 |
|
about da 
advisers benefits coalition on charging contact da disability benefits consortium home links membership policy and campaigns search shop site map support da tax credits what's new
Following concerns about the use of Electronic 85s raised by commissioners in a number of decisions the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have issued guidance (DMG letter 18/05).
Citing various commissioner’s decisions this guidance states:
1. There is no requirement in law for an IB85 to be signed.
2.There were concerns where answers keyed in to the electronic 85 were automatically reproduced elsewhere, sometimes in the form of standard phrasing. Guidance for decision makers was that:
“The report should be read as a whole and any inconsistent or improbable entries addressed before a determination of incapacity for work is made. Procedural guidance on gaining clarification or questioning of the content of IB85s should be followed.”
Guidance for Examining Medical Officers is that..
“any alterations or additions to a report on an electronic IB85 should be provided in a separate document; the original text of the electronic IB85 should not be changed unless it is of a very minor nature e.g. a slip of the pen, and is carried out by the same doctor who completed the original. DMs should not accept any other changes to the original text of the IB85.”
At the DWP Standards Committee Consultation Meeting held on 20 October 2005 it was announced that the computer system used to record electronic 85s had been upgraded so that “many of the issues highlighted were resolved before the Commissioners made their decisions”.
In commissioner's decision CIB/664/2005 it was suggested that, where the electronic 85 (known as the 'LiMA' computer-based system) is used, a full picture of the guidance to approved doctors can only be obtained by reading the guidance manual for the electronic programme together with the "Incapacity Benefit Handbook for Approved Doctors".
The commissioner recommended that copies of the manual should be made available to tribunals. As this manual might also be useful to representatives Rightsnet have made the LiMA guidance manual available as a free download. The file is a large one however (55 pages long and 6.5 megabytes in size) so will take a while to download if you are using a modem.
 |
