Advocacy in Darlington

I have spoken to the DWP office today about a specific client whose situation is that despite being diagnosed by his own Consultant Psychiatrist as suffering from Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression) a reactive severe mood swing condition, he has now been ‘derecognised’ as suffering from that condition after a largely ‘physical’ examination for by a Benefits Agency ‘doctor’.

We discussed appealing against this decision but he had been dissuaded from doing so by the Benefits adviser he spoke to, because he was told that if he appealed, his basic income support would be reduced by 20% whilst the appeal was going on (which in my experience could be for up to a year whilst the appeal was pending).

This would mean that he faced the prospect not just of the stress of waiting for an appeal but of having only around £45 per week to live on.

He “decided”(some choice) to try to look at getting back into work despite the fact that as his illness is reactive to stress, this was going to cause him more stress.

As I have tried to explain to the DWP before, Bipolar Disorder is not like a head cold but is a clinical condition with long to life long potential consequences.

Nevertheless, despite my reservations, I had to respect his view and to support him as best I can and so in order to lessen the effect upon him, I went with him to the original interview at the Job Centre and waited whilst the financial assessment for Job Seekers Allowance was carried out and also whilst we went through the other part of the Claim form.

He explained that he had been trying to change his life by taking on voluntary work with people with learning disabilities. 

We also explained that because of the length of his illness, then a move back into full time work at this stage was unrealistic and it was agreed that he could be available for work for 16 hours plus per week and the Adviser agreed to refer her on to the Disability Advisers within the Job centre.  He was also told her claim could be processed reasonably quickly.

His incapacity benefit claim had been stopped dead on the day the decision was made regarding his supposed miraculous recovery and by the time the JSA application had been made, several days had passed and he became anxious when he would receive some money given firstly that his entitlement to any benefit would be less with JSA than it was when he was receiving the Incapacity Benefit and so he telephoned today to try to find out when he would receive some money.

He telephoned me immediately after telephoning the Job Centre Plus, in a state of great distress because he had been told that his claim could take four weeks to process and when he asked how would he eat during this period of time was essentially given the answer “that this was not a concern to the DWP”.

It is a concern to me since it has been a great deal of work to get this man this far only to potentially see him relapse and experience again a condition which brought him to the brink of suicide, and meant that he ended up as an in patient under the Mental Health Act, indeed in a secure Unit.

I was so concerned that I contacted the telephone number given out to people an ‘0845’ number, which led to a push button response system difficult enough for me to use but disempowering further I would challenge to someone in distress and was put through to the incorrect office!

The person who eventually answered my query instead of immediately transferring me to the correct office took all of the details from me and then told me I was speaking to the ‘wrong telephone Agent’ but that he would transfer me.  To be fair to him, I think he did try to impart some of the information to the person he transferred me to.

She however, read information from the file, which was factually incorrect (bearing in mind that I was present when this person was interviewed and could bear witness to the inaccuracy or at least the inadequacy).

She then tried to transfer me to a JSA supervisor but the line became dead.

I did not give up on this because it was important for the Client but I dread to think what goes through the mind of clients not versed in benefits regulations who come up against this sort of inhumane bureaucracy when they are already in a state of fear and distress.

So I rang back, and spoke to a Supervisor, who tried to suggest that the Client was ‘mistaken’ in the information he had taken from the operative he had spoken to – I challenged that this seemed to imply that mentally ill people were somehow not bright enough to understand what was being said to them and she denied this is what she meant.

However, she did go on to say that the Client had refused to give up his voluntary work (which was neither factually accurate nor a true reflection of what had been said at the interview at which remember I was present) and so that this might disqualify him from claiming JSA.  Again I challenged this as inaccurate.

Finally she decided that before talking to me further about this, she would check the file and telephone me back.

However as this is the 3^rd person placed in a similar situation over the last two weeks and all three have mental health issues where Doctors have decided that they no longer suffer from the same despite any other clinical or historical evidence then I am concerned about what is a clearly worrying and significant trend and which will lead in my view to the disempowerment and possible slide back into mental ill health of a significant number of people.

It will not lead to the re-entry into the job ‘market’ of a lot of these people but actually a further alienation of them from society because there has been no process set up where they are supported back into employment but simply told that a DWP doctor has deemed them fit using a process of assessment which to my mind, discriminates against the mentally ill, who are along with people with learning disabilities, are one of the most marginalized and vulnerable groups in society.

Is this really what any of us want?

Chris Close

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