I want to ask for a mandatory reconsideration but am still waiting for the WCA assessor report 6 November 2022 at 9:30PM in Benefits & tax credits 4 replies 155 views

CMB3

I received my work capability assessment decision just over a week ago (29/10/22). The decision was that I have limited capability for work. I would like to ask for a mandatory reconsideration as I fulfil the criteria for limited capability for work related activity, however, I have not received the assessor report yet although I asked for it via my journal on 17/10/22. On 18/10/22 I received a response from the Belfast office (I think the response was from my case manager) advising me that she could not post it out to me until they had the full assessment results.

On 28/10/22, I received a journal message from the same person in Belfast advising me that she would now be posting me the assessor report, however, I have not received it to date. I have roughly 3 weeks to submit a mandatory reconsideration request but need the assessor report to prepare the MR request/letter.

Tomorrow morning, I will make another request for the assessor report via my journal advising the case manager that I have not received it via the post. I have a few questions about this:

1.  Should I let her know that I am planning to ask for a mandatory reconsideration and therefore the request is time sensitive?

2. Do I need to make it clear that I am not requesting a mandatory reconsideration now but that I will be submitting a request for a mandatory reconsideration after I have reviewed the assessor report?  (Obviously, I don’t want them to do a mandatory reconsideration before I get a chance to present my case in a letter.)

3. Can I ask them to upload the assessor report via my journal given that I haven’t received it by post?

4. In the event that it takes a long time to get the assessor report, can I request an extension to request the mandatory reconsideration? Currently I have one month from the date of the DWP decision letter which is 29/10/22. Will they extend that deadline if I don’t receive the assessor report in a reasonable amount of time? 

Alice_Holt

On point 4:
 A MR can be accepted after the month's deadline, but you will need to explain why it is late - if you look at the MR form you see a box relating to this.


More generally:
 It helps to be very clear on which LCWRA descriptor you meet, and to gather readily available any medical (or other) evidence to support your case.  I think this is likely to be more important than the assessor's report at this stage. 

Why do you think you ' fulfil the criteria for limited capability for work related activity', which descriptor applies and why ?

poppy12345

Alice_Holt said:

More generally:
 It helps to be very clear on which LCWRA descriptor you meet, and to gather readily available any medical (or other) evidence to support your case.  I think this is likely to be more important than the assessor's report at this stage. 

Agree with this. You don't really need the assessment report to request the MR.

NedS

poppy12345 said:

Alice_Holt said:

More generally:
 It helps to be very clear on which LCWRA descriptor you meet, and to gather readily available any medical (or other) evidence to support your case.  I think this is likely to be more important than the assessor's report at this stage. 

Agree with this. You don't really need the assessment report to request the MR.

I agree. The danger is that in having the assessment report, you get drawn into refuting points in the report rather than doing as @Alice_Holt advises above, and focusing on why you think you fulfil the criteria for LCWRA. Focus on the arguments that are important and will get you the outcome you want, and do not get drawn into responding to things within the report that are not.

tifo

NedS said:

The danger is that in having the assessment report, you get drawn into refuting points in the report rather than .... focusing on why you think you fulfil the criteria for LCWRA.

This can be true. I'm in the same situation and even though I believe I refuted the medical report, which was drafted in a way to make it seem there is nothing wrong with me the majority of the time, and also made it clear why I met the LCWRA criteria, i'm told I shouldn't have concentrated on the report as much as I did.