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Home visiting - support worker not allowed to speak???
We requested an HV for a claimant who needs to complete a UC50.
He has a support worker, and DWP agreed that she could attend the appointment.
But.
They explained that they can only write down what the claimant says in answer to the questions and can’t explain them to him.
DWP home visiting guidance does say that it is a ‘transcribing’ service but why they can’t help with understanding a question in order for the claimant better to frame its answer I know not. And if a claimant cannot understand the questions, isn’t that rather indicative of something?
In addition to this, DWP gave the impression that the support worker was not allowed to add anything or help the claimant out.
This strikes me as specious. This person knows the claimant and has important information to add. She will be one of the people contributing further evidence in any case. I can understand that the claimant must not be overridden or led, but in a case where the claimant has problems with anxiety, with going out of the home, with dealing with strangers and with understanding the questions, why cannot a support worker help him out?????
It sounds like having a visiting officer involved at all is utterly unhelpful here. Why not just have the support worker and the claimant fill it in together?
In the end this is what has been decided. It makes me feel that the HV system is a waste of time for many of the very vulnerable group it is supposed to serve!
strikes me that they have no understanding at all of the role of a support worker…..
Rare I say anything positive about DWP but in this instance my experience of our local visiting team couldn’t be further from Andrew’s experiences. They’re really helpful and don’t mind my intervening.
Maybe as it’s because I’m usually sat in the appointee’s shoes when I meet them but I doubt it; they are a genuinely sound bunch, even the compliance team! (It does goad me that I get on with the FES team but it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement even if not, occasionally, for my clients)