Page 42 - Reforming Benefits Decision-Making

as opposed to audio-recorded, and we would therefore not support an “opt-
out” system for video recording.

Role of DWP decision-makers

2.41 Following assessment by the HCPs it still remains the responsibility of the
DWP/DfC’s decision-makers to take the final decision on the entitlement. The
DWP told us that decision-makers are encouraged to review and consider all
the available evidence, proactively contact claimants to gather additional
evidence and interrogate departmental IT systems to ensure all the claimant’s
circumstances have been taken into account. In addition, we were told that
cases can also be referred back to the assessment provider for advice or
rework where a decision-maker is unsatisfied with the quality of the report.

2.42 However, benefits advisors we spoke to felt that there was an overreliance on
the assessment report, regardless of its quality. This may be partly because
decision-makers regard the HCPs as the ‘experts’ given their qualifications
and the fact that they have directly observed the claimant. 101 We also note that
a third of PIP decisions that are overturned on appeal are overturned because
the Tribunal reached a different conclusion on substantially the same facts.
This indicates that evidence is not being properly interrogated at the initial
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decision-making stage.

2.43 Given the issues with the quality and accuracy of the assessments outlined in
this Report, in addition to ensuring that the decision letters address the things
set out at paragraph 2.29 above, decision-makers should address
contradictions between the HCP report and other evidence and not
merely repeat extracts or summaries of the assessment report. They
should express their own view, based on their own reasoning.

101 This was flagged back in 2017 in the Second Independent Review of PIP – it continues to appear to
be the case (P. Gray, The Second Independent Review of the Personal Independence Payment
Assessment (see n. 14 above) para 19).
102 In 2019/20 in 32 per cent of successful PIP appeals, the primary reason given was that the Tribunal
reached a different conclusion on substantially the same facts. (DWP, ‘Response to Freedom of
Information Request FOI2021_38176’ (8 June 2021)).

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