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Medical assessment

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  • CockneyRebel
    CockneyRebel Community member Posts: 5,209 Disability Gamechanger
    Speaking the obvious, you need to look at the  costs of insurance, servicing, breakdown cover, road fund licence as well as the purchase price of a vehicle.
    If you win your appeal and go with a new shiney vehicle, it could be taken away at your next reveiw and the whole proces starts again
    If you do buy a car then it cannot be taken away from you. You may decide to use some kind of finance to purchase a newer vehicle but would need to keep up the repayments
    Be all you can be, make  every day count. Namaste
  • twonker
    twonker Posts: 617 Pioneering
    Ilovecats, your rebuttal?

  • cristobal
    cristobal Community member Posts: 984 Disability Gamechanger

    @Username_removed - Once the DWP have set their ‘guidelines’ to interviewing are Capita/ATOS obliged to train their staff to follow them? Do they have any legal basis?

    The reason I ask is that my assessment didn’t seem follow the guidelines at all (I recorded it so I know this for certain)  There were lots of problems but the main ones were:-

    Consistently using ‘closed’ questions without then clarifying my answer :-

    “Do you do the washing and hang it out?” (the interview took place in my kitchen at home)

    “No”

    [The interviewer still has no idea whether I can and choose not to, whether my wife does it, or whether I’m physically incapable]

    “How do you go to the toilet?”

    “I’m sorry I don’t understand what you mean, how many ways are there?”

    “Well do you just sit down, and then stand up?”

    “Yes”

    [“Yes’ seemed to suit the interviewer who moved on without asking me about the difficulties that I had and how I stopped myself falling]

    There were dozens of examples of this, incorrect assumptions, and leading questions. I said at varying stages that I get very tired and have to lie down - ‘a lot of the time’,’most of the time’, ‘nearly every day’ and this was summarised by the assessor ‘2-3 days per week then?’(anticipating, I think, that I might agree)

    The conclusion I came to was:-

    The interviewer wanted a particular answer and once they had it they moved quickly on without allowing you to explain (like a barrister in Kavanagh QC who sits down and says ‘no more questions’ M’lud)

    The interviewee needs to be confident and stick to their guns when they are being misquoted or their answer is being summarised incorrectly. Not everyone is able to do this - for a variety of reasons such as vulnerability, lack of confidence or part of their medical condition.

    On a lighter note the assessor time me when I went to the toilet and concluded that I could walk at 50m/ sec - Usain Bolt would be proud!!!

  • kim7171
    kim7171 Community member Posts: 23 Connected
    I agree with you  there that is exactly how mine went and just reading what has been put and the marks is either yes or no or black and white and each person is  not like that..  on the question washing and bathing it says you need assistance from another person to be able to get in and out of a bath or shower.. they have marked a 3 because my sister washes my hair twice a week even though i said i cant have a bath or shower because even with help i cant life my legs to get in or out so i sit in a chair in front of sick to wash i cant even wash my back or private part properly this way..  and in the coments she says yes i get help that is it... even after i told and showed her evidance that i have had newmerious  assesments by the ocupational health and was deamed that i was  not safe so went to grants and was awarded full grant to have my bathroom fully adapted to help me i told her all this and had the paper work to prove it she just nodded and went on to next question with out putting amything i had said down..
    All my questions were like that.
  • twonker
    twonker Posts: 617 Pioneering
    cristobal said:

    @Username_removed

    The conclusion I came to was:-

    The interviewee needs to be confident and stick to their guns when they are being misquoted or their answer is being summarised incorrectly. Not everyone is able to do this - for a variety of reasons such as vulnerability, lack of confidence or part of their medical condition.

    Whilst I agree entirely with you as that is the way to defeat these ridiculous assessment reports, I don't understand how you would know at the time of the assessment if you were going to be misquoted or be summarised incorrectly.

    Yes it would be fine if during the course of the assessment that the assessor read back to the claimant exactly what had been recorded. The claimant would then have the opportunity of clarifying the content. 

    But that will never happen as the claimant would end up in total control of the assessment process and what would appear in the report. Besides which it is possible that an argument could erupt if the assessor refused to change what had been recorded.

    At the end of the day people must accept that without these changes that the whole system is weighted in favour of government policy.
  • kim7171
    kim7171 Community member Posts: 23 Connected
    Bottom line is there gonna do whatever they want... we are not people to them we are just a bottom line.. and its the people and our quality of life that is suffering...
  • cristobal
    cristobal Community member Posts: 984 Disability Gamechanger

    @twonker - maybe I wasn't clear?

