PIP home visit

Hi,

Apologies if this has been covered before. I do not have the energy to keep up with things as I would like. Based on my home visit for PIP I would have two pieces of advice for people.

Have more than one person with you as witness
Have multiple copies of any medical evidence you submitted with your claim

I have significant physical health problems and also some mental health issues. I have been doing the migration from DLA to PIP. The guides here have been great and I also have had help from an advocacy organisation. My consultant did a letter to go with the claim form detailing my health issues, both physical and mental health. He said that any face to face assessment would have to be carried out very sensitively or there was risk of harm. I sent in a copy that had been done by the JobCentre physically attached to the additional info section of the claim form.

It was a bit bizarre as ATOS sent an appointment to attend a centre for assesssment. Then they called and asked if I would like it changed to home visit. I decided I would. They had asked for a report from my GP which he says he had to do handwritten.

On the day of the f2f the advocacy worker had to cancel. It was a bit of a panic, but they sent someone else and also a friend who works nearby came round too. It was a good thing there was both of them.

At the start the advocacy worker asked if the ATOS person had the consultant's letter. She said there was no record of that. We had the original. He gave it to her and asked her twice to read it before we started. Twice she refused and said it would be dealt with later. My friend then quite forcefully said he thought she needed to read it before things went any further. At that point she did. We then had the assessment. She seemed keen to establish that she was getting the original of the letter. It was scanned to PDF, so I had no worries about giving her that.

A couple of weeks later I decided to write to DWP and submit a further copy of the letter and ask them to confirm receipt. I also told them how damaging the assessment had been, which I will not go into here. I got a phone call from a complaints manager last week. The letter was received with my claim pack and scanned onto the system with everything else on 6 January. There is no reason for ATOS not to have been able to access it. I have not had the award letter yet, but she told me it is lower rate care and mobility. I had higher rate mobility under DLA. She suggests a complaint to ATOS and getting the advocacy org to help with a mandatory reconsideration which should be done through her. She has now confirmed it all in writing. She has also sent a copy of my GP report and the ATOS report. I've decided not to look at them just yet. Again, I'll get the advocacy org to look at those.

So, basically, ATOS have said they do not have evidence when they do. The person who visited seemed keen to establish she had got the original of the letter. That could have easily left me with no further copy. The hospital would have given me another one if necessary, but not all hospitals are ok about that.

I don't know if that is a common experience or not, but am hoping that it discredits the ATOS report and they have two other opinions (GP and consultant) so fingers crossed for the mandatory reconsideration.

I only wrote to DWP as someone encouraged me to. I am glad I did. I don't know if this is a common experience or not, but thought I would share.

Thanks.

Cameron

I'm sorry you did not get the result you feel you should have I am glad you have help with the MR.

Thanks, I'll survive .

Hi,

Just thought I would update as I got the result of my MR. Slightly puzzling but has worked out a bit better overall. For DLA I got higher rate mobility and lower rate care. The initial decision for PIP was standard rate for both mobility and daily living. The MR has given standard rate mobility but enhanced rate daily living. I had decided before I got the decision that I would not be appealing as I don't think I would be able to cope with it. But I am pleased I did the MR. I did not have a motability car so the decision is not a disaster. I will still get my blue badge.

I would not have got this without a lot of help from the advocacy org and my GP. But in my previous post you will see I had complained to the DWP about ATOS not having evidence provided. The complaints manager was also quite helpful. The magic 12th point for daily living came from her direction. I use a dosette box. This was shown to the assessor. ATOS acknowledged I use one, but stated that I do not require to. The complaints manager said to see if my GP could say something about that in the supporting letter he was doing. He said not only did I need it, he felt it would be a danger to my health if I did not use it. That got the extra 1 point.

It seems very strange to me that you can show them medication in a dosette box and explain why you need to use one, but they can just turn round and say you do not require to use one.

It has taken from October to get to this point. I am just glad it is over for now. They have awarded it for 5 years, so hoping to be able to relax a bit now!

Good luck to everyone else with these things and thanks for all the help on this site.

Cameron

Thanks! I should add that DWP decision maker who did MR changed a few points. I started with 8 points for both. Mobility went up to 10, which did not change the award. Daily living obviously went up to 12 but without the dosette box thing it would only have been 11. Crucial extra point!