My husband was called in for interview under caution last August. Someone had tipped off DWP Fraud he should not be in reciept of high rate mobility. We had a good think about things he may or may not have been doing but could not think of anything. He never leaves the house on foot, doesn't garden or wash his car, doesn't play sports or do anything with the children. He has osteo-arthritis in both knees and was awaiting knee replacements and uses a boot scooter, although this was becoming more difficult due to the weight of lifting the parts to assemble it. We did have a car on order via the scheme with a hoist and were a week away from delivery when his DLA was stopped. It was at a cost to him of £2000 to change his vehicle, not something you do lightly unless you need to. The scooter had also cost £1,500.
He never saw any filmed evidence in his interview as the tape was apparently broken. He has never said he cannot walk only he is in severe discomfort and pain. A number of things were put to him such as attending an xray appointment, bending down to pick something up although they could not tell him what it was. Parking his car outside Argos and coming out with a carrier bag. One walk (slowly) with my dog when I was at hospital myself for a day.
We have just received the surveillance for the three months they watched him. It lasts about 2-3 minutes, the main accusations are getting into his vehicle and driving my son to school dropping him off and coming straight home and getting out of the car with no apparent difficulty and walking about five foot up a ramp we have to the door. We never see film of him getting out of his car because my husband struggles to stand from seated. We have one minute of footage on the field of him walking very slowly and you cannot see his legs only his head as the officer is hidden in the trees and cannot get a full shot. We have 20 seconds of him coming out of Argos with a carrier bag. We have about 30 seconds on him standing taking instruction of how to tie down my daughters empty wheelchair into the back of an adapte hire vehicle, he secures two straps. He also picks up our yorkshire terrier who had escaped onto the main road in rush hour. Not something he thought about at the time being ex fire brigade he says it was instinct and fear the dog would be run over.
He had been using his scooter during surveillance as he cannot walk very far but DWP say they did not see him. We sent photos taken before surveillance of him using his scooter but they were not interested. Things were added to the reconsideration by the DM that were fabrication and downright lies, the fraud officer also added things that were not mentioned under caution that did not happen.
We are going through appeal but beware of who is watching you get into and drive your car