    I don't mean that I said 'X' and the assessor typed 'y' although that did happen but there's no way you would know about that as you say. What I mean is when I say "I get very tired most days which stops me doing x" and "there hasn't been a day recently when I haven't been too tired" etc, and the assessor listens, and then before typing says "So you get tired a couple of days per week?" 

    Fairly obviously neither of the above can be summarised as "a couple of days per week" 

    You might also say that this could be an honest mistake and you would be right to ask that but it isn't and here's how I know. Without any doubt.

    I recorded the interview as I say. Prior to asking for MR I made a transcript and checked this against the copy of the assessment that the DWP sent, making a conscious effort to be totally objective about the mistakes, things that I never actually said (i.e. had been made up by the assessor) and leading questions/ incorrect summarising that I challenged at the time.

    I don’t remember the exact figures now as this was several months ago but it was something like :-

    Errors that would support not getting PIP- 20 (probably more)

    Errors that didn’t seem of any consequence - 10-12

    Errors that support I would get PIP - 0

    So it’s riddled with errors but not one ‘counts for me’ 

    Honest mistakes? Make your own mind up.

  • kim7171
    kim7171 Community member Posts: 23 Connected
    Yes i agree with you its all stacked against you because everyone is different and have different needs at different times.  I have constant pain that worsen though out the day or the more i try to walk and some days i can barely walk at all.. i cannot say either i have this many days per week when its like this or that  because each day is diferent.  So this point systerm is more robotic so its not realistic the only people it helps is the goverment and there bottom line
  • kim7171
    kim7171 Community member Posts: 23 Connected
    At the end of the day i really do believe it all comes down to the fact england is it so much debt and trouble there are doing everything they can to save money and its the little people that are suffering because of it...
  • Threesticks
    Threesticks Community member Posts: 128 Pioneering
    If, you believe that @kim7171 you will believe anything. We give away ( our .Gov ) £250 million every year to India. Whilst India have said stop sending it, we don't need it. The Politicos, constantly give themselves pay rise after pay rise. A basic Monster of parliament, MP gets £80 k a year now. The average working bloke gets £23k and managers around £30k ish. We are the 5th richest Country in the World. And, just earned a place as one of the most corrupt Countries in the World, when it comes to dodgy deals. And, just spit in our faces, cut the mental health budget by £65 mil. Who are they I hear you cry ? Disabled folk, who because of this Governments policies are dying.




    If you fight, you won't always win. But if you don't fight you will always always lose.
  • kim7171
    kim7171 Community member Posts: 23 Connected
    No i wont believe anything and theres no cause to be rude... and like i said this country is in trouble because of a lot of things... 
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 587 Listener
    Hey @kim7171 I just wanted to wish you good luck with your MR, I'm still waiting for my decision letter before I can do anything.

    Yesterday my son was looking through the report and found more inaccuracies, the assessor even contradicts himself.

    Does anyone know what the date at the bottom of the report pages means, please?
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 53,333 Disability Gamechanger


    Does anyone know what the date at the bottom of the report pages means, please?
    Date? All i have on the bottom of all my reports (4) are NI number, surname and page number.
    I would appreciate it if members wouldn't tag me please. I have all notifcations turned off and wouldn't want a member thinking i'm being rude by not replying.
    If i see a question that i know the answer to i will try my best to help.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 587 Listener
    edited June 2019
    Yeah, on both my previous and current reports there's a date on the bottom left of each page.
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 53,333 Disability Gamechanger
    Strange that because it's my NI number on the left hand side of my pages. I have no idea what that could be.
    I would appreciate it if members wouldn't tag me please. I have all notifcations turned off and wouldn't want a member thinking i'm being rude by not replying.
    If i see a question that i know the answer to i will try my best to help.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 587 Listener
    Ok, thanks for trying to help Poppy.
  • Adrian_Scope
    Adrian_Scope Posts: 10,821 Scope online community team
    Hi @kim7171, I hope you don't mind but I'm closing this thread, it has gotten very long and unfortunately off-topic with some members choosing to be inflammatory. 

    Best of luck with your MR. Please don't hesitate to make a new thread if you need some help with this and be sure to let us know how you get on. 

    Community Manager
    Scope
This discussion has been closed.

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