PIp award- assessor lied

likelyfran

Almost-free wrote: »

My son is on the autism siectrum and has received DLA most of his life.
We attended his face to face 5 weeks ago - and I feel as though I sat through a different assessment . The assessor has put completely untrue statements in her write up and has awarded him zero points . She states he had good eye contact and stayed focused throughtout the assessment - just one of the many completely inaccurate statements she has made as he stared at the wall through most of the meeting and was so agitated at one point when trying to complete a task she set him,I had to stop him running out of the room ( this was after we were keit waiting almost 2 hrs.)

I'm so shocked . From reading the form it seems as though you can only ask the reconsideration of what she has written- but what she has written is not accurate or true. She asked him about not being able to make journeys on his own and he got upset , I explained about a time we tried to allow him some independence on a short journey and he thought he was lost and panicked - luckily I was a short distance behind in my car. She says he's learned to cook- but he is unable to concentrate and has caused fires which we talked about -not on the form. She says he can handle his own hygiene - another lie!
On the basis of what she wrote - I'd agree, but that isn't the truth of his situation at all!
How/can I challenge what she has actually written?
It says asking for an explanation - I don't need that as she hasn't written an accurate assessment of his needs. Do I write or telephone in the first instance ? I don't suppose these face to face are recorded so I can challenge what she has written ?

I wonder if this could be some kind of 'error' where this is a report for a completely different person, ie. not your son. Stranger things have happened.

NCC-1707

Hounded_out wrote: »

Please kindly do not go over old ground Alice. I have in the past apologised and if I upset anybody I did not meant to. I was reacting to what I felt was undue criticism. One of my previous posts was not fictitious - it was largely based on true facts, but i had to protect the party for whom I was seeking answers. As I explained.

Anyhow, thank you for the feedback re the PIP complaints process. Almost 50% upheld, That's promising. Too late for the lady I helped to complain, but helpful for future reference.

Can you provide a link?

Hounded_out

I looked over some old threads,and don't have the time to read them all. I appear to have put my hands up and If I did not directly apologise I at least went some way towards doing so. Anyhow, for what its worth I for the record apologise if I upset anyone and I trust that you and others can put the past behind us and move on. Thanks.

johnsav

Hi
I am very sympathetic to your letter as I am having the same problems. To date I have gone through two appeals, l have complained to my MP, have received help in filling in the appeal forms with citizens advice plus other help. Both of them seemed unwilling to help with the appeal forms and consider PIP a lost cause. I then enquired about legal help for the appeal, this is not available to disabled people unless you are defrauding the benefit system. My conclusion is whatever your disabilities are the government are hell bent on slashing your benefits regardless. No legal assistance is available to aid you, I am left wandering if this is why it also not mentioned as to why the government is also hell bent on scrapping the human rights act, while focusing on terrorism as the reason, how many other rights are being scrapped using backdoor legislation.
Now for some good news I have found a representative to help me with my main appeal. I am paying to have this done privately, so far we have identified a few anomalies going against the law on occasions. I am unsure if I will ever be able to claim back my costs ( if anyone can advise me with regarding this I would be grateful ). Later on I will post the result of my appeal and the organisation that represented me if I am given permission to do so.

NeilCr

johnsav wrote: »

Hi
I am very sympathetic to your letter as I am having the same problems. To date I have gone through two appeals, l have complained to my MP, have received help in filling in the appeal forms with citizens advice plus other help. Both of them seemed unwilling to help with the appeal forms and consider PIP a lost cause. I then enquired about legal help for the appeal, this is not available to disabled people unless you are defrauding the benefit system. My conclusion is whatever your disabilities are the government are hell bent on slashing your benefits regardless. No legal assistance is available to aid you, I am left wandering if this is why it also not mentioned as to why the government is also hell bent on scrapping the human rights act, while focusing on terrorism as the reason, how many other rights are being scrapped using backdoor legislation.
Now for some good news I have found a representative to help me with my main appeal. I am paying to have this done privately, so far we have identified a few anomalies going against the law on occasions. I am unsure if I will ever be able to claim back my costs ( if anyone can advise me with regarding this I would be grateful ). Later on I will post the result of my appeal and the organisation that represented me if I am given permission to do so.

Sorry. Slightly bemused by some of this. It's probably me.

You say that you have had help from CAB then seem to infer in the next sentence that they wouldn't help because they thought that "PIP is a lost cause". And I'd be hugely surprised if an MP would help with an appeal form (or, indeed, have the requisite knowledge) - if that is what you are saying.

poppy12345

johnsav wrote: »

Hi
have received help in filling in the appeal forms with citizens advice plus other help. Both of them seemed unwilling to help with the appeal forms and consider PIP a lost cause.

This doesn't make sense.

System

Alice_Holt wrote: »

---

"Posters seeking advice in this forum need to bear in mind that this is a public site on which anyone can post. You can't assume information is trustworthy, indeed some posters are known to disrupt, post disinformation, and tell tall stories.
The MSE forum team do not moderate this forum.

I would caution forumites to be wary of any advice supplied that doesn't contain a link to an authoritative site. Such sites include adviceguide, entitled to, turn2us, revenuebenefits, gov..uk.
Accredited benefit advice is available from local advice agencies such as Citizens Advice.

Please don't take horror stories about the benefit process, assessments, appeals etc at face value. There are posters on here who whose aim seems to be to alarm, frighten, and generally dissuade OP's from pursuing sensible actions to claim / regain the right benefits.

Harmful and misleading posters are easily identified by the reaction to their posts

This really needs to be made into a sticky on this board, with the heading: Newcomers to the forum - please read!

Stevietee

I am sorry to hear of your experience but exactly the same happens with ESA assessments. My wife had an ESA assessment and the report was full of lies and assumptions. If it was in a library it would be in the fiction section. My wife complained but they didn't want to know. She had to go to a tribunal that she won which shows that the assessor told outright lies. There has been a committee in Parliament look at all of this and if you read some of the horror stories they defy belief. I thought that after the committee reported they may become more honest but clearly not. You have to challenge them and I know that is not easy but they reckon that people will not challenge them and they get away with it. Get your MP involved if you have to. Despite the impression they give one of the things any government department hates are MP's questions. Good luck.

Hounded_out

Well said Avogadro.

Apparently, well according to what looks like credible evidence (kindly given by a member earlier in this thread) it appears that say circa 50% of complaints by claimants against PIP assessors are upheld. That said, what thappens to them thereafter ? Are the assessors stopped from conducting PIP, or any DWP based medical assessments in the future' ? I doubt it, except for cases involving serious malpractice, or negligence.

I would imagine that in many, if not the majority of, instances they are given a mild slap on the wrists, and carry on as per normal immediately thereafter. I doubt a member of the public could ever find out what sanction (if any) may be applied against an assessor who has exhibited poor conduct, because it is then a workplace disciplinary matter (carried out by their employers, i.e. ATOS/ Capita etc) and details of any outcome will, or should, I'd imagine be confidential.

crackerberry

The Government announced a week or so ago that every PIP assessment is to be videoed, which is very good news and should have been in place long before now.