Rising numbers of people with disabilities are being refused their benefits as assessments are carried out over the phone because of covid-19, according to support workers.

Community links practitioners in GP practices in Glasgow’s most deprived communities have told healthandcare.scot people most at-risk of covid-19 have been hitting “bureaucratic walls” because of a lack of flexibility on the part of the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP).

In one case, someone with a hearing condition had their disability benefits stopped and was repeatedly told the only way to reinstate them was through a phone assessment.

The individual said they would have been “helpless” without the support of a community links practitioner.

Others were sanctioned after receiving unclear communications or had their disability benefits taken away after a half hour assessment over the phone, support workers say.

Community links practitioners (CLPs) are embedded in GP practices in deprived areas and can put patients in need of non-medical support in touch with organisations that can help.

They were introduced because many consultations in these surgeries are driven by social problems rather than health issues.

In a separate interview with healthandcare.scot, links worker Neil Girvan said he and his colleagues are often helping people who have “fallen through the cracks” between different services.

Links worker Kirsty McDonald told the story of Fred*, who has – among other health conditions that meant he was shielding and advised not to leave his home – a degenerative hearing problem.

An in-person Personal Independent Payment (PIP) assessment in March was cancelled due to covid-19, but the benefits agency refused to reinstate the payments until another assessment was done by phone.

Kirsty said: "[Fred] can manage face to face conversations but struggles to hear phone conversations so can’t communicate this way. 

“The DWP claimed to be powerless in insisting the PIP assessment centre find an appropriate way to get the assessment done or to overrule the end date of the previous award.”

Although Fred’s payments were eventually reinstated, he had accumulated debt as he was forced to choose between eating and paying his bills for three months.

He said: “I would have been helpless without [Kirsty’s] support. I would have no-one to help me with my claim for benefit, this service has been brilliant for me and the support I have had off [Kirsty] has been fantastic.”

A submission to the Scottish Government by the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE), which employs links workers in Glasgow, highlighted problems with benefits assessments.

In 2016 the SNP promised to recruit 250 more links staff to work in practices in the most deprived areas.

But currently only half of practices in the least well-off neighbourhoods have one, according to a report from the Deep End Group of GPs, which represents doctors working in the most deprived areas of Scotland.

Professor Ian Welsh OBE, chief executive of the ALLIANCE, said CLPs had been working “tirelessly” to support these practices.

“The essential support that CLPs provide for Deep End GP practices demonstrates the effectiveness of the model in supporting people in their community,” he said.

“The ALLIANCE supports the call in the Deep End GPs’ report to increase the provision of CLPs in deprived communities across the country.’”

Jane,* is a former nurse in her sixties who is living with the effects of a stroke in January 2020 that damaged her mobility and memory, and resulted in depression and anxiety. She applied for PIP earlier this year.

Jeff McDonald, her links worker, told healthandcare.scot the assessment was done in a 35-minute phone call that resulted in Jane being awarded zero points and no benefits.

Despite memory issues, Jane was not informed that she was entitled to have someone else present during the assessment to support her.

She felt ‘misled’ and angry at the way her physical mobility was assessed in a short phone call.

Elsewhere, links worker Kayleigh Stockleigh recounted the case of a mother with PTSD whose PIP came to an end during lockdown.

She was told a telephone assessment was the only way to reinstate this, despite her GP saying this would be inappropriate, and that no one was allowed to support her in-person due to lockdown rules.

It took the intervention of the Glasgow Disability Alliance to secure a paper-based assessment. 

At no point, said Kayleigh, had the woman previously been offered this, despite numerous attempts to cancel the telephone appointment.

Links worker Neil Girvan told healthandcare.scot: “These human stories are indicative of a one size fits all benefits system, failing to meet the needs of the very people for whom it is supposed to provide a safety net.

“As community links practitioners we do this job to support individuals to live their lives well, enabling them to make informed choices. We practise by listening to the individual and showing compassion.

“However, often we hit the same bureaucratic walls as our service users as we have no platform to contact the DWP, to highlight where the system does not work or to negotiate a more flexible and appropriate approach.”

The DWP told healthandcare.scot it could not comment on individual cases without further details.

It said it had brought in a range of measures to support people during the pandemic, including suspending PIP award reviews and providing paper-based assessments where telephone appointments were not possible.

A spokesperson said: "Our priority throughout this health emergency continues to be to protect the public and staff, while ensuring people get the benefits they are entitled to, including PIP, quickly and safely."

*names of claimants have been changed as they wished to remain anonymous.

 

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