Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

During the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns Work Capability Assessments for ESA and UC are now only being conducted by telephone.

The nature of these telephone WCA's is purely to decide a claimants eligibility for LCWRA.

The stated intention is to enable LCWRA awards to be made more quickly for new claims and those reporting a change of circumstance, rather than having to wait until Face-to-Face assessments are possible again.
Thus ensuring that the 'most vulnerable' are getting the required support more quickly.

HCPs conducting telephone WCAs have been instructed that LCW should not be considered/advised, and that the only advice they should give is either LCWRA-Yes or LCWRA-No.
COVID 19 WCA Telephone Assessments – Guidance for HCPs, (MED-COVID19TAG~001), 24th August 2020.

It has come to light that in some cases such telephone WCAs are now being conducted with existing LCWRA recipients who have not reported a change of circumstances, and in some cases have resulted in existing LCWRA award being reduced to LCW if/when the HCP advises LCWRA-No.

This was not the stated intention of the telephone WCA process, and in addition would seem to be an unsafe decision where the existing LCWRA claimant has not been seen in person and therefore could not have been FULLY re-assessed for LCWRA.

RFI:
Please provide copies of any instructions, guidance, memos, etc. supplied to Decision Makers regarding consideration of HCP advice generated from telephone WCAS.

In particular any such instructions, guidance, memos, etc. supplied to Decision Makers regarding the specific case where an existing LCWRA award is advised as LCWRA-No following a telephone WCA.

Yours faithfully,

S. Gwilliam

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'Telephone WCAs and subsequent award decisions.'.

I already have access to both the DMG and ADM, that is not the information that I asked for.

In your reply you state:
"No guidance or communications have been supplied to decision makers, regarding
consideration of HCP advice generated from telephone WCAs, that is different to the
Decision Making Guide."

I know that this guidance is different from the DMG/ADM - That is why I requested it.

As for "No guidance or communications have been supplied to decision makers, regarding
consideration of HCP advice generated from telephone WCAs":

I find it difficult to belive that as HCPs are not assessing for LCW during telephone WCA's the Decision Makers have not had any guidance on what to do about that.
eg. In a case where I am currently advising there are no points advised by the HCP on the ESA85, as there wouldn't be because LCW is not being assessed for, but the DM has awarded 15 points on the ESA56 thus qualifying for LCW without any HCP recommendation- The DM must have been instructed to do that by some guidance, memo, etc.

There again as no Fit-for-Work decisions are currently being made by Decision Makers following telephone WCA's there must have been some guidance or memo to tell DM's not to make FFW decisions.

Please provide all such guidance, memos, etc. as originally requested.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/t...

Yours faithfully,

S. Gwilliam

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request a SECOND internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'Telephone WCAs and subsequent award decisions.'.

Whilst I note your reply with interest I am afraid that I am unable to accept the response offered by the internal review.

Your response once again simply supplies information that was not requested rather than supplying the requested information.

I did not request information on when telephone WCA's were introduced, or about the limited outcomes possible at the time of their introduction.
(I already have/know that information).

Your comments about whether face to face assessments are still suspended, or whether you have "now put appropriate quality assurance measures in place" are also not the information that I requested and are irrelevant to my request.

As said above I am quite familiar with the DMG (for the 2008 ESA regulations) and the ADM (for the 2013 ESA reguations).
I do not need reminding of those.

I have asked you to provide any/all guidance, memos, or other instructions issued to DWP Decision Makers regarding how to process HCP recommendations resulting from telephone WCA's.

This request covers from the inception of telephone WCS's - not just comments about what you are now doing.

You have actually stated in your internal review response that "the suggested outcomes from the HCP reports from a telephone assessment have expanded over time".
Which clearly indicates that such guidance (or at least such guidance under the name of "suggested outcomes") has been and still is being issued to decision makers.

Once again;
Please provide the information that I originally requested.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/t...

Yours faithfully,

S. Gwilliam