Awarded LCWRA just a day after telephone assessment

Lottie1732

Not sure what to say! Except, wow! Now I've got to go and lie down in a darkened room 

StillIRise

Lottie1732 said:

Not sure what to say! Except, wow! Now I've got to go and lie down in a darkened room 

I'm so pleased for you.  Well done.
I've had similarly positive news.  I sent my UC50 back about 4 weeks ago and was told this week by the health assessment centre that I didn't need a face to face assessment or phone assessment and they've found my situation to have not changed from LCWRA after reviewing all the medical evidence I sent in. 

Hannah_Scope

That's great news @Lottie1732! So pleased for you! 

Lottie1732

Thank you so much @StillIRise and @Hannah_Scope.

I'm really pleased to hear your good news too Still. Isn't it wonderful when things go right and how they should.  But, you've really got to go through the wringer first. 

Hannah_Scope

@StillIRise Great to hear you had good news too!  

StillIRise

Hannah_Scope said:

@StillIRise Great to hear you had good news too!  

Thank you.

StillIRise

Lottie1732 said:

Thank you so much @StillIRise and @Hannah_Scope.

I'm really pleased to hear your good news too Still. Isn't it wonderful when things go right and how they should.  But, you've really got to go through the wringer first. 

Thank you.  Filling in the form was vile wasn't it?

Lottie1732

Hi @StillIRise ,yes I agree it is vile.  I avoided it for weeks but there is a time limit after you've requested an assessment.  When I did sit down to do it I only had about 5 days to get it back to them.  It took me a whole day. The problem I have with these kinds of forms is that there's not enough room. I downloaded a pdf and typed it up and then added extra pages. Lots of extra pages. Then I needed to print it and of course that's when the printer has a meltdown and you have to get up from your pc for every single page (no paper, paper jam, wrong size paper, none of which are true).  It's done now and I'm so happy as it was the right result 

Jimm_Scope

If it's anything like the PIP form then I agree. It's so stressful. No way to do it online either, I haven't written with a pen in years at this point. My hand kept cramping with how much I had to write!

bettsy23

@Lottie1732 would you mind sharing the details on why you were awarded so quickly? I’m quite curious as I wasn’t awarded lcwra, so I’ve asked for a mandatory reconsideration but still waiting on their decision. 

I privately messaged you back too btw

Superbetty

Hi @Lottie1732 that is absolutely amazing news!! So happy for you:-)I had my appointment a week ago, now you gave me hope I might not wait long for decision:-) Again, I am very happy for you:-)

poppy123456

anon54321 said:

@Lottie1732 would you mind sharing the details on why you were awarded so quickly? I’m quite curious as I wasn’t awarded lcwra, so I’ve asked for a mandatory reconsideration but still waiting on their decision. 

I privately messaged you back too btw

Sometimes when claiming UC a decision is made very very quickly. It doesn’t mean anything other than a decision was made quickly after the assessment. 

I also think it would be impossible for anyone to tell you why their decision was made very quickly. When my daughter went through her WCA she also had her decision about 6 or 7 days later. 

Not everyone will be found to have LCWRA although about 65% of people are. 

bettsy23

@poppy123456 I understand, but I meant more in the sense of what we’re the reasons OP was awarded, perhaps that is why they was awarded so quickly. 

poppy123456

anon54321 said:

@poppy123456 I understand, but I meant more in the sense of what we’re the reasons OP was awarded, perhaps that is why they was awarded so quickly. 

That’s not going to help you even if you have the same conditions because it’s not awarded based on any diagnosis. You need to look at the descriptors for LCWRA and see if any apply and why. https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/universal-credit-uc/uc-faq/limited-capability-for-work-related-activity#:~:text=LCWRA%20descriptors,reasonably%2C%20be%20worn%20or%20used.&text=(ii)%20repeatedly%20mobilise%2050%20metres,of%20significant%20discomfort%20or%20exhaustion.

