Assessor's lies-ICO want to hear from you !!!

wildlife

Hi Everyone, As some of you may know I have been through the ATOS complaint's procedure with no result except a complete denial of any wrong doing on the part of my assessor. Not prepared to accept this I have transferred my complaint to ICE the Independent Complaints Examiner. I've been told by them that they are snowed under with similar complaints and it will  be August 2018 from February 2017 before they get around to investigating mine. So, on advice from one of the Benefit Advisors on this forum I decided to try and use the Data Protection Act to bring a case against ATOS for all the false statements made about be on my assessment report. I rang them and it sounded straight forward that I would be allocated a case worker who would decide whether any Personal Data held and used about me by, not only ATOS, but DWP to whom our reports are sent was incorrect and as a result this would have to be deleted or altered as necessary. I have now been given a case worker who has emailed me asking for more evidence which I will now provide but also saying that ICO who regulate the Data Protection Act cannot investigate every case given to them. So to use their time to best advantage they take an overall view of all complaints given to them and deal with organizations who have the most made about them. As we all know this has to include ATOS and Capita who are currently getting away with the most blatant lies about claimants.
                   I am posting this to ask as many of you as possible to contact ICO with information about lies that were written about you on your assessment report. Please don't include what was said at the assessment as this is just your word against your assessor's but only facts that you can later prove to be false with documentary evidence. For example if you assessor said your eye sight was perfect and you are registered blind or partially sighted then ICO want to hear from you.
                   I will give you contact details by editing this post and all I ask is for you to support me in sending ICO an email with a brief outline of what information was incorrect on your PIP/ESA report. If enough of us get together we CAN change this corruption being used against us day on day. Feel free to ask for help...    

wildlife

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/ Ok This is the link for ICO. By following this you can report your own concern or ring ICO on: 03031231113 for advice. This could potentially change the way ATOS collect and pass on data forcing them to record the truth about what happened at your assessment.. 

Pippa_Scope

Hi @wildlife, you've been so open and informative about your experiences so far and I think it's great that you're choosing to share this next step with us too, although of course I'm sorry that you're in this situation to start with.

Thank you for sharing these details with our community and for offering your help to other users, and best of luck with your upcoming case. Let us know if there's anything we can do to support or assist you! 

wildlife

@Pippa, Thank-you. I'm really undecided whether I'm fighting just for my own case or on behalf of everyone who's had this problem. I'm waiting for @Debbie to ring me. I've made this request to cover everything and will continue to fight my own case but I've been knocked back so many times I now need any help I can get. You can all help by passing the word round that ICO want to hear from claimants as I said above so they know where the problems lie with Personal Data collection. So thank-you for your offer of support..   

loopyt

Hi Wildlife. I cannot express just how much I (and I'm sure many more) appreciate the time and effort you are putting into this quest for better treatment for the disabled. It is unforgivable that these companies have been allowed to get away with this for so long. I hope anyone able to will contact I CO with their own experiences of non factual reports. Thankyou 

wildlife

@loopyt Thank-you for your support. Just by posting you have helped my efforts to get things changed as it keeps this discussion from disappearing from sight like ATOS/CAPITA/DWP would wish it to be. I would just like to say that by following the link above it is very easy to report a concern to ICO. Also if any of you are members of other disability forums please help by posting the link elsewhere and explaining what I'm trying to do. The Data Protection Act is there to protect us all and what assessor's are doing is blatantly against the law. Why should we sit back and let a foreign company come into our lives and treat us like we are begging for something we're not entitled to and con us out of the help we need. This should not be happening in a civilized society. I don't really mind if my case isn't worthy of ICO's time and effort so long as they get to see the overall picture and decide to do something to stop assessor's lying  and ruining lives in the process. Enough said, please help..x

muckingfuddle

Hi I appreciate the time and effort your putting into this I would just like to ask a quick question in my PIP assessment it states that I don't have a problem with vitamin deficiencies only definable by blood tests and went into melt down mode at GP who went through all correspondence he had not given any results as had never been asked by DWP would this count for grounds of data protection as is false currently appealing PIP and curious as to how I could hold them asccoutable for there bs 

wildlife

@muckingfuddle (Great name). As I am at the start of my case with ICO I can't really say but the fact as written that you don't have vitamin deficiencies can only be proved wrong if you can prove that you do have vitamin deficiencies with medical evidence. As these can be easily put right with treatment I don't know how important this is to your claim but if I were you I would concentrate on your appeal for now. The Tribunal panel won't be interested in what your assessor said that you think is wrong only on how your daily life and the help you need fits the PIP criteria.  

wildlife

Envelope all ready to go to ICO. I've just chosen the main things my assessor wrote on my report that were incorrect with evidence for each to prove they're wrong and of course I've included what many of us have experienced the description of something I didn't do. A blatant lie written with no conscience or morals or even thought, how I held a water bottle between my knees and peeled of the plastic label round the middle. Why would anyone do that! The only evidence I've got for this is a hand written letter from my Hubby who was sat next to me to say it never happened. So at least we'll know how far the law will go to protect us. It certainly looks on paper as if it should. Will let you know what happens..

