Dec 112013
 

report back from DPAc member who went along to see what Mike Penning the minister for disabled people had to say to the select parliamentary committee on ILF, PIP and WCA.

Anne Begg, said, can you please tell us what you are going to decide with the future of the ILF, as 22,000 severely disabled people do not know what the future holds for this fund, and the future is so uncertain for them, in light of the appeal that the claimaints won, has the minister made a decision on the future of the fund, if to close it in 2015 or re design it?

Mike Penning said, I have read the decision from the courts and I will not be appealing the decision, I totally accept it.  I have not read the submission report as it has not been delivered to me, therefore i cannot make a decision when I have not have the report delivered to me.  When a decision has been made all 22,000 claimaints in receipt of ILF will be communicated to (his words) and there is the money to let them know what the outcome of my decision will be.

He was told by Anne Begg, you are causing high anxiety and stress to some of the most severely disabled in society, surely you can tell them something to put their minds at rest?  He said no, I cant and I wont as I have not read the report and as there is a court case around this, I do not want another court case on top, when the decision has been made on the ILF, all claimants will be notified.

It then went to PIP, Jason Feeney the operations director for PIP was also present as a witness,  the PIP stats for new claimants will be released tomorrow.  So far, 30,000 new claimants have been through PIP, and 15,000 claims were turned down, 1 in 7 claimants were denied PIP denial rate is at 50 per cent.   He plans to release in Jan/Feb 2014 the next regions to see the roll out of PIP, this will be done in stages.  The mandatory re assessment is set for October 2015 to finish in October 2017.  They plan to assess 155,000 a quarter, will be on budget and on time.

Penning plans to introduce the PIP form in PDF format over time, but is worried about security issues around this at the moment.

With the Atos contract for PIP in the areas where Atos have PIP there are financial clauses in the contract where PIP do not meet there contract targets, He said, Atos are in it to make money “well, we all knew that didnt we?”  The HCP are still receiving training to make sure the system works well, and understand there are delays with claimants, (we are now called “customers”) are experiencing at present, hence the staged roll out as they want to get it right.

Mr Penning, said, if claimants submitted enough supported evidence 17 per cent of people will not need a face to face assessment, and people with visual, hearing, and communication impairments can have an appointee speak on the phone to the PIP office on their behalf.  He said, in regards to the questionnaire where there is a four week turn around to get it back to the assessment centre, it can be extended to four weeks, but, then the claim will end.

In regards terminal conditions, they are working setting up in each region and benefit office a terminal office department so that people who have a terminal illness will have their claims done and completed with in 7 days.

October 2015 for mandatory re assessments stays for current DLA recipients, there will be no more delays.

With regards Dr Paul Litchfield, his fourth wca review will be published tomorrow thursday 12the dec, along with the new claimant pip stats.

There was not the time to discuss the WCA and Mr Penning has been asked to come back to the commitee in the new year, and bring Dr Pritchard along as a witness to discuss the 4th review.

Anne Begg said she would e mail when the date of the call back for the W.C.A is.

The WCA will be heard on 19th feb, so well done to wow.

Martin and me represented dpac for this today, and the two of us faced three armed police at gun point in the corridor outside the committee room, at the end of the meeting Mike Penning was surrounded by armed police and taken up the corridor while we were watched carefully.  Don’t know what they thought we were going to do.

I think we are rattling them big time, and the security level for all buildings has been raised to substantial as well.

 

 

[suffusion-the-author]

[suffusion-the-author display='description']
 Posted by at 20:29

  7 Responses to “Feedback from today’s meeting with Mike Penning”

  1. OT.

    “Woman who miscarried in prison ‘forced to clean up blood in cell'”

    https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/ww/story-20313643-detail/story.html

  2. How much is it costing the taxpayer to provide Mike Penning and Iain Duncan Smith with massed armed police protection from a few disabled alleged “domestic extremists” – aka disabled people fighting for their rights?! This again gives the lie to this all being a “necessary cost-cutting exercise” and something more akin to a discriminatory ideology using the subterfuge of recession to implement its warped views.

    I’m still aghast at IDS referring to those on ESA as “stock” the other day. As someone else noted, it brought up images of the cattle trucks used in WW2. Totally dehumanising.

    Keep up the good work DPAC. You have loads of support out here.

  3. I had a friend fill in my ESA PDF which was downloaded from the DWP .It meant they could fill it out on their computer and edit it to make it more legible and supply a lot more relevant information .When printed out scans of medical appointments .Reports from specialists and lists of medication were also supplied and the whole lot sent recorded delivery to the ATOS/DWP. It also meant that if the paperwork was lost by them which we hear often happens it could be printed out again and dispatched quickly .PDF is a far better set up for those who can do it or if they have someone who can do it for them .More time can be taken ,comprehensive information can be included and after checking editing can be done without messing up hard copy. It is no more insecure than filling the form out that arrives in the post as long as it is printed then posted rather than sent via email .Security is not an issue at all if the latter is not used. PDF could be used now but post the print by mail :email could be done at a later date when online issues are resolved .Mike Pennington should realise this and make PDF available so it can be filled out then printed and sent by post so there are no more issues than normal.

  4. “Penning plans to introduce the PIP form in PDF format over time, but is worried about security issues around this at the moment.” And what security issues would they be! one dwp person sitting at a desk and uploading the form is hardly a security threat

  5. I’ve never seen so many machine guns/pistols in one place at one time. One thing I did notice about the machine guns was the shoddy state they were in. I’ve heard of cut backs but haven’t the police heard of looking after their weapons?. Their weapons should of been pointing down to the floor, not at a 45 degree angle. if one had gone off even by accident there would of been horrific injuries or fatality if it had gone off towards a person who was sitting. When I got to Liverpool street station to go home what do I see ‘MORE GUNS ETC’.. The whole thing reminded me of “The charge of the light brigade” Guns to the right of me, Guns to the left of me, but onwards we rode…into the committee room. I came up with a good nick name for Penning, I call him “Mutton Chops”(Paula giggled when I told her this). Penning reminds me of Mr Bumble in Oliver Twist. .One thing I did find rather odd was ‘Penning had an armed escort’ so did IDS as paula pointed out. So my question is this “why didn’t all the other MPs who were there get an armed escort as well’?? Dame Anne beg stopped and talked with me and paula at the doors to the lift, why didn’t she get an armed escort?? Perhaps it’s because me and paula were so big and tough she didn’t need the armed escort, She had me and Paula to protect her from the likes of penning and IDS…

 Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)