Lottie1732

Hi @anon54321 I'm not sure why it happened so quickly.  Now, I have a suspicion that I'd not been talking to an assessor (in terms of an external assessor) but a decision maker.  I have limited recollection of the call but the "assessor" cut it short. At that point (25 minutes maybe) she said she had enough. We'd only talked about the physical reasons for my needing extra support. She said that we don't need to talk about the mental health issues (they can wait until next time) because she's putting me into a support group.

When she said "support group" I didn't know what this meant. Later as the call was closing I asked what support group meant and she explained it was the LCWRA.  At this point she took care to remind me that she wasn't the decision maker. OK...  I think she said that you'll hear from us "shortly". There was no mentioned of 8 or 12 or any other number of weeks.

Next morning I had the letter in my online journal (that started the extra payment from the previous day so I had to do an MR for the date to be corrected).

I was already LCW so maybe that makes things go more quickly?

poppy123456

Lottie1732 said:

Hi @anon54321 I'm not sure why it happened so quickly.  Now, I have a suspicion that I'd not been talking to an assessor (in terms of an external assessor) but a decision maker.  I have limited recollection of the call but the "assessor" cut it short. At that point (25 minutes maybe) she said she had enough. We'd only talked about the physical reasons for my needing extra support. She said that we don't need to talk about the mental health issues (they can wait until next time) because she's putting me into a support group.

During the WCA they do not need to go through all of your health conditions. Before the assessment if they can see areas in the form where they are lacking evidence or areas where they think you may qualify for LCWRA then this is what they will concentrate on. There would be very little point in talking about everything if one thing suggests to them that LCWRA stands out.

It's highly unlikely that you would have been talking to a decision maker because when you return the WCA form it's returned straight back to the Health Assessment Advisory Service and not to DWP. DWP have no involvement with the assessment process. You did say yourself that she told you she wasn't the decision maker.

When you were told "she was putting in you the Support Group, it was wrong of her to tell you that (though it doesn't matter now anyway) because the assessor doesn't make decisions, they make recommendations only. Mostly the decision maker goes with those recommendations anyway.

In my very first WCA way back in 2013 i was also only in the room for 10 minutes and then she stopped the assessment and told me she had enough of information. The same happened during my daughters WCA over the phone in 2021, 20 minutes into the call she said, thank you, i have all the information i need. ( i did the assessment on her behalf, as her appointee)

Claimants often have the decision a lot quicker when claiming UC than they do when claiming ESA because UC has a journal, ESA doesn't. Sending letters out in the post is much much slower than an instant upload of a decision letter onto a journal.

bettsy23

@poppy123456
I have used the descriptors but anyway, I could’ve swore I read somewhere that you need 15 points on any one indicator (except for certain activities), and I’ve expressed I meet that requirement both during my assessment and on paper. But they still put me in the LCW group. So again, thats why I was asking @Lottie1732 if she would give more details, because getting a decision so quickly must have meant they found her eligible for a particularly good reason. 

But I understand everyone’s situation is different and I do not want anyone to be uncomfortable sharing those things. 

I did provide as much evidence as I could to support my health condition but as you say @poppy123456 , I think during the actual telephone assessment they must have been focusing more on areas where maybe I wasn’t providing as much. To be honest reading the report there were mistakes. 

It’s just annoying when I already know I meet “their criteria” and I’ve supplied evidence of it in my MR. If they deny me again I’ll have the stress of taking it to a tribunal. 

@Lottie1732 this also isn’t the first time I’ve done the work capability assessment and put into the LCW group. Unfortunately the first time I didn’t realise I could ask for a mandatory reconsideration so l’ve had to do it a second time. 

poppy123456

@anon54321 no, 15 points is for LCW which is what you already have. For LCWRA it’s not about scoring points, you just need to meet at least one of the descriptors the majority of the time. Please read the link I posted above. 

bettsy23

@poppy123456 pretty sure I do and told them this. *sigh*