DLA transition to PIP - evidence?

50Twuncle

GlasweJen wrote: »

I went to the assessment centre. I'm iatrophobic and won't allow a doctor to violate my home but I don't think I would have had a home visit anyway.

Whyever not ?
Surely - if anyone is entitled to a home assessment - someone who is Paraplegic would be "entitled" to one - whether you actually want one is a totally different issue !!
But - the way that you have been treated is appalling - have you received any support from a disability charity or even your local CAB ?

GlasweJen

I had help from MIND as I have neurological problems. Saw people in much worse shape than me at the centre and they all said they'd asked for home visits but because the appointments were given with just over a weeks notice some of them couldn't get GP letters for home visits

GlasweJen

Well I posted my MR off last night after the last posting time but got a text this morning to say that it had been received.

Still not received a call back from a decision maker despite it being a week since I called, can't say I'm too happy with the process so far and the complaint is just getting longer and longer.

MP called on Thursday but I was off my face on pain killers due to an A&E visit in the small hours before the call, they were going to call the DWP to find out why I wasn't getting my 48 hour call back but they haven't called since.

Hope they see sense and restore at least some of my care rate as I am basically house bound without it but I'm not holding my breath.

50Twuncle

Have you started the official appeals procedure yet ?

GlasweJen

I've just started mandatory reconsideration, apparently can't appeal until that's happened.

Decided to write to them as I'm not getting the call backs even though they are supposed to call back within 48 hours.

50Twuncle

GlasweJen wrote: »

I've just started mandatory reconsideration, apparently can't appeal until that's happened.

Decided to write to them as I'm not getting the call backs even though they are supposed to call back within 48 hours.

OK email DCPUALTERNATIVE.FORMATTEAM@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK and tell them the problems that you have been having - they will kick !!!! !!

GlasweJen

So my MP emailed me and said that the DWP told her they received my MR on the 4th. I don't know where they plucked this from as I called them on the 2nd, never got any call backs and have had no correspondence from them, I posted a letter yesterday?

MP has asked them to send her a copy of the MR when they make it, I don't know what's going on!

sunnyflower

Just to clarify (I'm a DA) , after the assessment the DA should recap and clarify and ask if there is anything that's been missed. The claimant doesn't see the notes, but is entitled to see the completed report. Saying that, I have had people sitting next to me and watching me type! But they are just notes this stage.A claimant can of course take their own notes. They can record the assessment but there are criteria around this and you have to inform the company beforehand.

Gypsywoman

GlasweJen wrote: »

Well I had my assessment today. The man was really nice but didn't seem medically trained, he typed a lot and commented on my joints being very creaky when he was testing them.

My mum came with me and he listened to what she had to say and seemed interested in her views as my carer. I had heard that they wouldn't let a carer talk for the claimant but that wasn't the case for me at all though I am on the autistic spectrum and have iatrophobia.

I'm really hoping that my award comes through, the assessment was 50 minutes long and quite informal, more of a chat about the answers on my form and how I coped day to day.

Scoring myself I sit at enhanced for both but I know there's a bias there so I'm just hoping i keep my care component so that I can keep my life as it is and not have to cut back on private care.

I know their are a lot of appeals, from what I have read. I know some people have settled for less because they are worried they will lose what they have been awarded. A couple of people I know have said the assessor was nice or friendly but providing they are polite and respectful being nice or friendly is irrelevant really for one of the women was not awarded PIP at all and said she cannot go through it again. Another woman I know was awarded the standard care and had been getting high rate in both care and mobility. Their disability needs remain the same.

You said he listened to what your mum had to say and seemed interested in your mums views as your carer. Which most people are not allowed to have a carer speak you said, but you needed to because of two of your conditions, so that would have been further support for your claim I would have thought and yet it appears to have not been of any assistance for the evidence needed. So your carer/advocate who you needed to speak for you was not really listened to, despite his apparent show of interest in your carers views.

When you scored yourself you said you "sit at enhanced for both" and you even acknowledged a bias. I also read on one of your posts of your different conditions and I think there were at least 5. If it it was like a chat about the answers you had given and was informal he must have been typing his assessment notes throughout. Did he not ask you how your different conditions affect you in your own words or did you need your mum to do that?

I thought the people doing these assessments had to be medically trained in some way and I also thought they had to tell you in which way they were medically trained? How can they be health professionals if they are not medically trained? Surely they should be introducing both themselves and their profession. Eg "I am Mike Brady I am a physiotherapist and I am your assessor". Quite how a physio or many other medical professions, for I presume they could be a podiatrist etc, can make any more relevant notes to type into a report and, in some cases, It seems even less relevant notes to assess a person with any condition and its affects on their lives outside their own speciality, I do not know.

Is there any set up I wonder that takes into account the very complex affects of mental health issues on an individual and the affect they may have on a claimants ability to complete certain very basic day to day needs without support. You have both physical and mental health conditions and yet you felt the assessor didn't have any medical training. I am sure you have met enough professionals in your time who do have very highly and extensive qualifications in their own medical specialities to have been more in a position to know that someone appears not to be. .

