we are all watching them.

We will be in court and will keep you informed.

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LEON gave me this.