Wednesday 27 June 2012

Ministry Of Justice Video on Tribunals

[Taken word for word from one of the benefits groups]:

"Appeals video, from Benefits and Work:

HELP MAKE CHRIS GRAYLING MAD
Here’s an opportunity for you to help make a minister wish he hadn’t interfered.

Back in March we wrote about the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) employment and support allowance appeals video (external link) on Youtube. The video was pulled after less than a week, on the orders of senior officials.

Independent benefits expert Neil Bateman (external link), discovered that the video was taken down after employment minister Chris Grayling emailed the ministry complaining about, amongst other things, the fact that it told claimants:
that they are twice as likely to win their appeal if they appear in person rather than having a paper hearing;
that the DWP doesn’t normally send a representative to the hearing;
to send additional evidence to the tribunal, when Grayling wants it sent to the DWP.
Yesterday, three months later, the video reappeared and, to their credit, after their initial panic MoJ officials seem to have left it unaltered. The video is actually reasonably informative and reassuring for people who have no previous experience of appeal tribunals.

Normally, however, MoJ videos get very little attention – one has had just two views and few of the 120 videos on the MoJ channel gets more than a few hundred views.

If Grayling hadn’t intervened this video would probably also have remained largely unseen. Now, however, we’re asking Benefits and Work newsletter readers to make it the most popular video the MoJ has ever produced. The current record holder has had 4,269 views and the ESA video currently stands at 1,063.

So, please, make Grayling mad by taking a look at the video and passing the link on to anyone you think might benefit:"





13 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Thank you Olana for catching this vid.. You are a star..

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    1. You're welcome. I've actually saved it to my computer in case it vanishes from YouTube again too :)

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  3. I echo that. Well done for capturing this Olana as the link I had earlier had already been taken down.

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    1. Oh really Sonia? If you'd like I can email it to you (unless you can save it from my website). You can email me on olana.voljeti@gmail.com if you'd like it.

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  4. Just shows he doesnt understand the power of the net. I forward the link to everyone..

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    1. Excellent. And should anyone need it, I have the video in my public dropbox folder, and am happy to give out the url (though not on my blog obviously).

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  5. I wish my appeal tribunal had been as civilised as she made out! With hindsight I should have had someone attend with me as a witness - but surely we shouldn't need that sort of protection in a court of law!

    Thank you for your blog -it's great that you are trying to help us!

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    1. They should be civilised. If it wasn't you have grounds to complain. It's always advisable to have an advocate with you, even if it is just to witness their behaviour, as you found. I'm sorry to hear that :(

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  6. Thanks for this info and the video!!!

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  7. Filmed at Fox Court, bet he got a knock back , nobody ever wins there :-(

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