By Maeve McGoldrick
Today the Department for Work and Pensions Select Committee publishes its report on decision making and appeals in the benefits system, the headline press coverage reports that overpayments due to error had soared from £400 million in 2000, while overpayments due to fraud and mistakes by claimants dropped. As part of the solution the select Committee is calling for a Welfare Commission to be set up to simplify the benefits system. We welcome this news and believe that any redesign should place a one-to-one service to claimants at its heart; ensuring efficient and humanised service delivery. We have a few specific recommendations for the Commission to consider
- Reduce the complexity of claim forms,
- Make crisis loans more accessible and immediate,
- Addresses the inconsistency of the earnings disregard across all benefits to ensure accidental fraud is not committed resulting in benefits being automatically stopped.
Last year the Community Links advice services were used by a total of 12,400 local people. At our drop-in advice sessions 37.8% were benefits related cases, of which 73% were a result of DWP error. Our advice services continue to be in high demand, services cost several hundred thousand pounds per year – funded by local authorities and the Legal Services Commission. This cost to the tax payer could be dramatically reduced by the simplification of the benefits system and increased competency with the administration process.
Research by AdviceUK in Nottingham reveals that 42% of the demand at advice agencies in the city is ‘failure demand’ – demand caused by failures in the system of public administration. Reducing this would save significant amounts of money and free up advisors to carry out valuable work with clients, supporting them to resolve their long-term problems.
Many of our clients have used our advice services in the past; some have had their benefits mistakenly stopped on more than one occasion. The knock-on effects are increased borrowing and debt, eviction problems and in many cases people falling into the informal economy, working cash-in-hand to cover costs as a last resort. Debt related advice has doubled, and our advisers believe this is in part due to the recession-related rise in claimant figures, and benefits being stopped or delayed as people struggle to find formal work.
Our campaign, Need NOT Greed has been calling for a simplified benefits system. A system which is easier to navigate could help prevent the rise of informal economic activity caused by people struggling to survive poverty. At the launch of the Need NOT Greed campaign in February 2009 Terry Rooney, chair of the DWP select committee said
“There is a treadmill of being in the informal economy out of Need NOT Greed. The striking thing is that the national benefits system is geared up to serve millions, but everybody is an individual – it’s how you can recognise everyone’s needs and requirements. You need a totalitarian system and there are enormous challenges – but ones that need to be faced and met.”
A local campaigner and user of our advice services said
“the system wears you down, I am constantly just surviving. Every time you pick yourself up and try to move forward the system lets you down again. It’s the same old problems for everyone and none of us round here trust it anymore. How can something you don’t trust be able to help you?”
Rising unemployment is increasing demand for welfare benefits at a time when public funding is under severe pressure. Spending time building productive relationships with people using services is time well spent; not an extravagance. These relationships are instrumental to efficient delivery of public services. We hope that a Welfare Commission is established as it is evident that change is necessary – but change must put the needs of the service user at the heart of the system.
Some of the negative decision letters do not give full details of the refusal, some times it is either not clear to the advisors let along to the claimant, or the decisions are vague and do not give the exact reason for the refusal. It appears that the Decision Maker (DM) is using standard letters, which are not relevant to some particular claimants’ benefits.
The DM should check the information provided by the claimant carefully before awarding the benefit. Some overpayment cases arise from the fact that the claimant would not have been entitled to the benefit in the first place due to the conditions of entitlement.
In the case of overpayment, before any appeal can be filed, the DM should encourage the claimant in their decision letter to request a revision first as a way of reducing the Tribunals costs. A visit to the claim after it was processed, may avoid overpayments.
In some cases, the delay in reaching a decision causes financial hardship to the claimant.
Regarding Employment and Support Allowance’ decisions, even while appealing the decision, the DWP do not amend the claim to the appeal status and make payments at the assessment phase within a reasonable time. The DM puts on hold the payments for several weeks, which causes financial hardship to the claimant as a consequence.
In some appeal cases, where the claimant successfully appealed the decision, the DWP took several months before awarding the back payments.
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