PIP capita assessor has blatantly lied and twisted information!

fedup244

Hi All, I am sorry for the rant but need your help and advice.

I received a text from DWP to say they had my report within 24 hours of assessment. I felt the capita assessor fixated on certain things and missed out on a lot of important things so requested a copy of the report.
I have received a copy of it today and she has outright lied and twisted what I have said mixed in with some truths, she has completely missed out a lot of things.

I am really upset and shocked and the extent of the lies! Honestly it is so bad!

I don’t know what to do or the next steps please advise.

chiarieds

Hi @fedup244 - & welcome to the community. I'm sorry your PIP assessment report has caused you such upset. Please remember that this is just a recommendation by the assessor, & a DWP decision maker will not only consider that but your claim form & anything else relevant that you also sent.

The assessor will not ask you questions about everything, it all depends on the quality of your claim form. The assessor also writes down their opinion, & as they have to keep this limited to the actual activities/descriptors that are looked at with PIP, they often use some 'cut & paste' phrases that can cause some upset.

For now, please wait for your decision letter, & if you're not happy with this, then you can appeal with a Mandatory Reconsideration (which should ideally be written) where another decision maker will look at everything again. Kindly let us know how you get on.

Rachel_Scope

Hi @fedup244. Welcome to the community.

I also claim PIP and I was upset by the things that they said about me. It's so horrible to think they've lied about you. As @chiarieds says, wait for your decision letter and go from there. I had to go all the way to tribunal where I was successful but it was difficult to read what they said I was capable of doing when I really was not. We'll be here to support you through the process. A lot of us have been through the same thing 😊

fedup244

Thank you both. @Rachel_Scope and @chiarieds

Is it worth putting a complaint in to Capita as something she has wrote that I answered are the complete opposite to what was said. The assessor had also made a few contradictory comments . In one comment she said something was a usual daily symptoms and the other says it is not a daily issue! I fell this is deliberate and surely shouldn’t be allowed!

Some things are outright lies other shes omits so much and just included tiny bits which is so misleading.

For example

She mentions I fell years ago and so don’t like going out on my own anymore but I am fine to walk as I do it daily but I actually said falling, catching myself or walking into things is normal for me I alway have little cuts, bruises or burns bit they are minor and a normal day occurrence for me as I have to try get on with it but it wad the 2 big falls I had one 2 years ago which makes me scared to walk on my own. Bear in mind the 2 falls I had I broke ribs, fractured foot and elbow and the most recent my eye was swollen and bruised **** and I had concussion and then post concussion syndrome.

I feel she has written under playing everything and deliberately leaving out details to do so.

Another example is she wrote my vision is the same in the day as in the night. Technically she is correct as in my prescription doesn’t change but at night is much worse as I dont see in 3d so its much hard to make out end of curbs and ditched as everything looks flat. In the day you can kind of make it our die to shadows.

I am so angry, upset and frustrated 😩

chiarieds

You can put in a complaint should you wish.

I do appreciate your upset, as many of us have been there, myself included. However, it's important to know that the assessor isn't there to write down exactly what you say, rather form their own opinion (& yes I know these are often incorrect).

Another thing, you can't prove that an assessor has lied, as you don't know their intent.

If you disagree with your actual decision letter, then remember it's this that you would be writing about if you did a Mandatory Reconsideration (MR). The best advice I can give you is to put the assessor's report behind you, & concentrate on this decision letter (even if you later have to appeal to a tribunal, they're not interested in the assessor's report, as they know these are often of poor quality).

Remember PIP is not about any diagnosis, but rather how your disability affects certain activities of daily living &/mobility the majority of the time. Have a look again at the activities/descriptors that are looked at in the link below:

With your MR you should write (please do this rather than ringing up to start a MR) where you think you should have got points, & why, giving a couple of recent, detailed examples as to the difficulty you face for each applicable descriptor, i.e. when did it happen, where, what exactly happened, did anyone see this, & were there any consequences to attempting/doing an activity?

Say if you can't do an activity 'reliably,' i.e. safely, to an acceptable standard, repeat as often as one would reasonably expect, or if it takes you much longer than someone without a disability. See this mentioned at the end of this link.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/asset-library/personal-independence-payment-descriptors-and-scores-april-2023.pdf

You'll need to copy & paste this into your browser, as I can't get the link to work, sorry.

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chiarieds

It should be borne in mind that PIP is a benefit initially claimed when under State Pension Age (tho, if awarded, it continues after State Pension Age).

egister

The shortcomings of the social model of disability are clearly visible - it is not doctors who decide the fate of disabled people. Or was it intended this way from the very beginning?

egister

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/898328#Comment_898328

From the point of view of formal binary logic, what is not true is a lie.

chiarieds

And from the point of view of a Welfare Rights Officer (who helped people with their benefits tribunals) who was a member of this forum for some time, you can't prove that an assessor has lied, as you don't know their intent. They write their opinion, so it's alright to mention 1 or 2 irrefutable 'inaccuracies' at most in a MR, but otherwise just say where you should have been awarded points & why.

Binary logic has nothing to do with the topic in hand, so is irrelevant. It's either relevant or irrelevant, right?

fedup244

I understand it is their opinion however what they have lied about is what they have said I said! I wish I had known the phone call wasn’t recorded or I would have asked for it to be. I was recommended to apply by the GP and told to reduce my days in work as it is exasperating my condition which in turn is also making my anxiety worse.

I hadn’t applied for PIP previously as I can physically do things but not safely and I am constantly hurting myself when doing so. I think I will put a complaint in to Capita as it is not right that she get away with lying and it is lying not just being misleading. I am hoping her contradictions on her report also gets fedback.

Is there a way to have the feedback provided to the decision maker before the decision is made or to have another telephone assessment. I had been putting off reducing my hours until the PIP decision as I otherwise cannot afford to reduce my hours. In continuing to work the additional hours I have ended up making my anxiety worse and now this has happened making me more anxious and stressed.

poppy123456

Have you actually added up any potential points in the report? They are not added because it's a recommendation only. You can use the PIP self test to add them up. Just transfer the dots/ticks from the report into the self test.

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/pip-test-form

They mostly go with the report but not always and it has been known for them to go against it.

I can't add anymore advice really than you've already been given. What I will say is if you do have to go down the MR route then please don't focus wholly on the assessment report because doing so will not get you a PIP award.

fedup244

@poppy123456 I was awarded 0 points, but as I said there were a lot of untruth and contradictions. I have three conditions which unfortunately exasperate each other but the report only went over the side affects of 1 and inaccurately.

Just to provide an update I complained to Capita and my complaint was upheld due to the contradictions and so I had a new assessment last week. Just waiting for the report now but this time it took almost 2 hours and I actually felt listened to and that we covered everything. Fingers crossed 🤞

Zoostar80

How did it go - did you get a better allocation of points?