Discrimated against by an assessor for PIP

DavidJohn1984

Hi all,

I’m not sure if i’m in the right area of this site to post this, but I was just wondering if anybody else had been discriminated against in their PIP face to face assessment by their assessor? 

Earlier this year I was assessed by a Paramedic and at first she was really nice and genuine. I was so released but I was still a nervous wreck and kept heaving throughout the assessment. See Stress triggers off my conditions which I will mention later on.  

My assessment seemed to be going okay until it came to me mentioning I had a male partner who had to help me with my care including supervising showers that her mannerism changed.

As a gay person I know when somebody is offended by my sexuality. The assessor left 20 minutes after starting my assessment. I knew immediately I wasn’t going to get a favourable outcome.

i asked for my report so as I could predict what sort of points I may get. I was totally disappointed  by the amount of misrepresentations there was in my report. Including the fact my assessor said I attended an assessment centre by myself when my assessment was carried out at home.

i was devastated and shocked when my report finally came back with zero points on both parts.

You see earlier this year, January to be precise my illness started and it has only gotten worse with time.

Currently I have been diagnosed with,

Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome,
Fibromyalgia, 
Chronic Fatigue,
Irritable Bowl Syndrome,
Anxiety,
depression,
Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease,
Chostochondritis,
Malnutrition,
Chronic weightloss,
Keto-Acidosis,
Chronic Dehydration
Chronic Nausea.

The list goes on.

Yet I still scored zero points. If that wasn’t bad enough my mandatory reconsideration was upheld and they stated no medical evidence from the Dr would be used. So again rejected.

so I explained that my condition by just having Fibromyalgia is bad enough, but take the Cyclical Vomiting syndrome into account makes everything so much worse.

see since March, every two weeks without fail I will vomit for 4 days in a row, back when it started it could last up to 4 days and in that time I can vomit up to 10 times in an hour. I will convulse, black out, go into conscious coma’s and lose control of both my bowls and bladder. I am totally reliant on the help of somebody else in that time to make sure I don’t choke on my own vomit. Then after that 4 days it takes another 6-10 days for me to recover however  then the whole process starts again.

i have been hospitalised 4 times in the last 3 months, with Keto-Acidosis, severe dehydration and chronic pain and malnutrition.

This disease is listed on the National organisatio of rare diseases. 

Also to add my Fibromyalgia is non responsive to opioid treatments.

what a joy I live in.

i still try to remain positive. When my Fibromyalgia first started I gained a lot of weight, in January I weighed 13 stone. By March I was almost 18 stone.

March was around the time I started being sick, I have to date lost over 5 stone in weight. I am now on FortiJuce drinks and struggle with my dietary intake.

I have just put in a complaint to Capita after they sent me from pillow to post by telling me I actually couldn’t complain.

I currently take a various concoction of medication,
I’m on 50mg of Cyclizene 3 x a day.
Pregabalin 100mg x a Day
30mg of amatryptaline at night
10mg of Diazepam when I have my cycle of vomiting to sedate me.
8mg of Ondansatron when in a cycle
50mg of Lansaprozole 1-2 a day
Gaviscon advance 20mls 4 x a day
Forticue 200mls x a day

As you can see my health conditions are very extreme and chronic, but due to the discimation of an assessor I now have to go to a tribuneral to get some money from the DWP to help with my chronic illnesses.

i’m sorry I have vented so bad and long in here but i’m just completely gobsmacked that an assessor can lie so bad in an assessment just because they don’t agree with your sexuality.

so what I am asking has anybody else had this sort of a reaction from an assessor?

It’s clear to see I have an extreme disability but the DWP chose to take the assessors side even when it was proven she had lied throughout her report?

thank you for reading, and sorry I have waffled on so much I just can’t believe that medical people can get away with such discrimination.

David 

 

CockneyRebel

Hi David and welcome

PIP is awarded on how you are affected and not on any medical diagnosis or illness. or your sexual preference.

Have you taken one of the online self tests to see how you should score ?

topshoes

Hi @DavidJohn1984 A warm welcome to you , i am so sorry to hear of all what is going on , i wish you well ,you have come to the right place,  someone will advise you .the best they can  

wilko

Hello and welcome, sorry you had a very bad experience with your PIP acessment, did you ever do a self test to see how you matched the PIP descriptors before applying for PIP? As you may well know PIP is about your abilities not your illness or disability. Not getting any points for daily care when you state you need help for taking a shower is very odd. As for complaining that you where discriminated because of your sexuality may,will be a difficult thing to prove, it may come down to your opinion as thats the reason you where not given awarded PIP. You may have to fight it to the next level and contact your MP for help advise.

DavidJohn1984

Hi and thank you all.

i completed the self assessment test online.

i got enhanced on both rates.

i have an extreme life threatening condition due to my illness and I scored zero points.

i have to be monitored every week due to Keto-acidosis and even last week I was blue lighted to hospital due to my illness.

The only reason I believe I could of scored zero points is because she did not approve of my sexuality.

there was about a page worth of evidence in my report where she lied and misrepresented my assessment. 

If anybody else can explain to me how I could of scored zero points being bed bound for the past 10 months please enlighten me ?

thank you again

David

DavidJohn1984

I scored 25 points for the daily component and 20 for the mobility.

thanks again 

David

mikehughescq

You maybe need to read a few threads on here and the Work and Pensions committee report. I’m happy to accept your assertion of repulsion/prejudice. That’s credible but you’re hardly alone in having a HCP report with which you disagree and in view of what you’ve posted I think you need to have a rapid rethink. You have listed conditions and meds. The numbers of both are, if not irrelevant, then certainly not the main concern to PIP decision making. Having a lot of something; having something life-threatening; having lots of meds. None of these things guarantee PIP. 

