PIP Decision Made Using Only Informal Observation?

I received 0 points after attending assessment and so applied for mandatory reconsideration and asked for the report to be sent to me. Having looked through it there is no mention of my questionnaire anywhere and nearly all the justifications use 'MSE showed no cognitive impairment or restriction' as basis for the descriptor decisions, except for the movement questions. Is it usual for decisions to be based only on informal observations?
I was in the assessment room for about 10 minutes, there was no movement test or mental test like I've heard some people having, and the nurse has left out some important information I told her regarding the daily living part such as often leaving the hob on and accidentally taking too much medication.

It is so frustrating as I get very bad travel anxiety based on my physical health condition, wrote about this in detail in the questionnaire and provided supporting evidence. However I get 0 points because I 'attended the assessment alone' ie went into the building alone, even though the nurse new I was accompanied on the way and I made very clear in the questionnaire that my anxiety is down to travelling only (and not entering buildings )

Hi

Unfortunately there are many people in your situation or similar, just read through some of the posts.
You need to use our appeal guide and work through the report noting every wrong statement by the assessor and link it to your evidence and how your health affects you to challenge the decision.
Your evidence needs to link to how your health affects you when carrying out the activities. If you didn't use our forum for your claim it may help to read our guide to claiming to see what you should have put in your original claim and where you need to get more evidence or put more detail in your replies.
Please don't get bogged down in detail of your health, it is how this affects you when carrying out the activities that scores you points.

Thank you for your reply and your help! I have read through some of the threads and other people must be as frustrated as me! Unfortunately I only heard about this site after applying so will have a good look through everything to put in my submission. I saw a CAB advisor before joining this site and he was surprised I got 0 points, and also that the DWP hadn't mentioned my main evidence letter on the front of the report.

2 doctors have refused to write me supporting evidence so I'm going to ask my GP, but I'm also thinking of asking for my medical records as I have mentioned a few things about daily life and mobility at the hospital which they should have written down. I'm sorry if this is already on the site (I did do a search) but I assume that GP records are kept separately from hospital records? And do I need to make separate medical record requests and pay separate charges for each hospital and department?

Another question (so sorry!)- if you ask to view your medical records can you copy some of the pages yourself eg by taking photos on your phone, or is this against the rules?

Hi

You can request to see your medical file at your GPs. Its called a Subject Access Request and information on how to do it can be found in the general FAQ section of this website by following the FAQ link in the list on the lefthand side of every webpage.
Everything you have ever done, every test and result, every referral and report back to your GP will be in the file.
You can get copies of anything you think is relevant and helpful to your claim. They can charge for this.
Looking at your medical file can cost up to £10

Anything not sent to your GP but kept within the hospital is accessible by sending the request to the trust responsible for the service you used and carries the same charges.

Thank you very much for the info and I've now found the link in the FAQ part of the site. I think I will request the records as there are likely to be some things in there that can help me prove my points, but I'm worried that my GP surgery will take ages. I'm also confused about the mandatory reconsideration deadlines- do I have to send the reasons that I think they're wrong and information that I have before the 1 month from the decision letter, or is that deadline just for actually asking for a reconsideration which I've already done? I really don't want to appeal unless I have to so I want to send them everything I can get, but also want to make sure I stick to their rules!