PIP letter decision dilema 19 March at 1:54PM in Benefits & tax credits 22 replies 1.6K views

peteuk

Spoonie_Turtle said

(such as having attended mainstream school meaning I can't possibly be disabled as an adult?!)

Please dont get me wrong,  what I am trying to do ( and somewhat badly) is suggest its as much they system to blame, rather than individual assessors.  Trying to manage some expectations and add a little reasoning behind what everyone can is a somewhat floored decision.  There will be bad assessors out there but in my experience its the system or how they have been taught to apply the system. 

As above they have taken a fact and applied it to discount something (Massively wrongly in this case) I would suggest by attending mainstream education and i assume passing some exams shows more cognitive ability, rather than physical ability and that unless there was something to change this (major head trauma for instance or certain other conditions) Cognitive ability doesn't tend to change but school attendance doesn’t imply you’re not disabled or can walk 200m now, but might suggest you could whilst at school.

I remember a claimant who worked 2 hours a day, saying it was work that was keeping her going and it was the only “normal” thing she had left.  Work had moved her departments to help with her illness.  I documented this but was told at audit, she works 5 days a week so therefore you can discredit X,Y and Z.

Had a driving licence but not advised to surrender it so therefore not a risk, ignoring the fact that she didn’t drive due to her illness, hadn’t done so for a few years.  Hence why I left.  In my report i wasn’t lying or making things up, it was more applying training in a way that I and most sensible adults would question.

born_again

Spoonie_Turtle said:

peteuk said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

but the assessor didn't believe me and drew erroneous conclusions based on ignoring what I'd said both during the assessment and on the form.  

Its not about believe or disbelieve, its about the evidence and what can be used to  support or discredit what is being said.  If we agree or disagree with what’s written is not down to the assessor lying or disbelieving.  

Like I said, she repeatedly ignored evidence in favour of choosing to assume I was lying, or twisted evidence (such as having attended mainstream school meaning I can't possibly be disabled as an adult?!), or in a couple of instances outright made up "evidence" to discredit what I said.  I'm not going to list further examples because it's a waste of energy, and actually nothing was as egregious as some of the examples having been given already - as I said before, it would have felt very personal if I hadn't already known it routinely happens.

That was part of my wife's assessment as well. Despite never being something that was discussed in the visit, & totally irrelevant to the fact she has M/S & the whole reason for the PIP claim.