You filled in the form and sent relevant evidence of how your disabilities affect you and then spend 50 minutes, less than an hour, in an office for someone to just assess what? What are they assessing? They have all the evidence and specialised medical reports and I should imagine you had sent in quite a number of them, like others have. Your diary and so on. How can they make any assessment in 50 minutes on how at least 5 complex medical conditions affect someone day to day if they only specialise in feet for example. It seems ridiculous and surely an expert in a condition and the impact on day to day life and the ability to do certain basic tasks in the form of a letter should be evidence that stands alone.

I do not understand it at all. If you cannot walk and yet they say you can walk 200m how can that happen. You get no mobility help for taxis or whatever, what do they expect really expect you to do? I know you spoke about being housebound if you do not get at least some PIP. If that means leaving your job how is that suppose to be helping getting people back into work?

I hope this makes some sense and would ask that sunnyflower can tell me what is a DA and are they the old HCP's? Sorry if I seem out of my depth here but I am. It seems the assessors medical training is so pointless and any individual could make these notes on anyone. Are any of the assessors people with disabilities? Or just a random mix of people who may have some medical training but little if any knowledge of the ways in which many people with disabilities need support to have any quality of life?

More question than answers I know but I can tell by other posters that seem very shocked you only scored 2 points and who appear to know your medical history well that it appears something is amiss here.

I hope it works out for you and you are awarded what you are entitled to. xx

Poppie68

Gypsywoman wrote: »

I know their are a lot of appeals, from what I have read. I know some people have settled for less because they are worried they will lose what they have been awarded. A couple of people I know have said the assessor was nice or friendly but providing they are polite and respectful being nice or friendly is irrelevant really for one of the women was not awarded PIP at all and said she cannot go through it again. Another woman I know was awarded the standard care and had been getting high rate in both care and mobility. Their disability needs remain the same.

You said he listened to what your mum had to say and seemed interested in your mums views as your carer. Which most people are not allowed to have a carer speak you said, but you needed to because of two of your conditions, so that would have been further support for your claim I would have thought and yet it appears to have not been of any assistance for the evidence needed. So your carer/advocate who you needed to speak for you was not really listened to, despite his apparent show of interest in your carers views.

When you scored yourself you said you "sit at enhanced for both" and you even acknowledged a bias. I also read on one of your posts of your different conditions and I think there were at least 5. If it it was like a chat about the answers you had given and was informal he must have been typing his assessment notes throughout. Did he not ask you how your different conditions affect you in your own words or did you need your mum to do that?

I thought the people doing these assessments had to be medically trained in some way and I also thought they had to tell you in which way they were medically trained? How can they be health professionals if they are not medically trained? Surely they should be introducing both themselves and their profession. Eg "I am Mike Brady I am a physiotherapist and I am your assessor". Quite how a physio or many other medical professions, for I presume they could be a podiatrist etc, can make any more relevant notes to type into a report and, in some cases, It seems even less relevant notes to assess a person with any condition and its affects on their lives outside their own speciality, I do not know.

Is there any set up I wonder that takes into account the very complex affects of mental health issues on an individual and the affect they may have on a claimants ability to complete certain very basic day to day needs without support. You have both physical and mental health conditions and yet you felt the assessor didn't have any medical training. I am sure you have met enough professionals in your time who do have very highly and extensive qualifications in their own medical specialities to have been more in a position to know that someone appears not to be. .

You filled in the form and sent relevant evidence of how your disabilities affect you and then spend 50 minutes, less than an hour, in an office for someone to just assess what? What are they assessing? They have all the evidence and specialised medical reports and I should imagine you had sent in quite a number of them, like others have. Your diary and so on. How can they make any assessment in 50 minutes on how at least 5 complex medical conditions affect someone day to day if they only specialise in feet for example. It seems ridiculous and surely an expert in a condition and the impact on day to day life and the ability to do certain basic tasks in the form of a letter should be evidence that stands alone.

I do not understand it at all. If you cannot walk and yet they say you can walk 200m how can that happen. You get no mobility help for taxis or whatever, what do they expect really expect you to do? I know you spoke about being housebound if you do not get at least some PIP. If that means leaving your job how is that suppose to be helping getting people back into work?

I hope this makes some sense and would ask that sunnyflower can tell me what is a DA and are they the old HCP's? Sorry if I seem out of my depth here but I am. It seems the assessors medical training is so pointless and any individual could make these notes on anyone. Are any of the assessors people with disabilities? Or just a random mix of people who may have some medical training but little if any knowledge of the ways in which many people with disabilities need support to have any quality of life?

More question than answers I know but I can tell by other posters that seem very shocked you only scored 2 points and who appear to know your medical history well that it appears something is amiss here.

I hope it works out for you and you are awarded what you are entitled to. xx

When I first applied for DLA I was denied and I never even got an assessment, the reasons given where the complete opposite of what I had written on the form it was like they had been looking at a complete different person.
I applead and lost so left it for a few months... I applied again and was instantly awarded top rated for both components without the need of an assessment... it doesn't make sense!