The extremely dreaded Atos Assessment

mazza111

Personally, I've had 2 WCA and they were fine. Treated with respect and dignity at both of them. The doctor was thorough and a lovely man on both occasions.

My daughter's had 2 WCA, one was fine, the first one was.... atrocious for want of a better word. The report was full of lies and inaccuracies. So until ATOS weed these kind of people from their staff, I'm afraid I can't support their work.


I do believe everyone should have a WCA to weed out those few who claim unnecessarily, but as it is atm is not fit for purpose. And until ATOS fix out their own problems, it's a big no from me. Especially if they are not listening to the applicant and twisting what they say.

Good luck to those facing assessments in the near future

bll78

I have had a few ATOS assessments and both times they've upped my entitlement (DLA) compared to what I'd had from my paper submission.
I think the trick is to be totally honest, which I know sounds silly, but I bet people get scared and exaggerate just to make sure their claim isn't thrown out. The problem with that is human nature, if you catch someone out as exaggerating you're bound to think everything is an exaggeration.
I'm sure the system fails people, but be honest and if you think they've missed something tell them. At mine he kept going on about me having 2 showers. I pointed out the house had 2 showers, and I could use neither that's why I'd been referred to Occupational Therapists for a bath lift. I'm sure he thought I was mad until he did the actual examination.
When he left I thought it'd had gone really badly, until I got my award through, which as I said earlier actually increased my level.
Good luck

mazza111

While I do agree with you that honesty is a must Bll78, it doesn't take away from when ATOS do tell lies about you. If I'm totally honest, when I first read the stories about ATOS, I thought there were a lot of people at it. Then it happened to my lass. I couldn't believe half of what they had written. And it's a different scenario for DLA to that of the WCA. Think for the WCA it's a combination of both the WCA not being fit for purpose and ATOS being.... ATOS.

Mojisola

mazza111 wrote: »

Then it happened to my lass. I couldn't believe half of what they had written.

My son has had three assessments - the first one was so wrong that we thought he had been sent someone else's report, the second one had outright lies on it (eg. he hadn't been able to do the physical tests but the nurse reported that he had done them all without any problems) and the third one - which was recorded - gave a very clear picture of his problems.

Morglin

The OP has requested a recorded meeting, do there should be no issues about who said what.

Lin

bll78

Maybe I've just had good assessors then. I was told to ask for a specialist neuro assessor but I didn't I just had 'normal' assessors. I thought I'd have problems because I still don't have a diagnosis, but they just used my symptoms and what they could see from a medical (foot drop, spasticity etc..).
I suppose it's the same for everything there's good and bad in the bunch. I would take the advice of those that have had problems. Good luck with it all

JasonBat

I saw a GP and had the assessment recorded so hopefully things work out for the best.

I've recieved a call today from DWP saying I've been transferred from IB to ESA. Not sure if that is a good sign or not.

bll78

Let's hope it is, it sounds like they've implied you're eligible for ESA, but who knows.

Morglin

JasonBat wrote: »

I saw a GP and had the assessment recorded so hopefully things work out for the best.

I've recieved a call today from DWP saying I've been transferred from IB to ESA. Not sure if that is a good sign or not.

Sounds it - just need to wait for your award letter now to see what group they have placed you in.:T

Once you receive your award letter, you can contact them to ask for an ESA85A form (as you haven't had a medical), which is a decision form to see what it was awarded on and the suggested review date (although as WCA's have now been suspended, it's not clear how relevant that is now).

Obviously, if they place you in WRAG, and you wish to appeal, then the letter will tell you how to apply for Mandatory Reconsideration and appeal - hopefully, you won't need to.

Lin

mazza111

Agree with the above from Morglin.

I only posted our own experiences to show how different they can be from person to person. No one commented on the 3 positives, but picked up on the negative

Mojisola - :mad::mad::mad: It's extremely maddening when it happens. I've kept that ESA85 and it still shocks me when I'm clearing out my paperwork and come across it lol