Evidence not included in Consultation Report

My sister has not been awarded the Daily Living Component of PIP (missed by 1 point) and I am preparing the papers for her to appeal. Having reviewed the Consultation Report by Atos I note that the evidence originally filed with the PIP form (a review by her neuropsychologist) was not listed on page 1. Was this just overlooked or has it been disregarded since it is dated 6 months before the PIP claim?

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You say that you are preparing the papers for your sister's appeal. I assume from this that you have already been through Mandatory Reconsideration and that decision went against you?

I'm afraid I cannot say why this evidence was not considered. All you can do now is assess where your sister should have scored more points and submit the evidence to support this.

When your sister receives the 'bundle' of papers used by DWP you will see whether this letter is included.

If you did not use our PIP guide for the initial claim I suggest that you do so now. It will help you understand the criteria against which claimants are assessed and where points should have been awarded.

PIP help for claimants

If/when you have further questions please reply to this message and we will do our best to help. You might want to bookmark/favourite it on your web browser now so that you can find it easily in future

Hi Bev

Any supporting evidence submitted cannot be disregarded in this way.

It could be disregarded in the medical report but would have to be referred to and, for example, stated as disregarded because of how old it is.
However six months is not old, evidence must be assessed as to its relevance and a diagnosis from many years ago would still be relevant as the NHS would not repeatedly update the same diagnosis.
So it would a ppear to be an oversight which I think should be clearly identified in your submission as referring to it may well have produced a different outcome without the need to go through all the appeals process.

Thanks very much - I was worried the report was too old, but also disregarded is a review by her social worker which pre-dates the assessment by only a couple of months.

We've been through the mandatory reconsideration (partially successful as we got standard rate mobility) but I only got the copy of the Consultation Report form (PA4) a few days before the (extended) deadline for the Reconsideration so didn't spot that the evidence we'd already put in hasn't been referenced. Both reports contradict a lot of the assumptions made by the HP (my sister has a brain injury and most of her problems are due to fatigue which is difficult to assess) so fingers crossed!

Should I file another copy of the documents with the appeal or just assume that DWP has them?

Hi Bev

Never assume !!!

Its best to send another copy but make sure you say that it is another copy and copies were sent with the MR submission.