G.M.W.R.A.G.

IMPORTANT – GMWRAG response to PIP consultation.

gmwragauthor — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:36:58 +0000

Following the GMWRAG post about the latest consultation regarding the replacement of DLA with the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) GMWRAG members met in Stockport in January 2012 and agreed we needed to put together a formal response. A meeting is scheduled for Salford in April 2012 but the closing date for the consultation is the 3oth of April 2012 so it was felt GMWRAG needed to start putting something together well before then.

In order to do this we have created a page to enable members to contribute comments and rejigged the site to give this prominence for a period up to the consultation deadline. Please take a look now. There’s also a clock counting down to the deadline in the right panel on every one of our pages to act as a reminder

We could of course fall flat on our face doing this but there will be equally pressing matters to discuss at our April meeting given the pace of welfare reform. If we can’t get enough comments now this agenda item for that meeting will probably take up more time than it could have.

We look forward to receiving your comments.

NB: We haven’t removed all posts from the site. You can still find recent posts by either doing a search or by clicking on “Find Our Posts” in the panel to the right of each web page. Links to the most recent 10 posts are still there as we generally don’t get through more than 10 posts a month.

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First NAWRA meeting of 2012

gmwragauthor — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:05:24 +0000

NAWRA will meet in London from 9.30am to 4pm on Friday 9th March. The meeting will be held at Amnesty’s Human Rights Action Centre in Shoreditch – 17-25 New Inn Yard, London, EC2A 3EA

The agenda has not yet been confirmed but will include the usual mix of guest speakers, plenary sessions, workshops and information exchange. The meeting will also serve as the AGM.

It is free for NAWRA members to attend but it is necessary to book a place.

To reserve a place please email Kelly Smith, NAWRA Secretary. A full agenda will be circulated next month. In the meantime, please see the attached maps and check www.journeyplanner.org for information on public transport. For budget hotel rooms, try www.travelodge.co.uk (Moorgate is closest) or www.tunehotels.com (Liverpool Street is closest), otherwise see www.visitlondon.com or the usual online booking sites.

If you have any questions then please get in touch.

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2011 – the GMWRAG year in WordPress Statistics

gmwragauthor — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:46:26 +0000

Wordpress very kindly provides us with a brief annual report on how we’re doing with visitors to our site. This is a private report available only to GMWRAG authors but it throws up some relevant stuff so we thought we’d share it with you all.

You’ll be unsurprised to learn that most of our visitors come from the UK. Perhaps a little surprised to learn that the USA and Canada are not that far behind. As you can see from the map above though, GMWRAG has been visited from all over the world. Some of these are clearly spam bots but clearly not all.

In 2011 we were visited by about 8,100 people. We added 68 posts and 72 pictures so the site was generally updated at least once a week.

The busiest day of the year was the 9th of February and the busiest page that day was Our Key Contacts although that isn’t what we’d updated at that time.

Most people came to our site from the Benefits And Work website with Rightsnet surprisingly in second place. Visitor numbers from NAWRA were actually back in fourth place behind visitors who came to us from WordPress itself.

Disappointingly we have yet to identify anyone who came to us from the other NAWRA

Visitors mostly searched for

GMWRAG – well, obviously
Manchester Civil Justice Centre – the main centre for first tier tribunals in the North West.
Newcastle Welfare Rights – we have no idea!

Many of our most popular posts were from 2010 and related to stuff like Benefit Rates and Welfare Reform. Essentially then we’re more needed than ever.

If you’d like to write for the GMWRAG site just let us know. You can either submit to us for publication or become a GMWRAG author yourself.

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Reform of DLA reaches a critical stage – more consultation.

gmwragauthor — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:37:13 +0000

All GMWRAG members will want to note the latest round of developments in the race to replace DLA with the new PIP. Critically the government have now announced the proposed thresholds for entitlement i.e. how many points a claimant will need to score to achieve a specific rate of benefit. For those of you not used to this sort of thing, click on the link below to read the rest of this.

The consultation for this was launched on the 16th of January 2012 but, more importantly, will close on the 30th of April 2012. This gives all GMWRAG members plenty of time to consider the implications and perhaps consider a response.

