Department for Work and Pensions
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is the British Government's department responsible for state pensions, and welfare including sickness benefits.[1]
Disability assessments[edit | edit source]
Biopsychosocial view[edit | edit source]
The September 2015 manual for Employment and Support Allowance disability assessors (released under Freedom of Information Act law) states:
"Psychological and social factors appear to be involved in perpetuating the symptoms of the illness. Factors associated with increased fatigue and severity of the condition include: a strong belief in the physical cause of the illness, a focus on bodily sensations and a poor sense of control over the complaints. Evidence suggests that patients with CFS/ME use more avoidance strategies to cope with the debilitating effects of fatigue. However avoidance strategies have been associated with more fatigue and more functional impairment, including greater psychosocial disturbance in CFS/ME".[2]
PACE trial[edit | edit source]
The Department of Work and Pensions paid £90,000 in funding towards the PACE trial.[3] Attorney Mike Godwin commented "It seems clear to me that the PACE trial will continue to be used to deny patients benefits. That sucks".[4]
Malingering and illness deception[edit | edit source]
The Department for Work and Pensions provided funding for a Malingering and Illness Deception meeting in Woodstock, Oxford, UK, which formed the basis of a book by the same name, published in 2003.[5] Attending the meeting, and acknowledged in the book, was PACE trial principle author Professor PeterD. White. Professor Michael Sharpe, a principle investigator of the PACE trial wrote the chapter Distinguishing malingering from psychiatric disorders, and Sir Simon Wessely, who was a center manager during the PACE trial and helped design it, wrote the chapter Malingering: historical perspectives.[6]
Legal rulings[edit | edit source]
Reports and publications[edit | edit source]
- 2017, Employment and Support Allowance: Work Capability Assessments, mandatory reconsiderations and appeals: ESA-WCA outcomes to December 2016 (MRs to April 2017)[8]
Notable studies and articles critical of the DWP[edit | edit source]
- 2016, The moral economy of austerity: analysing UK welfare reform[10] (Full text)
- 2017, Blaming the victim, all over again: Waddell and Aylward’s biopsychosocial (BPS) model of disability[11] (Full text)
- 2018, Psychological tyranny prescribed by the DWP: preventable harm is government policy[12] (Full text)
Interviews, talks and blogs[edit | edit source]
News articles[edit | edit source]
- 2017, Government spending cuts have caused 'human catastrophe' for disabled people, UN committee says
- Government welfare cuts
Online presence[edit | edit source]
- YouTube
- Website
Learn more[edit | edit source]
- Wikipedia - Department for Work and Pensions
- 2014, Ten things to remember when filling in the Employment and Support Allowance forms - ME Association
- 2016, A deeply dehumanising experience: M.E./CFS journeys through the PIP claim process in Scotland - Action for ME
See also[edit | edit source]
- National Health Service
- Biopsychosocial model
- Ethical issues
- Stigma and discrimination
- Mansel Aylward
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ "Department for Work and Pensions". GOV.UK. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
- ↑ Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (September 9, 2015). "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) – Guidelines for the Disability Analyst (Module 6) MED-CMEP~0017" (PDF).
- ↑ Hansard. "Lords Hansard text for 24 Mar 2010 (pt 0002)". publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
- ↑ Godwin, Mike (June 15, 2018). "It seems clear to me that the PACE trial will continue to be used to deny patients benefits. That sucks". Twitter. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
It seems clear to me that the PACE trial will continue to be used to deny patients benefits. That sucks.
- ↑ Halligan, Peter W.; Bass, Christopher M.; Oakley, David A., eds. (2003). Malingering and illness deception. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198515548. OCLC 53954656.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Department for Work and Pensions (April 2014). "Personal Independence Payment Handbook" (PDF).
- ↑ Litchfield, Paul (November 2014). An independent review of the work capability assessment - year five : presented to Parliament Pursuant to Section 10 of the Welfare Reform Act 2007 (PDF). Department for Work and Pensions. WCA Policy Team. Department for Work and Pensions. ISBN 9781474112352. OCLC 979988363.
- ↑ Department for Work and Pensions (June 8, 2017). "Employment and Support Allowance: Work Capability Assessments, mandatory reconsiderations and appeals: ESA-WCA outcomes to December 2016 (MRs to April 2017)" (PDF).
- ↑ Department for Work and Pensions (June 14, 2017). "Personal Independence Payment: official statistics: data to April 2017" (PDF).
- ↑ Morris, Lydia (March 2016). "The moral economy of austerity: analysing UK welfare reform: The moral economy of austerity" (PDF). The British Journal of Sociology. 67 (1): 97–117. doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12186.
- ↑ Shakespeare, Tom; Watson, Nicholas; Alghaib, Ola Abu (February 2017). "Blaming the victim, all over again: Waddell and Aylward's biopsychosocial (BPS) model of disability". Critical Social Policy. 37 (1): 22–41. doi:10.1177/0261018316649120. ISSN 0261-0183.
- ↑ Stewart, Mo (December 2018). "Psychological tyranny prescribed by the DWP: preventable harm is government policy". British Journal of General Practice. 68 (677): 579–579. doi:10.3399/bjgp18X700001. ISSN 0960-1643. PMID 30498148.
