Help advice needed :( — Scope | Disability forum
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Help advice needed :(

emmy04
emmy04 Community member Posts: 9 Listener
So I'm feeling very upset and angry right now. My partner has received his work capability assessment decision today and has not been awarded enough points. The health care professional (if you can even call her that) blatantly lied on most of the assessment! She has written things that we never discussed at his assessment and completely lied on most of the things we did discuss! Making him out to be capable of doing things that he really isn't. It's like she was writing about a different Person! I am completely astounded at how anyone let alone a 'professional' could make up such things. She has used the term 'she' few times when my partner is male. She obviously just wanted to get the report over and done with and couldnt have checked it over! She has stated things like my partner can go to the GP on himself which astounds me as he has never attended any appointments alone his whole life! But then she has given him 6 points on the descriptor involving dealing with other people but it doesn't make sense since she is saying he CAN do things!  I'm just really unsure on what to do. My partner suffers from anxiety and has become depressed, he had to leave his job recently as he could not cope anymore and wanted to take the time to get some help and try and learn to deal with his mental health difficulties. He is currently attending cognitive behavioural therapy. It is not like he isn't trying but this has set him back massively! To be refused is one thing but to have someone say things that aren't True! Sorry for the rant I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice at all on what to do next, I deal with most things for my partner but suffer with mental health problems myself and am just feeling a bit lost. I will try mandatory reconsideration but I feel like I should be complaining about the health care 'professional' but unsure on whether it is worth the stress? I don't want to go through it all just to get no result. I'm worried what he is going to do financially whilst waiting for the mandatory reconsideration to. Also does anybody know how long it will take if i request the healthcare professionals report to be sent to him? And will it contain more than what is written in his award letter? I need to do the mandatory reconsideration as soon as possible as he has no money to live on and i cant support him for long, but I'm thinking the report might contain more than what we have seen? Any advice welcome. Thanks in advance, emm

Comments

  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 53,333 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi,

    The MR is your next step and you have 28 days to request this. Was evidence sent to support his claim?  They rarely contact anyone for this, the onus is on you to make sure it's sent. If you didn't then you should send it with the MR request.

    Yes, asking for a copy of the assessment report will help at this stage, just be aware of the timescale for the MR while waiting to receive that report. It could take anything between 7-10 days to receive it.

    Complaints about the lies in the report should be made to the health assessment providers and are nothing to do with the DWP. People do complain but usually nothing is done. I'd advise concentrating on the MR request letter first.

    You need to look at the ESA WRAG and Support group descriptors to see which group you think he should be in. Points are scored for WRAG but for support group it's about satisfying at least one of the descriptors not about scoring points.


    There's also reg 29 for WRAG and 35 for support group all of these are explained here in this link.

    What he claims in the meantime depends what's in your area and your circumstances. Do you work? and was your partner receiving contribution based ESA or Income related?
    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.
  • wilko
    wilko Community member Posts: 2,458 Disability Gamechanger
    I gets me annoyed reading posts like this one, the acessor couldn't get the claiments sex right. Make me think should have gone to spec savers. poppy123456 you are a star pointing another member in the right direction. 
  • emmy04
    emmy04 Community member Posts: 9 Listener
    Hi thank you so much for this information! We didn't really have anything to send off except CBT appointment letters but I didn't think they would be much Help? He rarely gets to see the same GP as it's hard to get appointments at our surgery let alone with the same DR so I didn't think it would be worth asking them to write a supporting letter as there isn't a specific GP that knows him well enough, they are locums most of the time!
    I do not work myself and he was recieving income related ESA as he hadn't earned enough NI contributions.
    Do you think I should wait for the full report before I send off the MR?
    Universal credit is now live in our area but as far as I know once you go onto universal credit you cannot go back to ESA? Would him claiming UC whilst going through MR for ESA be possible?
    Also I did not think a complaint would get very far but like you said the MR is the first step I don't want to get into more than I can handle at the moment. Thank you so much for your advice I really appreciate it!
  • Topkitten
    Topkitten Community member Posts: 1,285 Pioneering
    I cannot help much with the procedures you need to follow I'm afraid but I can sympathise with the GP issues. I have much the same problem except that I have been designated a single GP and any contact with other doctors has to go through him before any action is taken. The biggest problem is that he covers 3 or 4 surgeries so getting in contact with him is very difficult. In the past I had to wait 2 weeks for a telephone call from him and a month for a f2f. Now that he has made me housebound by refusing to continue raising my medication in line with it's progressive nature I suspect that seeing him will be next to impossible.

    Do you have another surgery nearby that you could switch to that might give you a better response?

