Recording.

paul52

Hi has anyone tape recorded their face to face. Is it a good idea to record it or can it be used against you?

poppy123456

Recording an assessment is for your benefit only. why do you think it would be used against you? DWP don't look at the recording when making a decision.

You also need permission to record any assessment and they need at least 48 hours notice. You must use only CD or audio tapes and you must produce 2 identical copies and 1 must be handed in at the end of the assessment.

If you don't get permission and they catch you recording it, your assessment will likely be stopped, your file returned to DWP and you will most likely be refused that benefit.

Angiebabes2410

It would have been handy fir me to record my assessment as she said i could raise my hand above my head and behind my back which i can not do. She only asked me to pull on her fingers and stand up which hurt a lot then stand on one leg and tip toe which i nearly fell over so she told me to stop. I dont have any equipment to record cd or tape. Only my phone 

Yadnad

Angiebabes2410 said:

It would have been handy fir me to record my assessment as she said i could raise my hand above my head and behind my back which i can not do. She only asked me to pull on her fingers and stand up which hurt a lot then stand on one leg and tip toe which i nearly fell over so she told me to stop. I dont have any equipment to record cd or tape. Only my phone 

You need a video recording to record all of that which they will not agree to.

wilko

The acessor had no right to ask or insist that you do movements that cause you pain or distress or that could have caused you to fall.

poppy123456

Angiebabes2410 said:

It would have been handy fir me to record my assessment as she said i could raise my hand above my head and behind my back which i can not do. She only asked me to pull on her fingers and stand up which hurt a lot then stand on one leg and tip toe which i nearly fell over so she told me to stop. I dont have any equipment to record cd or tape. Only my phone 

You can not use your phone to record an assessment. If you do and they catch you then your assessment will be stopped, you file returned to DWP and you could possibly be refused that benefit.

Yadnad

wilko said:

The acessor had no right to ask or insist that you do movements that cause you pain or distress or that could have caused you to fall.

The problem is knowing when and how to tell the assessor that you don't intend to carry out an activity as it might hurt you AND not be seen as uncooperative which could result in your claim being closed down.

Angiebabes2410

That's why i tried to do the things she asked. I felt it went well but i got 9 points on the daily living i needed 12 to get the enhanced rate

Yadnad

When and if video (sound & vision as per police interviews) are made available it could well be used by both the DWP and a Tribunal. 

whistles

Yadnad said:

When and if video (sound & vision as per police interviews) are made available it could well be used by both the DWP and a Tribunal. 

And that's a sad day for both us and the dwp. Guilty until proven innocent process. 

Hopefully they will sort something inhouse, because this is just going to cost even more money and it won't stop claimants appealing if they feel they should have scored more. Only the lies in theory.

Have the assessments actually saved money, no, so why don't they just scrap them. 

Yadnad

whistles said:

Have the assessments actually saved money, no, so why don't they just scrap them. 

Ummm - it will never happen.
If any government no matter what flag they work under decided to hand over cash to every Tom **** & Harry who said that they were disabled there would be an election!
Would you say that there would be no abuse?
Currently people are claiming money set aside for the Grenfell Tower tragedy victims saying that they were in the tower when in fact they were miles away.  

paul52

Thank everyone  got 2  new tape recorders and tapes for £35 money well spent  I think.

whistles

Yadnad said:

whistles said:

Have the assessments actually saved money, no, so why don't they just scrap them. 

Ummm - it will never happen.
If any government no matter what flag they work under decided to hand over cash to every Tom **** & Harry who said that they were disabled there would be an election!
Would you say that there would be no abuse?
Currently people are claiming money set aside for the Grenfell Tower tragedy victims saying that they were in the tower when in fact they were miles away.  

DLA was done inhouse. Surely that's the way forwards. I don't believe everything I read, but it's apparently cost 500 million to pay capita and atos- this could be spent training their own staff! 
You don't need to be a maths genius to work out that's a hell of a lot of tax payers money. And they haven't cut back like they thought because of the court cases and stuff ups. 

Did we have posts on here about DLA like we are pip and esa?
Esa is designed to be hard to get as I think pip is. 

paul52

Bet they all have shares in Capita etc. Thats why.

Topkitten

One way in which they have saved money is to delay the payment to people who are obviously disabled. Whilst they eventually get it backdated to the beginning of your claim this does NOT apply to other benefits such as ESA.

To get DLA I had to apply 3 times over the course of 4 years. When I eventually got it it was only backdated 18 months (to the date of the final claim) and not 4 years. Also I was not allowed to back date the ESA payments at all. I think they saved something like £20,000 to £30,000 in total of benefits that I should have had. If they do that to everyone it adds up to a massive saving on the benefits cost.

TK

Yadnad

Topkitten said:

One way in which they have saved money is to delay the payment to people who are obviously disabled. Whilst they eventually get it backdated to the beginning of your claim this does NOT apply to other benefits such as ESA.

To get DLA I had to apply 3 times over the course of 4 years. When I eventually got it it was only backdated 18 months (to the date of the final claim) and not 4 years. Also I was not allowed to back date the ESA payments at all. I think they saved something like £20,000 to £30,000 in total of benefits that I should have had. If they do that to everyone it adds up to a massive saving on the benefits cost.

Many people lose money at the hands of the DWP. Either it is because people are lazy and not claiming it, or are bewildered with the complexity of the system or just that the regulations are not all inclusive.


I am owed over £20,000 AND the DWP have actually said as much to me. BUT, because I was in hospital for months and recovering at home I was out of time (over 13 months) to lodge an appeal. No appeal No money even though the DWP changed their decision themselves, I didn't submit an appeal against the first decision.