Reply to: Coma woman told to find work

[Mich the Tester]

They work in HR

have you been drugging them again?

[DodgyAgent]

There's plenty of people round here in comas but manage to turn up for work everyday.

They work in HR

[NotAllThere]

Well, while I agree with your sentiment, let me ask you this; what kind of people go and work for the DWP? Likewise, what kind of people would want to work as traffic wardens, customs officers, immigration officers, HMRC officials, the Met's riot policemen, etcetera?

Or are those jobs more likely to attract the indifferent, the minimally educated, the unmotivated and unfortunately in a few cases, the downright bigoted? .

It doesn't attract anyone. It's a job the only kind of job they can apply for. Except riot police - they want to be able to beat people up legally.

[vetran]

Personally I'd say it's the second option, and I don't know what to do about it except that the government should perhaps shrink and employ less of these inspectors, controllers, wardens, busybodies and beater-uppers to whom everybody is subjected in some way or another. Some people need benefits, in many cases because they're too sick to work, but some cases because we'd be better off without them in the workforce.

convert it to online would be a good move, you can then create a sensible workflow. Letting the frontline staff make decisions is obviously not working.

[Mich the Tester]

So are you Sam Lowry or Tuttle?

God knows why they can't do something like this with compassion & professionalism?

Well, while I agree with your sentiment, let me ask you this; what kind of people go and work for the DWP? Likewise, what kind of people would want to work as traffic wardens, customs officers, immigration officers, HMRC officials, the Met's riot policemen, etcetera?

Would it be compassionate, nice, highly educated people who do their best to understand all the nuances and complexities of the story they are told?

Or are those jobs more likely to attract the indifferent, the minimally educated, the unmotivated and unfortunately in a few cases, the downright bigoted?

Personally I'd say it's the second option, and I don't know what to do about it except that the government should perhaps shrink and employ less of these inspectors, controllers, wardens, busybodies and beater-uppers to whom everybody is subjected in some way or another. Some people need benefits, in many cases because they're too sick to work, but some cases because we'd be better off without them in the workforce.

[vetran]

Have you seen the film "Brazil"?

So are you Sam Lowry or Tuttle?

God knows why they can't do something like this with compassion & professionalism?

[doodab]

so it is really bad?

Have you seen the film "Brazil"?

When you apply for "Employment and Support Allowance" the form runs to about 20 pages, some of which are for supplying details of other benefits that are administered by the same department using the same reference number you gave them on page one. One wonders what sort of records they are keeping.

[vetran]

so it is really bad?

lets hope they fix it quick. We need the service but not the screwups.

[NickFitz]

This is a real problem with the DWP at the moment. You have people who are terminally ill and severely disabled, who according to DWP procedure should be exempt from the work capability assessment, being forced to fill in questionnaires and turn up for medical exams. This isn't because them DWP are following procedure, it's because DWP have ****ed up and either lost, or are unwilling to find, paperwork, so they classify people wrongly. There are even cases of people dying without receiving a penny of the (potentially thousands) in benefits they were entitled to because the DWP took months to process their claim.

I have first hand experience of this, I sent a form to one department in the DWP and another department claims they cannot possibly contact them or locate the form so I need to fax it to them. I've done that twice and they claim not to have received it both times. I'm sending it again by recorded delivery and I'm making a formal complaint as being terminally ill I don't really need the hassle, which is why I didn't bother to apply for the benefit at all until someone from DWP turned up and filled the forms in while assuring me that none of this would happen. I don't need the money and I'm quite happy to go without it if it means they will go away, but they won't even do that. It's as if their job is to harass people who really don't need it.

There was a segment on Radio 4's PM yesterday about the screw-ups in payments to terminally-ill people. It'll be on iPlayer; it was about 45 minutes in.

[NickFitz]

A bit sad and inappropriate but if they didn't know she was in a coma then they were just following procedure.

Of course the family are blaming them for her heart attack?

Apparently they had been told she was in a coma, though for some reason the BBC didn't bother to mention that fact.

[doodab]

This is a real problem with the DWP at the moment. You have people who are terminally ill and severely disabled, who according to DWP procedure should be exempt from the work capability assessment, being forced to fill in questionnaires and turn up for medical exams. This isn't because them DWP are following procedure, it's because DWP have ****ed up and either lost, or are unwilling to find, paperwork, so they classify people wrongly. There are even cases of people dying without receiving a penny of the (potentially thousands) in benefits they were entitled to because the DWP took months to process their claim.

I have first hand experience of this, I sent a form to one department in the DWP and another department claims they cannot possibly contact them or locate the form so I need to fax it to them. I've done that twice and they claim not to have received it both times. I'm sending it again by recorded delivery and I'm making a formal complaint as being terminally ill I don't really need the hassle, which is why I didn't bother to apply for the benefit at all until someone from DWP turned up and filled the forms in while assuring me that none of this would happen. I don't need the money and I'm quite happy to go without it if it means they will go away, but they won't even do that. It's as if their job is to harass people who really don't need it.

[vetran]

A bit sad and inappropriate but if they didn't know she was in a coma then they were just following procedure.

Of course the family are blaming them for her heart attack?

[Project Monkey]

There's plenty of people round here in comas but manage to turn up for work everyday.

[petergriffin]

If she's in a coma, she cannot defend herself. So it was worth trying for the DWP.

[doodab]

I suppose she could work for the DWP.

I think she might be overqualified.