    TK
    "I'm on the wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of hell" - from Wrong side of heaven by Five Finger Death Punch.
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 53,333 Disability Gamechanger
    emmy04 said:
    Hi thank you so much for this information! We didn't really have anything to send off except CBT appointment letters but I didn't think they would be much Help? He rarely gets to see the same GP as it's hard to get appointments at our surgery let alone with the same DR so I didn't think it would be worth asking them to write a supporting letter as there isn't a specific GP that knows him well enough, they are locums most of the time!
    I do not work myself and he was recieving income related ESA as he hadn't earned enough NI contributions.
    Do you think I should wait for the full report before I send off the MR?
    Universal credit is now live in our area but as far as I know once you go onto universal credit you cannot go back to ESA? Would him claiming UC whilst going through MR for ESA be possible?
    Also I did not think a complaint would get very far but like you said the MR is the first step I don't want to get into more than I can handle at the moment. Thank you so much for your advice I really appreciate it!
    Future appointment letters aren't classed as evidence. Does his GP have anything at all he can use from his medical records? Hasn't he had any hospital, therapy appointments in the past? Usually when i've been to any appointments like this they always write to my GP and CC myself into the letter. Either way, he will need evidence to support his claim.

    Did you check the link i put up regarding UC? You need to see if your area is a FULL not live UC area and putting your postcode into the link will tell you exactly what he can claim.

    Yes, he can claim UC whilst going through the MR but if he did then he can't go back onto ESA ever.

    If you're claiming housing benefit and council tax reduction then this will also stop because his ESA stopped. You need to contact your local council and ask them for a nil income form, this will allow you to continue to claim this while you're deciding what to do.

    I'd advise you to contact your local CAB or the likes for help with all of this, otherwise you may find yourself struggling to understand what ESA is about and what you need to do.
    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.
  • emmy04
    emmy04 Community member Posts: 9 Listener
    Hi again,
    Topkitten that sounds worse than our GP practice! I don't think it would be good to change to a different surgery as my partner struggles to go out as it is but at least he is familiar with the surgery he is currently registered at so it's a bit less anxiety inducing, but thank you for the suggestion! :) 

    Thank you again poppy123456, I didn't think appointment letters would be of any use, he hasnt had therapy in the past as he has never felt able to open up about his mental health difficulties or able to deal with the process. He has had two sessions with his cbt therapist so far and he has got another session next week but has not completley opened up yet so I dont think it would be worth asking him for evidence as he does not know him well enough? You are right If there is information in his GP records (which there should be!) Of what we have discussed and what they have seen then do you think we could just write to the surgery and not address it to a specific GP and ask for someone to look through his records and confirm things about his mental illness and the way it affects him? I'm not sure if I have worded that right I will search for an example letter! They must have wrote to his GP surgery during his claim as it says on his online GP record that they filled out an IB113 DLS incapacity for work form? But my partner has never had a copy of this so I am unsure what they would have said or who filled it out.
    Where is the link for universal credit? I can't seem to see it, I don't think he will be applying for that though as I think it will be too much stress.
    As for housing benefit my partner lives with his mum, she gets housing benefit but as he is a non dependant her housing benefit is reduced a certain amount depending what his income is. Do you know at all if this charge will apply now he has been deemed fit for work by them? We can send them a copy of the decision letter he has received but how can we prove he is applying for a mandatory reconsideration and has no income at the moment? Will he still be able to fill out a nil income form if he is not the one claiming housing benefit? As that is something I have been worried about his mum expecting rent money which he does not have and she cant afford to pay it herself.
    I don't think my partner will be able to see a CAB advisor , especially about ESA because of his difficulties. He has issues opening up and being truthful in the sensitive areas, it is often me who has to mention the crucial things to GP's about him because he either cannot think straight or for the really sensitive things just doesnt feel comfortable to say or explain, you can imagine the looks I get from him when I tell them things about him he's not comfortable with! also from what I've heard it can take months to get an appointment, I tried to get hold of them a while back and couldn't seem to get through. I also feel they wouldn't be as thorough as I would be as it's a job to them and they only have a set amount of time with you.
    I'm sure there are caring CAB advisors that would do the best they could but I don't want to risk wasting time getting help from an advisor that doesn't really care.
    I really appreciate your replies and I'm sorry for waffling on so much! 
  • OutOfTheWorld99
    OutOfTheWorld99 Community member Posts: 36 Courageous
    edited October 2019
    Anyone know if historical medical evidence counts as been told they only interested in recent conditions, treatments etc?

    Emmy04, how did you ultimately get on, did you get a suitable result for your circumstances? 
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 53,333 Disability Gamechanger
    Anyone know if historical medical evidence counts as been told they only interested in recent conditions, treatments etc? 
    It depends how old the evidence is. If it's very old you'll need to back it up with more recent evidence, otherwise it may not be used.
    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.
  • Chloe_Scope
    Chloe_Scope Posts: 10,586 Disability Gamechanger
    What kind of evidence were you thinking @OutOfTheWorld99
    Scope

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