Unpleasant Memories

[davidgillon]

FB reminders say it's 10 years since someone claimed to DWP that I was working full time while claiming benefits. Back then it was a good week if I got out of the house for 4 hours total.

Fortunately the DWP investigator took one look at me and said "this is clearly ridiculous," even before she got across the doorstep.

But the DWP system is so biased that even an accusation as ridiculous as the one against me is treated as a formal warning.

And even something that quickly resolved threw me into a three month flare up that in pain terms is still the worst I've ever had. I think I went a solid month with no more an 1 hour's sleep at a time.

Back then the calls to DWP's benefit fraud hotline ran, IIRC, 96% false or malicious (and if was pretty obvious why DWP wouldn't want to give a breakdown of people falsely accused by minority).

It's improved since, last I heard the false or malicious caller rate was down to 'only' 85%.

And even once you're done with the accusation, there's still knowing that someone made that call, and wondering who it was.

Comments

[lilysea]

I am so ANGRY that this happened to you [and to everyone else who has experienced it]

DWP should have to pay a compensation payment to anyone raked through this process and found to be not-guilty :(

[hilarita]

That would be great.

I mean, does the hotline even save them money? By the time they've had people take the call, sent out investigators, for a mere 15% success rate (which almost certainly covers people confused by the rules rather than Evil Scammers), how much does it cost? (I mean, if you count the cost to disabled people of living in fear, unwilling to go on holidays or days out in case they get their benefits cut, it clearly makes no sense, but the DWP are second only to the Home Office in the Eugenicist Bastard stakes.)

[lilysea]

I mean, does the hotline even save them money? By the time they've had people take the call, sent out investigators, for a mere 15% success rate (which almost certainly covers people confused by the rules rather than Evil Scammers), how much does it cost?

Not to mention the potential increased costs to the NHS of

- mental health issues from being investigated

- people not daring to do the little bit of exercise/gardening etc that they CAN manage for fear of being reported again, and therefore being more at risk of eg heart attack/stroke/diabetes etc.

[cosmolinguist]

Assessing people for benefits at all costs more money than it "saves." Even when told this, people in surveys say they don't mind. It's worth it to them, such is their hatred of the idea that anyone might be getting anything they don't "deserve." From this point of view, the nasty dob-people-in hotline is worth the cost because it encourages people in their belief that no one anywhere is getting anything they shouldn't.

[hilarita]

I'd just like to point out that I hate humanity, and think that we should have stuck to lurking around in the oceans, before we'd discovered being pointlessly cruel to each other.

[davidgillon]

The scale of DWP errors far exceeds the scale of alleged fraud, never mind actual fraud. IIRC DWP last year had 8 different trawls through it's records ongoing for people they had done out of benefits they were legitimately entitled to, and had then lost against in court. Each of those was for multiple millions of pounds, in some cases for hundreds of millions. They had to be taken to court again at least once to get them to pay, even after being told they were wrong in a previous case.

[davidgillon]

Yep, the clear intent was to have people living in fear.

[davidgillon]

DWP should have to pay a compensation payment to anyone raked through this process and found to be not-guilty :(

You wouldn't catch me arguing! Three months of significantly increased pain because someone lied to an anonymous hotline.

[jesse_the_k]

All the worlds of no.

This is one reason I'm glad to have passed my 65th birthday (although full retirement age has been getting older and older -- for my cohort it's 66 & 2 months).

[davidgillon]

Pension age just went to 66 last year (up from 65, used to be 60 for women until a few years ago). It'll be 67 by the time I reach retirement age.

[sovay]

And even once you're done with the accusation, there's still knowing that someone made that call, and wondering who it was.

Blech.

*hugs*

[shewhostaples]

Ugh. I'm sorry.