The dwp how you don’t stand a chance

simon_cut

dont give up buddy so many people are going through the same !! the system has to change in my opinion !!

debbiedo49

When someone repeatedly responds to posts quoting their own negative experiences when folks are coming here for help support it’s not on. The timing is poor. I think I would prefer solutions not negativity. The constant negativity is really hard to observe and I think it’s inappropriate. I get frustrated and try to get the person to understand the damage they could cause but it is not working. I wish Scope would intervene. No wonder people leave. 

poppy123456

@debbiedo49 There's options under each comment, under the flag option you can also report a comment if you think it's not appropriate. Click on it, give your reasons why you thinks it's not appropriate and scope will take a look. If they agree with you, then the comment will be removed.

Failing that then there's also the ignore option. This works well for those that annoy you. Doing this, you won't see their comments but they will see yours.

AKH

Bomf said:

I recently had my pip claim denied when I phoned them and asked who they wrote to or called about my condition I was told it was confidential so I pressed a little harder and was told they would have wrote to them if you were in hospital so I said to them you had no interest in contacting any one and after a while they admitted that they don’t contact anyone and you have to send your own proof in they want you to believe you don’t have a case when you probably do I’m at tribunal stage now my advice is don’t let rejection put you of tribunal is the only way you will get it

AKH

Don’t give up, my adult daughter on high rate DLA scored 4 points over the whole pip assessment - assessor wasn’t remotely interested in anything we was telling her. 8 months later we finally get into appeal hearing and was granted enhanced rate pip on both levels for 5 years.  Daughter has cerebral palsy and many other problems. Awful had to go thro all this and pleased they have to now back pay it all. How someone with no knowledge of your medical history can assess you from sitting on a chair for 20 min and conclude so wrongly is disgusting .. fight it ! I have to say the appeal panel - judge, doctor and disability anazist were very nice to her far nicer than the original assessor was. It should be the three people on appeal panels doing the first assessment and making the decision in the first place. No one person who knows nothing and not interested other than hitting targets 

Phantomscript

For many the pot holed maze DWP runs you through is gut wrenching. Just reach out and you will get support

AKH

I agree it is, and it’s made me ill and I’m not the disabled one just her appointee ..my daughter could never have got thro the paperwork and forms for that without me doing it all, no consideration is given to how difficult the process is for someone with a disability in the first place. We’ve had a good outcome finally but I’m still so angry about the original assessor that’s put us through this. I will refuse to ever let my daughter be assessed at that assessment centre again, I’d rather drive 100 miles to another one but everyone seems to be saying the same thing about it, time they  started listening or reading this website we can’t all be wrong ! 

AKH

Can I just add for anyone about to appeal etc, when I was called back in and told the result I asked the judge and doctor if it’s likely I’ve got to go thro this on every renew claim.. they said the best thing you can produce to the assessor and the appeal panel if you have to go that far is an occupational therapist report, which I did have at appeal but not at the point of first assessment. I asked GP for a referral to a nurological rehabilitation team for my daughter and they have reports from OT, physio, dietitian where they had assessed my
daughter in her own home. I think the view is the reason so many appeals are won is because claimants produce much more medical reports at appeal stage than they produced at assessment stage which I have to admit was also the case for us 

AKH

No Mike,nothing else other than...  I was trying to make people feel that appealing is a possitive way to go, to not be afraid of it, go armed, be prepared and don’t go paper based unless you really really have to. I’ve not had an one single ounce of advise from any organisation in the whole process nor have I google anything or looked on websites. people need to take faith they are telling the truth and the truth can always be proven and the truth will always come out on top in the end.  But, I’m not a negative argumentative person with any interest in putting other people down . 

Keep fighting girls and guys x 

judy21

I applied in July still waiting assememt done said nothing wrong no problems looked well and happy all completely wrong I actually thought the report was on someone else by the things she had written they are looking over it again at the moment 

cristobal

I became very suspicious at the end of my assessment when I asked if I could look at the notes that the assessor had made on her laptop. I was told that I wasn't allowed to, and that she had told me what had been written anyway. 

Curiously when I received a copy of the report and challenged it's contents I was told that the notes had been destroyed.

Waylay

@AKH Please consider making complaints to ATOS/Capita, the assessor's registration body, and the DWP.

cristobal

Mike - perhaps I didn't make my point very well.

An assessor will have their own opinions and, after all, you can't really be wrong about what your opinion is!

However If the assessor asks, "Can you walk from A to B" and the answer is "No I can't" then this should be recorded accurately. The assessor can say "He says he can't walk from A to b but I think that he can and he's lying/ mistaken" -  that's fine - it's their opinion. What they can't do is change the answer to "Yes i can walk from A to B" because this is a lie. Dishonest. Fabrication.

When I asked to see the notes what I wanted to do was check their accuracy - not for opinion but matters of fact. I did this because the assessor's interview technique,using leading questions, failing to follow up my answers, and constantly summarising what I was saying incorrectly, etc left me with grave doubts as to her honesty. 