gerrys6

@wildlife good luck with it all. My Esa report last year was scattered with things I wouldn’t say nor have done but I appealed and won!. 
I hope you beat the lying ........ why on earth u d sit peeling a water bottle is beyond anyone’s comprehension maybe some of these assessors are budding novelists! Good luck

wildlife

@gerrys6 Exactly, I had an email from my MP today. He is trying to get answers from ATOS as to my assessor's qualifications and why she wrote a false PRN number on the document I signed on handing over FME at my assessment. He is convinced that she must have been qualified but as I told him in my reply her standard of written English, honesty and medical knowledge was not what one would expect from a Paramedic where their actions are often a matter of life or death. He keeps agreeing with me that assessor's lack understanding of many of the effects of conditions especially complex neurological disorders. However I told him it goes much further that that when they are prepared to lie to keep benefit awards as low as possible. I will continue to fight for what is right. 

cathie

Wow I'm siting here going over and over my issues thinking no one would ever belive  what they are doing to me I invited a friend but atos also brought someone along not sure why I thought I taped my interview  still looking for it hopefully I'll find it its just  amazed me what's gone on . I really am in need of some legal help  it's criminal  what's going  on .... 

wildlife

@cathie I expect you know you can't use the recording if you didn't notify them and get permission and use the right equipment etc. You're right it is criminal which is why I've turned to the law to see how far it takes me. We must force people to listen and accept what assessor's are doing.

cathie

I told them I was Vidio and audio taping this assessment due to past  lies transcript.s are aloud in court I'm told ..if you do it correctly can use this way ... but all above board .. but its on a spy pen haven.t really worked out how to use it correctly so have to go through manual to work out how to get it on my lap top.. good on you for taking up law excellent ... must be laws against what's taking place  there would be a riot if only folk had enough energy a little sapped to say the least  I'm about to say f it ..must be another way... this is ludicrous what's taken place and no one  is doing a damm thing about it ..  hmmmm   crazy on drugs springs to mind ..  must be to much to be classed as normal ... 

blueeyes57

Hi there.  Only today I got the so called report, ahead of the actual decision but I guess that won't be to my liking! Talk about lies I was gobsmacked then and remain so now!  On my report there was a whole side of A4 that looked like it had been cut and pasted, describing a detailed examination of my body that NEVER TOOK PLACE!  Now, I have a dilemma,  I I tend to complain as I also doubt the nurse is a nurse.  There is no registration under her name that's on the form tho I will try to obtain her Registration no. If they give it me.  My son was witness that no exam was even suggested, and I did covertly record the session tho not sure I will be able to use the information except as notes. How do you prove something DIDNT happen? It even says my consent to examination was given, which is blatantly a lie. I can't believe (naively perhaps) that the Govrt sanction such corrupt assessments.  Quite a few other things are wrong which can be evidenced as I outlined the facts clearly and succinctly in my form which she said I filled "easily" tho I told her I had to have an extension as the completion of it exhausted me!   Like everyone else I am dumbfounded but realise they want you to give up with the stress of it all, and like you, they have chosen the wrong person!  I may have had to give up my career as a social worker, but fighting for social justice is who I am, so I say bring it on!!  I will have to raise a complaint as I don't feel they should use he assessment for decision making unless they want to look ridiculous at a tribunal as she has not even read most of the medical evidence I submitted and it completely contradicts her opinion but then again, it seems ATOS AND DWP don't want to accept liability so we will have to put pressure on those that rely on our votes, and a more just tribunal process I hope. I Am happy to be counted as a complainant too alongside yourself but guess I have to go through the due process to get there?  If I didn't feel so strongly I probably wouldn't continue but it is a principle that must be challenged,

wildlife

@blueeyes57 I understand your feelings completely. Although you have to have gone through the complaints process with ATOS before ICO will investigate your case but if you report this now and there is a way to do this on their website it will add to their statistics and can only help our cause. I complained to ATOS after receiving my assessment report but before getting my decision as I knew one would be based on the other. This helped to tell DWP I wasn't happy and enabled me later on to get a 2nd MR and an offer of higher rate mobility. The complaint and your decision have to be handled separately but to let everyone know about it as you go along. My ATOS complaint was rejected at first because it contained things in the assessment that I couldn't prove. So I then wrote again focussing on the report. It took them 5 wasted months to reject everything claiming the report met DWP guidelines. You can find your assessor's registration number for yourself on the NMC website. Let me know what you find if anything. ATOS won't tell you anything about assessor's. I have also corresponded at length with HCPC who have a register for Paramedics but they don't want to know except to say my assessor is on their register. She has therefore broken her code of conduct. My MP is also involved. Good Luck I hope you can sort this out, but it's not easy..