29.06.2023
The worst extremes of COVID have passed - one walk only a day, no access to public buildings and all the thousands who suffered serious illness and sadly passed away.
There are many mountains to climb though in relation to accessing services for people. It feels often like we take one step forward and two steps back. There is still an ongoing problem with getting in-person GP appointments. People are suffering whilst waiting for hip/knee operations and other medical procedures. Many wonder if there will ever be a time when people can have the same trust in services as pre-COVID times.
In supporting the most vulnerable here at Ashford Place we have a front row seat, except the show is often disappointing but sometimes surprises us in a good way.
There are still extremely long waiting times on the phones, that is if you are lucky enough to get to a real person. Personal Independence Payments are a benefit for people who struggle with daily living. This could be because of a medical condition, mental health struggles or a combination of both. The phone lines have an average waiting time of 1 hour. In the last few months, we have noticed that whilst on the phone to PIP you often get cut off 10 minutes into the call.
Almost half a million callers to the PIP helpline in the month of April were deliberately disconnected by the DWP before they could even wait in a queue, a freedom of information request by Benefits and Work has revealed.
This is incredibly frustrating and puts people at risk of financial hardship. They could risk losing their PIP because they need an extension of the deadline to return a form, and some desperate to request a review of their PIP award because their support needs have increased.
The PIP claim process is quite protracted, the first hurdle is to call the PIP new claims line. If you are lucky enough to get through, you are sent a form with a series of questions about your health. At Ashford Place we do our best to steer people through these questions. As an example, one of the questions is about “dressing and undressing”. People assume that because they manage somehow then they should just say “yes I can get dressed and undressed”. The claimant may have a frozen shoulder, arthritis in their hip and or back, have breathing difficulties due to lung problems. When we remind them of their illness they say “well yes I have to rest after putting one arm into my shirt, I can’t bend down to put on socks, I get pain when I raise my arm”. The claimants are always extremely grateful for our advice and guidance. The next hurdle usually many months later is when an assessor calls the claimant. The same questions are put to the claimant, and they are left then for at least another 2 months to wait on a decision. It often seems like a lottery when the assessors make their decisions. Sometimes the claimants are successful with their claim. Many are not and we do our best to help them challenge the decision not to award them. It takes many months more to challenge a decision not to award PIP. First the claimant must ask for a mandatory reconsideration, these requests are mostly unsuccessful. The final step is to go to appeal. By this time, claimants are often frustrated and want to give up. Our workers had to persuade one claimant to go to his outside bin and fish out his mandatory reconsideration. He had thrown it away in disgust as he had been turned down for his PIP claim. We started the PIP appeal and thankfully the claimant was successful. He was over the moon and said he wouldn’t have to be “watching every penny” now. He also said if it hadn’t been for the help, he got from Ashford Place he would have given up long ago.
In these days of supposed integrated care and concern there is much that statutory services need to do to effectively support vulnerable and disadvantaged people. The challenges described above doesn’t necessarily need funding to put them right. We are certain that these departments are underfunded but it doesn’t cost anything to be professional and deliver a customer oriented services, something that we all expect in our daily lives. We will continue supporting, advocating and standing by our vulnerable clients to make sure they receive the support they have a right to, and we will work with our partners to provide a truly integrated response.