Unfair Treatment

Rin1472

A short while ago I experienced an awful PIP assessment. For a bit of background, in 2022 I was awarded the standard rate for care and mobility based on needs arising from autism, ADHD, generalised anxiety disorder, eating disorder and complex PTSD.

Since this point, there has been a significant decline in my physical health leading to multiple blood tests (white cells always raised), echo, ecg, 5 day Holter, tilt table, 2 day Holter, MRI head, 24 hour blood pressure monitoring and tests on plasma adrenaline. These tests have taken place across four separate hospitals. I’ve also had my driving licence revoked on medical grounds and I’m about to be dismissed from my job due to ill health (I’m applying for ill health retirement).

I decided to submit a change of circumstances to PIP and was able to send a significant pile of additional evidence. Due to the amount of new information, I wrote on the form that the previous issues remained relevant whilst explaining what had changed.

Fast forward to the assessment where the lady openly admitted that she hadn’t looked at the form or evidence as she preferred to speak to the person first. That made some sense until I received a text from PIP maybe half an hour after stating that they’d received the report. I pushed it to the back of my mind.

Then the decision letter arrived… they’d awarded me 0 points across the board. It was like the bottom fell out of my world. Reading the statement, it began by saying that due to the amount of new evidence, the evidence from the original claim hadn’t been considered. This shook me because I was under the impression the previous evidence would be considered as a full picture, especially as I’d stated those things hadn’t changed. It was why I hadn’t gone into detail about those things on the form.

Reading on further, there were a lot of statements such as ‘I’ve decided you can…” without any reference to evidence that gave them that opinion. The only evidence cited was the phone assessment, which should have been a video assessment and was cut short due to technical difficulties.

Even worse was the final part of the statement which described my symptoms as ‘a bit of dizziness’ and then stated that I’d never lost consciousness. Included in the evidence were multiple medical reports citing loss of consciousness and the DVLA decision letter which cited it as one of their reasons to revoke the licence. The loss of licence wasn’t even mentioned.

I managed to ring the mandatory reconsideration line but I was distraught and struggled to make sense. The lady was patient with me and seemed kind though. She asked if I had any more evidence to which I replied ‘loads’ and she asked me to send that in too.

I just don’t understand how the assessor magically cured my autism, ADHD and the significant history of poor mental health arising from multiple childhood traumas. And then she magically cured my new medical issues and gave my license back…. Or, she just didn’t read a shred of evidence and just pushed the paperwork through to get to the next person on the conveyor belt with no consideration of the human on the other side, because now I’ve lost that too. The pip award I had has been revoked, and it can take 15 weeks to receive a decision on the mandatory consideration which is rarely changed. 😢

It was advised that I should complain about the assessment to independent assessment services too. About a week ago I received their response. There are a number of small things I don’t agree with, but this is what their conclusion was,

“The client relations medical advisor (CRMA) has advised there is a lack of consideration of the evidence that was supplied. Having reviewed your report the CRMA has advised that this has not met the required quality standards in line with DWP guidelines. The report produced by the Health professional does not consider all the evidence on file.

Overall, the report does not fully consider the impact that your conditions have on your mobility and ability to carry out certain daily living activities. We have therefore provided recommendations to the DWP.”

They’ve basically admitted fault, said sorry for the distress and informed DWP. Personally, I’m still really unhappy with this. I was on standard mobility and daily living based off mental health alone. This was a change of circumstances due to a dramatic decline in my physical health which has had an enormous impact on functioning in all areas of life. All conditions on the original claim remain present which was evidenced.

This assessor has single handedly caused the removal of my entire award because whichever decision maker landed my case, they decided to base their decision largely on that report.

DWP have told me October will be the soonest that my mandatory reconsideration will be looked at. I’ve been left in a position where I’m no longer well enough to work, have had my licence revoked on health grounds and my statutory sick pay is due to end anat some point in August. I’m still technically employed as I’m going for ill health retirement as occupational health have advised I’m likely to meet the criteria.

Can independent assessment services really allow their mistake to rip away all financial support to someone with a disability, and all they do is say sorry?

And to add to the confusion, I received another letter from DWP saying “we now have all the information we need to make a decision…”

Someone suggested I should have called DWP and informed them of the conclusion from independent assessment services, but I simply didn’t have the energy. This world is just so cruel.

Albus_Scope

Hey @Rin1472 I'm so sorry you got stuck with such a terrible assessor, I'm really hoping they lost their job over that shocking behaviour! I'm glad they've at least confessed it was their fault, but I understand the waiting with no money is far from ideal and the whole situation never should've happened.
Have you thought of reaching out to your local MP? They can often speed up the whole process massively.

Rin1472

I was advised to contact my MP, but sadly it’s a conservative who used to work for the DWP and is well known for their controversial opinions and their suggestion to speed up the rollout of universal credit. I have absolutely no confidence that person would be even slightly interested. :(

To make things worse, I reached out to them when my little boy was suspended at the age of 6 with a full EHCP, and received little to no support.

Albus_Scope

Sorry to hear you've not had any support from your MP in the past @Rin1472 but it might still be worth getting in touch now, things might be a bit different now we have a different government in power. 😊

Noidea19

Rather than ring DWP regarding the complaint to assessment services, could you not send them a copy of them admitting their errors? It may or may not speed things up but it will hopefully help with your reconsideration. Just food for thought.