You need to rapidly ask yourself what points you scored on your self assessment and why. Then ask yourself if you’ve given at least two recent examples of needing an aid, appliance, assistance from another person etc. and what happened when you attempted each of those specific activities. The what; when where; how; near whom; what happened next of every example for every points scoring activity. You need that amount of anecdotal detail per example per points scoring activity. Without that, to be blunt, you’ve a very limited case and your accusation will certainly play badly at a tribunal hearing. 

To give you an idea of how off beam you potentially are think of it this way. you pose the question as to why you could score 0 points whilst being bed bound for 10 months. Here’s an answer:

1) Depends when you made the claim. It sounds like you made it late last year at which point you weren’t bed bound. The decision is based on what you were like on the date of claim not afterwards.

2) Being bed bound would not automatically mean points for communicating, budgeting, engaging, taking therapy and reading. That’s half of daily living you’re not scoring on straight away. 

Those are but a couple of examples. 

DavidJohn1984

Hi Mike,

thank you you for your response.

i actually made my claim in June 6 months after being ill.

so at that time my illness was in full swing including the hospital admissions with chronic dehydration, Keto-acidosis, and malnutrition. 

When in a cycle “Vomiting” I am unaware of my surroundings and go into panic mode which requires sedation. I convulse, pass out, go into conscious comas and even end up in physical harm from my surroundings from the convulsions.

as you can imagine this is very taxing on my body and for those 4 days I hardly take any food, fluid or nutrition in.

i’m then completely exhausted for at least a week where I can not even walk. In this time I can lose up to a stone of body weight.

i explained all this to the assessor who in her own words said “he looks normal”

i have had had this condition now and every 2 weeks without fail it comes back. I live in constant fear of an attack and have no way of stopping g it.

David

Government_needs_reform

@DavidJohn1984

What a sad state of affairs to be reading your thread & how narrow minded some people are these days.

Well I think you where discriminated for sure, & I'm going to partly agree with you here as I do believe one of the reasons the HCP attitude changed when you explained about your sexuality.

I will be honest to you David back in my day it was wrong that two people of the same sex getting together? But my mindset has changed a long time ago regarding same sex couples, but clearly that HCP's haven't.

As you have said yourself her attitude changed & quite frankly don't think that helped you.

Keep well as can be David.

Misscleo

Shame.but maybe people should think twice before telling these narrow minded people about their sexuality.
Please dont risk your case

DavidJohn1984

Hey GNF & MissCleo, thank you for you comments. I’ve worked in healthcare myself for 10 years now and the only other time I experienced homophobia was from one team leader. The lady completing my assessment as I said was really nice up until that point. In hindsight next time I will keep it quite ? thanks again David

Government_needs_reform

DavidJohn1984 said:

Hey GNF & MissCleo, thank you for you comments. I’ve worked in healthcare myself for 10 years now and the only other time I experienced homophobia was from one team leader. The lady completing my assessment as I said was really nice up until that point. In hindsight next time I will keep it quite ? thanks again David

@DavidJohn1984 Your most welcome, So annoys me how people are this day & age.  Maybe that is the best thing to do in future David. 

As as I did say to you back in my day it was different, but now I have a friend who was a geezer but has now had a sex change 15 year ago & I treat her as a she now also most people woulden't have known she was a bloke..

Yes team-leader, more like a jobsworth & expected you to bark when they wanted their on way.

David do what I do ignore them. Take care & challenge your PIP decision.??

DavidJohn1984

@Government_needs_reform yeh I’m going to challenge it all, when I asked for the mandatory reconsideration I proved she lied from the start by saying I attended a test centre alone when they know I had a home visit. However the DWP still was not interested. I’m hoping somehow the tribuneral will see through her lies and also my complaint. 

That’s great to hear about your friend, I used to work with a lady called raven who went through the same procedure. 

Also so great to hear how your views changed for the better ??

Government_needs_reform

DavidJohn1984 said:

@Government_needs_reform yeh I’m going to challenge it all, when I asked for the mandatory reconsideration I proved she lied from the start by saying I attended a test centre alone when they know I had a home visit. However the DWP still was not interested. I’m hoping somehow the tribuneral will see through her lies and also my complaint. 

That’s great to hear about your friend, I used to work with a lady called raven who went through the same procedure. 

Also so great to hear how your views changed for the better ??

Good on you @DavidJohn1984 try not to say anything against the assessor just pick out all the stuff that's wrong within the report and just justify why you fit the descriptors, don't go headlong in and say she lied (Not a good move) explain in full and send backup evidence on how it effects your function and daily life, needs.

let us know how you get on.??

DavidJohn1984

@Government_needs_reform Hi yes I went to a charity who helped me with the complaint letter, also had somebody from a legal back ground take a look. I covered pretty much everything ?

thank you you for your advice and support, I should hear back by the 28th of this month ?

Government_needs_reform

DavidJohn1984 said:

@Government_needs_reform Hi yes I went to a charity who helped me with the complaint letter, also had somebody from a legal back ground take a look. I covered pretty much everything ?

thank you you for your advice and support, I should hear back by the 28th of this month ?

Glad to help as I've been through all this with the DWP, luckily I've always one the fight.

Nice one @DavidJohn1984 it's great you have some support to get it sorted I wish you well. I've always been lucky with PIP and ESA for now til the dreaded UC kicks in... 

Be strong and you will conquer the quest in getting what you deserve ?