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My PIP reassessment was so impersonal
Tracey1963
Member Posts: 3 Listener
I had my PIP reassessment today at home. I was first granted highest rate for both living and mobility two years ago. The appt. was for yesterday between 11 and 13.00 and at 13.05 they phone to say the assessor couldn't make the appt. it was rearranged for today. Same time. This caused me so much anxiety.
The assessor offered no apology and didn't even introduce herself. She was impatient and would not wait for me to think before answering her questions. Some of the dates and times were hard to remember. She showed no compassion or interest in anything I or my mum had to say other than direct answers to her direct but vague questions. She was so impersonal and unfriendly bordering on rude. I've honestly never met anyone so cold and frosty. I don't ever want to go through it again. I don't feel positive for the outcome.
The assessor offered no apology and didn't even introduce herself. She was impatient and would not wait for me to think before answering her questions. Some of the dates and times were hard to remember. She showed no compassion or interest in anything I or my mum had to say other than direct answers to her direct but vague questions. She was so impersonal and unfriendly bordering on rude. I've honestly never met anyone so cold and frosty. I don't ever want to go through it again. I don't feel positive for the outcome.
Replies
Thank you for sharing. Sorry what you have been through. Shocking to hear and I feel for you.
I may advise that you speak to your local MP about the treatment you received. I know will be interested. They are beginning to realise what is going on.
You could complain to ATOS or Capita and see what happens. Try that. I know members of our community have done with mixed results.
All I can add we are here for support to advise you. We are a friendly community.
Have anything want to know. Some one will be ready to answer.
I hope have given you some reassurance and please take care.
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Tracey
For a start this is the guidance that the assessor should be following when conducting a face to face assessment.
1.6.8 The approach should be relaxed, allowing the claimant time and encouraging them to talk about themselves and put across the impact of their health condition or disability in their own words. The claimant and any companion should feel fully involved in the process and feel that the consultation is a genuine two-way process. Summarising back to the claimant what has been said is useful to show active listening and to ensure that key pieces of information have been correctly heard.
With what you have said mirrors my experience of three face to face assessments in the past 5 years.
I have no idea why they don't comply with the guidance but they don't - not always and not every assessor.
It's too late for me to do much about this type of practice but as yours is very recent I would, if I was you, put a complaint into your MP and send a copy of it to the assessing company. It will probably get you nowhere as it would be your word against theirs.
Best of luck and let us know what the decision is.
Read through it and see if there is any discrepancy between your written evidence and what the assessor has put. (Example, I know of case were the assessor never asked the claimant to stand or do a tiptoe test, yet in the report he says he did.) You have 28 days to ask for Mandatory Reassessment. Write clearly and provide your almost contemporaneous notes/evidence. Sit back and wait and see what happens. Writing to CAPITA or ATOS, in my humble opinion, would not serve any purpose at this juncture. When you appeal, if you have to, then contact them formerly. They will have to respond and their response can be entered into the evidence placed before the tribunal. Good Luck, and I'm sure if you returned to this forum for advice or help, you will receive overwhelming support.
(Humans are the only animals that blush, or need to!)
(Man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to!)
(Man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to!)
It’s also completely relevant now as properly formulated complaints using the guidance against the HCP and linked to the report can produce a different recommendation of points from the HCP to the DM.
I must also comment on the idea that DWP staff have the advantage of knowing the intricacies and nuances of the rules and are able to adapt them. That is such a mis-reading of the reality it’s hard to know where to start. So...
1 - DWP have never in their many forms since 1948 achieved an accuracy in decision making above 66%. When it became apparent that this wasn’t going to change the government abolished the annual report which posted the statistics.
2 - Benefits legislation is derived from Acts of Parliament which allow the creation of regulations. In turn those regulations are interpreted using guidance produced by DWP but also by case law. Out of all those DWP are not trained on the Acts or regulations at all and their only contact with case law is when it changes the guidance. DWP also have internal procedural guidance. Some is published. Some they have to be forced to publish. The guidance, and PIP is a magnificent example of this, often bears no resemblance to the law itself. So, of the five things which dictate how the law is applied DWP staff get trained on, er,... two. They get no training on the law itself at all. Just their two lots of guidance.
There are several recurring themes when it comes to bad advice on benefits online. I’ve not seen this one much on here to be fair but advising people that they should trust the DWP as they are the font of all knowledge and not try to bend the rules is amongst the most ludicrous of advice I have seen posted. The explicit reason 71% of represented PIP appears win is because of people who know the law, case law and guidance. I’m not referring to the DWP!!!
What really amazes me in all of this is that the DWP/assessors are effectively trained in one or two parts that make up the law, yet can't seem to even follow their own guidance which they are supposed to be trained in. Heaven help the rest of us if the government are really that thick when telling us all that the DWP and their agents must be doing a wonderful job as nearly everybody accepts that their decision making is correct first time round.
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