Victory For Claimants As Government Drops MR Targets
In response to pressure from the Work and Pensions Select Committee the Department for Work and Pensions has announced that its target for upholding original PIP and ESA decisions at the first stage of appeal, known as Mandatory Reconsideration (MR), will be dropped.
- Letter from the Department for Work and Pensions (
PDF 447 KB)
- Letter to the Department for Work and Pensions ( PDF 230 KB)
- Inquiry: PIP and ESA Assessments
- Work and Pensions Committee
On 28 November the Committee wrote to DWP with concerns about MRs, which had come up in the Committee’s current inquiry into the medical assessments carried out by ATOS, Maximus and Capita to inform DWP’s decisions on awards of disability benefits PIP and ESA.
Pressure to turn out numbers
The Committee had heard of “pressure to turn out numbers” in relation to both the original decision and at MR stage, and that MRs simply “rubber stamp” the original decision. The DWP revealed in an FOI request in May 2017 that one of the performance indicators for MRCs was that 80% of the original decisions are to be upheld. The Committee queried how a target for upholding original decisions could be compatible with ensuring that questionable reports are thoroughly investigated, and erroneous decisions identified and corrected. MR should be an important extra safeguard, but instead appears to be creating another “hurdle” in a process that is already arduous and stressful for many claimants, as the Committee has heard directly in nearly 4,000 individual accounts submitted to it.
The Department’s response “categorically state(s) that there has never been a Mandatory Reconsideration target for upholding original decisions”, and that the 80% target, “an internal measurement only used to indicate areas” where there were problems with the original decisions being made, will be dropped.
Victory for PIP and ESA claimants
Commenting on the response, Rt Hon Frank Field MP Chair of the Committee, said
“It is great news that the target has been dropped and we congratulate the Department on this response. This is a great victory for the thousands of PIP and ESA claimants who have responded to our inquiry, and for anyone going through this process, who can now go to the first stage of appealing a benefits decision with more confidence that the reconsideration will be fair and impartial.”
Same Difference 
Reblogged this on michaelsnaith.
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Although they seem to still be denying it ever existed, I for one won’t any change at all
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Here’s a tiny little crumb from our table…
We’re going to get the DWP to drop something that they have always said they don’t have (one of their ‘targets’).
Rt Hon Frank Field MP (Labour) Chair of the Committee, said
“This is a great victory for the thousands of PIP and ESA claimants who have responded to our inquiry”
So WHERE ARE YOUR FU**ING POLICE???
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Also sent to Frank Field MP (Labour) –
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