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AnomalousAspergian
Raven
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26 Nov 2021, 7:16 am

The DRP are using an algorithm that targets disabled people for benefit fraud. However, the Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People have revealed that it has falsely targeted a large percentage of people.

"A 2019 UN report into the “digital welfare state” said algorithms were “highly likely” to repeat biases reflected in existing data and make them even worse. It added: “Inbuilt forms of discrimination can fatally undermine the right to social protection for key groups and individuals.”

Given that I claim PIP this is depressing for me and wonder what others might make of it. I'm aware of how damaging PIP assessments generally are to people's mental health and this seems like another nail in the coffin for people who depend on PIP and benefits system to make ends meet.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/nov/21/dwp-urged-to-reveal-algorithm-that-targets-disabled-for-benefit



maycontainthunder
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26 Nov 2021, 7:56 am

The DWP basically have no actual clue what they are doing. They are using unqualified people to do claim assessments (personal experience) and are quite happy to reject legitimate claims.

I've had to take them to a tribunal THREE times... every single one they lost. One was even deemed to be discrimination.



AnomalousAspergian
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26 Nov 2021, 10:47 am

maycontainthunder wrote:
The DWP basically have no actual clue what they are doing. They are using unqualified people to do claim assessments (personal experience) and are quite happy to reject legitimate claims.

I've had to take them to a tribunal THREE times... every single one they lost. One was even deemed to be discrimination.



That's dreadful. I am aware of how their staff are unqualified. The entire system is supported by a disgraced US insurance giant, Unum providence. Their biopsychosocio approach are utterly ineffective. In her book, 'Cash not Care', Mo Stewart reveals in her that their assessment quite literally views the claimant as a malingerer because their disability is all premised around something that is merely in the mind (based on how they think about themselves).

It is bizarre and surreal that they take this mentality seriously. Such assumptions stem from the Christian science culture of America, which Barbara Ehrenreich points out in her book, Smile or Die, surrounding the nature of 'positive thinking'. It is interesting as it reveals that such an attitude is based on the premise that illness can simply be "cured" through the cultivation of a postivie attitude (what they call mind over matter). It's a very archaic, dogmatic mindset that seems to be getting more common in the UK through what is called 'inspiration porn', depicting autistic people in the mainstream through a series of stories that is emotively deemed as 'empowering' yet seldom reflect much of the reality.