The end result is as I have previously posted - numerous (probably more than 20 although I've not counted) lies. The fact that i wasn't allowed to look at them, and that they have now apparently been "destroyed" (I know for a fact that haven't) makes the whole process look increasingly dishonest.

Your opinions and advice are very valuable Mike. However your posts always seem to be doubting what i say and you don't seem to accept that, in my case, the assessment was carried out completely dishonestly.

Curiously I can't work out why....

cristobal

To clarify "I can't work out why" refers to the assessment provider's dishonesty tot you Mike!

judy21

The lady who came to me wrote completely dodgerng to how the situation was and added parts I have rang tjem
about this and the lady on the phone actually said we are hearing a lot of this lately 

Yadnad

Username_removed said:

I’ve no doubt few people get wholly accurate HCP reports but where does this idea you have a right to see what has been written come from? When you go to your GP or a consultant do you demand to see what they’ve written? A HCP is giving their view. They’ve not their to wholly reflect your own view of your functional impairment. It would be a pointless step if they were.

When I see (rarely these days) my GP, diabetic nurse or even the asthma nurse, you always sit at the side of the desk and can see what is being written. On top of that the GP actually reads out loud what he has reported just to make sure that he has captured everything.

Delboy1234

Bomf said:

I recently had my pip claim denied when I phoned them and asked who they wrote to or called about my condition I was told it was confidential so I pressed a little harder and was told they would have wrote to them if you were in hospital so I said to them you had no interest in contacting any one and after a while they admitted that they don’t contact anyone and you have to send your own proof in they want you to believe you don’t have a case when you probably do I’m at tribunal stage now my advice is don’t let rejection put you of tribunal is the only way you will get it

cristobal

@Username_removed

Thanks for your latest post.I’ll comment and then keep quiet as this is a bit too ‘me-related’ and I’m not sure it will help anyone (which isn’t my intention - I did think I would help when I first posted) The ‘notes’ that I referred to were typed into a laptop (most of the time anyway) 

Your post, and the link, are very informative and answer a lot of questions. My interview (and as I said I do know something about interviewing) was designed only to find reasons why I shouldn’t get benefit rather than find out facts and this is obviously explained by the fact that it is computer driven. I accept what you say about drop down menus/best choice answer etc but it must be incredibly poor software if it pushes the interviewer into asking a closed question - “Can you do x?” and then recording Yes instead of No, or vice versa.

I’m an honest person, and I don’t like people lying even if they are ‘only following orders’ (or a computer programme at least) The really crazy thing is that if the government want to save money then they don’t need to stitch people up - all that they need to do is change the criteria so that less people qualify. 

I will be seeking your advice, and everyone else’s, when the DWP finally decide what to do about the assessment providers ‘clinical review’ which suggests I should get 44 points instead of 12.

Obviously on the second occasion “the computer said Yes!”

Thanks once again!

Yadnad

cristobal said:

@Username_removed

Thanks for your latest post.I’ll comment and then keep quiet as this is a bit too ‘me-related’ and I’m not sure it will help anyone (which isn’t my intention - I did think I would help when I first posted) The ‘notes’ that I referred to were typed into a laptop (most of the time anyway) 

Your post, and the link, are very informative and answer a lot of questions. My interview (and as I said I do know something about interviewing) was designed only to find reasons why I shouldn’t get benefit rather than find out facts and this is obviously explained by the fact that it is computer driven. I accept what you say about drop down menus/best choice answer etc but it must be incredibly poor software if it pushes the interviewer into asking a closed question - “Can you do x?” and then recording Yes instead of No, or vice versa.

I’m an honest person, and I don’t like people lying even if they are ‘only following orders’ (or a computer programme at least) The really crazy thing is that if the government want to save money then they don’t need to stitch people up - all that they need to do is change the criteria so that less people qualify. 

I will be seeking your advice, and everyone else’s, when the DWP finally decide what to do about the assessment providers ‘clinical review’ which suggests I should get 44 points instead of 12.

Obviously on the second occasion “the computer said Yes!”

Thanks once again!

As Mike has said, the software used started life in the USA by insurance companies when trying to find reasons why the claimant was not entitled to the protection afforded by the policy.
It was banned eventually.

ATOS then started using it over here on the new ESA programme.
So yes the whole software is biased in favour of the DWP.

I do actually feel sorry for some of the assessors in having to use such a heavily restrictive bit of software. They are actively discouraged in entering their own comments.

justg72

Hi All
I have been reading all the posts above and parts are about the computer software which is used in an assessment. Well all I can say is that this wasn't relevant in my assessment and all the other people who had their assessments that day because all the computers were down and your form and evidence wasn't available. So I scored 0 for both. I was told it doesn't matter if the computers are down! so this has opened my eyes on computer software and my score.