The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is bragging about staff completing autism awareness training. This comes right when they’re trying to prove neurodivergent conditions are overdiagnosed.
The department put out a self-congratulatory press release reporting that about 4,000 DWP healthcare professionals had completed “part of” the Oliver McGowan Trust’s autism and learning disability training.
Yes, you read that right, part of. In theory, this could be as little as an introductory session. But the DWP aren’t ashamed to celebrate the bare minimum.
DWP patting themselves on back for bare minimum
The press release explains:
The training tackles “diagnostic overshadowing” – where symptoms are wrongly attributed to a person’s disability rather than investigated properly – ensuring people receive the right support at the right time.
Which sounds great, but this is the DWP we’re talking about. But how much of this will be used to punish disabled people?
The release also says the training is intended to give staff the tools to make “meaningful reasonable adjustments” as they navigate the fucking cruel benefits system
These include:
- More time in assessments, reducing anxiety and allowing people to communicate clearly and confidently.
- Simpler, clearer communications from Jobcentres, making information accessible to people who may find complex language difficult to process.
- Sensory-aware Jobcentre environments, ensuring spaces feel safe and manageable for people who may find busy or loud environments overwhelming.
Again, nice promises, but in a system that feels like it’s built to catch you out, it’s going to take a lot of convincing. This is already a department that gets a horrific amount of complaints. The number of complaints from Universal Credit claimants rose by 43% last year. This happened despite there only being a 12% increase in claims.
In its press release, the DWP also had the fucking audacity to say:
The accomplishment is a clear demonstration of the government’s commitment to putting disabled people at the heart of everything it does.
To back this up, the department once again brags about the Independent Disability Advisory Panel. As the Canary has extensively covered, this is a complete farce. It only includes 10 whole disabled people with mere hours to pore over reams of policy. In fact, that’s if they’re allowed to do anything meaningful at all.
The government also had to backtrack on the IDAP before it even launched. This is because they tried to insist participants sign NDAs. The panel also sparked fury as only one of them is from the north of England.
DWP can never be trusted
There’s also the glaring elephant in the room — the DWP bragging about this minimum training whilst doing everything in their power to strip autistic people and those with other neurodivergent conditions of their vital benefits.
The DWP is currently in the process of reforming PIP with its bullshit Timms review. One of the main things the disability benefits cuts protests stopped last year was limiting eligibility. This was especially true for those with neurodivergent conditions.
At the same time, the Department of Health and Social Care is undertaking a review into whether neurodivergent conditions are overdiagnosed. It predictably isn’t going well for them. Not only did 132 experts come out to disprove them. But their own interim report did exactly the same.
This is coupled with the constant noise from the shit rags and think tanks about how people are faking it for benefits or ‘gaming the system’. Just this week, warmonger Tony Blair piped up to propose that neurodivergent conditions should be recategorised as ‘non-work-limiting conditions’ and not eligible for benefits.
Personally, I think war criminals shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near welfare, but that’s just me.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much the DWP pretends to care about autistic people. Until they stop attacking neurodivergent people and trying to prove they’re all faking, their “training” is hubristic bullshit — meaningless to disabled people.
Featured image via the Canary
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