Son of BIP or malicious neighbours?

You can tell the who the DWP investigators are, they have a BBC televison crew and that bald chap from masterchef following them!

Sounds like yet another ‘pilot project’. At this rate Ryanair will be putting in tenders to run JCP. Nothing seen in this area yet though.

We have had two in the last 24 hours.  Letters state that the DWP have received information which suggests clients are fit for work.  Clients are asked to complete and return forms within 3 weeks or their benefit will stop. 

Since when did being fit for work negate entitlement to an in work benefit?

We have been in touch with the DWP and they say that some letters are sent at random but most are in response to a letter or call from a member of the public…..

Clients must make sure they get help completing the forms.

A colleague has just produced a letter sent to one of his clients. It opens:

“Dear Mr…………

I am writing to you about the Disability living Allowance (DLA) that you are paid.

We have recently received information which casts doubt on your continuing entitlement to DLA.  We are unable to provide you with further details of the information we have received.  This is because the Freedom of Information Act, section 30, prevents us disclosing information provided by a confidential source.  The Agency receives information from a number of sources, including internal data matching, information from other public bodies and members of the public”.

It then continues at some length outlining the requirement to complete enclosed review forms.

Enough to scare the life out of someone I’d say.

It makes you despair. The stress caused to innocent claimants by random letters like that cannot be underestimated, especially where there are mental health issues involved. The DWP appear to have no risk assessment policy in place when running these kind of operations.

I once asked a JCP worker if they (for example) ever contacted a claimant’s GP to assess the potential for suicide. The answer was that the Data Protection Act would prohibit such contact. So, its OK to have legislation that allows all sorts of agencies to swap data, including a good look at your bank account, but when it comes to protecting potentially vulnerable people it’s all too difficult.

For colleagues who haven’t yet seen one of these letters, they come with a form DLA80.  (Your client may only bring in the form and not the letter that came with it.)  The DLA80 looks quite similar to an ordinary DLA claim or renewal form, but is issued only when the DWP has reason to question whether the claimant continues to meet the eligibility criteria, usually as a result of anonymous information.

Just had a call about one of these letters, so must be going nationwide!

if anyone wants to fax us a copy of the letter, happy to publish here ....  0207 247 4725;

I’ll fax you one

cheers sue ...

here it is ... see attached

probably malicious neighbours, it often is…

but whilst it’s a naff letter, the DWP’s view on the Data Protection Act is completely wrong in many regards, and so on ...

it is still better than a claimant suddenly having their DLA stopped and being pulled in for interview under caution ...

in one case i had, malicious neighbour dibbed client in for driving her motablity car, and fraud office followed her about and her benefit was pulled because, you guessed it, she was driving her car (there were some other bits and bobs that showed misunderstanding of evidence, crap video evidence, etc) ... didn’t find out the ultimate result as was made redundant from the firm….

I just had a client who had such a letter.  She was only awarded DLA on 15 Sept, and got the letter two months later.  My client is sure that in her case a malicious relative has contacted DLA.

My one today was definitely a call to the hotline as same anon caller tried to scupper his Blue Badge.  He’s off to the Pain Clinic for some morphine next week, as the condition is getting worse.  Just spent 30 minutes explaining ‘it’s not just you’ (pity we can’t bill the DWP). He said the Blackpool number on the letter never responds too.

have just seen my first DLA80 (with accompanying threatening letter). I would like to know just what proportion of these are in response to tip-offs/randomly generated as claimed by DWP, as opposed to being part of a co-ordinated campaign to scare vulnerable people into abandoning their (usually) legitimate claims. The sudden profusion of them would seem to suggest the latter.

I’ve dealt with 2 in the last 2 months, compared to none of them in the last 2 1/2 years.

Pete
Older Persons Outreach Worker