The full consultation document is up on the DWP web site and responses can be posted to

PIP Assessment Development Team
Department for Work and Pensions
2nd Floor, area B
Caxton House
Tothill Street
London
SW1H 9NA

or emailed in.

GMWRAG as ever would be delighted to post up copies of your personal or organisational response for information and to inspire others. It is intended that final draft regulations will be laid before parliament later this year.

It is also worth noting that the Government has backed an amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill which would reduce the PIP waiting period from six to three months. However, this is accompanied by a proposal to increase the forward qualifying period from six to nine months!

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Social security information-sharing: draft regulations – public consultation

gmwragauthor — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:56:52 +0000

This one nearly passed us by and we fully appreciate that it’s just a little too late for most of you but maybe there’s someone out there who may be able to do a response at short notice and share it with GMWRAG.

This consultation seeks views on the introduction of new powers which will make data sharing easier for certain welfare services and social security purposes. You can find full details at the DWP site but unfortunately the consultation closes on the 13th of January 2012. Our experience generally though has been that they will accept late submissions as long as they’re not too late.

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Minutes of the last Mental Health Welfare Rights Advisers Group

gmwragauthor — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:26:40 +0000

The minutes of the November 2011 meeting are now available. The next meeting will take place on Friday the 27th of January 2012. Details to be confirmed.

We would ordinarily refer you to the NWMHWRAG site but this is not active at present so details should be sent out by email. We are in discussions about the future options for the site.

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Minutes of the York NAWRA meeting and details of the next one

gmwragauthor — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:14:24 +0000

The minutes of the last NAWRA meeting are now available for download.

The workshop notes can be found on the NAWRA website.

The next meeting will be held in Shoreditch, east London on Friday 9th March. If you have any ideas for guest speakers, or you would like to volunteer to facilitate a workshop then please get in touch.

Capacity is strictly limited to 100 delegates so booking will be required. More details will be circulated in due course.

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Details of the January 2012 GMWRAG meeting in Stockport

gmwragauthor — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:20:07 +0000

As has already been posted here, the next GMWRAG meeting takes place on Friday the 20th of January 2012 in Stockport. We can now confirm that the meeting will take place at Fred Perry House. Please note the details of access in the agenda.

The meeting will start with refreshments between 9:30 and 10:00am and will conclude at 4:30pm. There are 2 speakers planned.

In the morning Helen Griffiths, Senior Benefit Officer will explain The ATLAS project.

In the afternoon, Andrea Lee, Local Partnerships Manager and Rachel Meagram, Disability Employment Adviser will talk about the role of the DEA.

Minutes of the last meeting are already available. We look forward to seeing you there.

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Dates and times for Tribunal User Group Meetings

gmwragauthor — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:03:31 +0000

We have been advised that the next meeting of the Manchester and Bolton Tribunal Venue User Groups are to be held as follows. Apologies for the late notice to those of you who were not aware of this. The Tribunal Service posted details out on the 15th of December 2011 but thanks to Christmas post and the small matter of Christmas holidays most of us have only just received these this week.

The Manchester TUG is to be held in rooms 5 and 6 on level 4 of the Civil Justice Centre in Manchester at 10:00am on the 19th of January 2012.

The Bolton TUG is to be held on level 6 (no room specified) of the same venue. It will also start at 10:00am but on the 25th of January 2012.

If you wish to attend or wish to submit a question for the agenda please contact Mrs. M. Morris, Tribunals Service, 36 Dale Street, Liverpool L2 5UZ asap. Alternatively, please ring 0151 243 1475.

The meeting is an opportunity for the representatives of a wide cross section of tribunal users to discuss issues that concern them with the Judiciary and Management team. Previous meetings have proved constructive in targeting both positive and negative areas of service provided by the Tribunal Service.

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The NAWRA meeting schedule for 2012 – some dates for your diaries.

gmwragauthor — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:01:33 +0000

The next NAWRA meeting will be held on the 9th of March 2012 and will be hosted by NAWRA itself at Amnesty International UK, The Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA.

Further meetings are hosted by Neath Port-Talbot Welfare Rights on the 1st of June 2012 at Gwyn Hall, Orchard Street, Neath SA11 1DU and in Glasgow in September 2012. Details of the latter have yet to be confirmed.

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