No accommodation from the Secretary of State DWP

Through my MP I have corresponded with the (various) Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions, concerning the omission from Personal Independence Payment legislation and guidance of Separation Anxiety Disorder Disablement.

After a year of many letters and responses the conclusion reached is as follows;


  • The HM Court Service Tribunal claim that SAD is not obviously covered by the legislation; meaning an award of PIP in normal circumstances may not be made using the Planning and following journeys activity.
  • The DWP claim that claimants with SAD might be awarded descriptors using the Planning and following journeys activity.
  • The DWP fail to and continue to refuse to confirm that claimants with SAD will be awarded descriptors using the Planning and following journeys activity.
  • More alarmingly The DWP refuse to provide an illustration on how claimants with differing degrees of SAD will map to the Planning and following journeys activity descriptors. This despite that in their publication PIP Assessment Guide Part Two - The Assessment Criteria 16th July 2018 page 112 they provide illustrations for claimants with severe agoraphobia, panic disorder or psychotic illness associated with severe paranoia. One has to question why some mental health disorders have been thought about but not SAD sufferers and why the DWP refuse to countenance to proposal to revise their guidance to meet the modest request to provide explicit guidance to their PIP Decision Makers. Or is this a case of a departmental failure to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty (Equality Act 2010)?
Our response? Continue the campaign to change the legislation so that claimants with SAD stand a chance of being awarded PIP just like other Disabled people with a challenge to live independently in the UK.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Letter to MP to support a change to support SAD independent living.

Suggested text for a letter to your MP to ask for their support for the changes proposed. Separation Anxiety Disorder and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – “The missing unsupported are getting Sadder?” Dear [Member of Parliament], Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_anxiety_disorder You will note from both these following references; https://www.anxietybc.com/adults/separation-anxiety https://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/separation-anxiety That in 2013 numerous changes were made to  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders  ( DSM–5 ), a classification of mental disorders used by medical and psychiatric professionals in many areas of the world. One of these changes was the inclusion of adults in struggling with a condition previously assumed only to effect children and adolescents - Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD). In the context of PIP you will also note from the above references the following implica...
Read more

“The missing unsupported are getting Sadder?”

Separation Anxiety Disorder and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – “The missing unsupported are getting Sadder?” Dear Reader, Reference:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_anxiety_disorder You will note from both these following references; https://www.anxietybc.com/adults/separation-anxiety https://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/separation-anxiety That in 2013 numerous changes were made to  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders  ( DSM–5 ), a classification of mental disorders used by medical and psychiatric professionals in many areas of the world. One of these changes was the inclusion of adults in struggling with a condition previously assumed only to effect children and adolescents - Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD). In the context of PIP you will also note from the above references the following implications for independent life of a SAD; Lack of independence in a variety of domains (e.g. taking tri...
Read more