Had ATOS PIP assess today. My thoughts/ a quest

(Apologies for grammatical/ spelling errors, early morning and tired out.)

Will just relay my experience if it helps anyone in any way whatsoever. At the end is a question or two. Excuse my "thoroughness" with details. Its an (occasional) upside to one of my mental health issues. I attempt to micromanage every environment I am placed in. Physically and mentally placed in.

If its helpful to anyone, I bought 2 dictaphone (old tape ones!!) machines very cheaply off Ebay, cassettes too. Remember your buying a mechanical machine that will be around 20 years old however so check it works! Get a 120minute tapes as lengthy assessments are obviously not that uncommon. Some more cynical than me would almost say that recording protocol is deliberately aimed at dissuading recordings being made.


Building has one room rented by ATOS, the rest of building is a separate homoeopathic concern. Entrance to building has a ramp, ATOS room is up a flight of stairs. Not a problem for my illness, but strange given the nature of what ATOS does.

My son attended with me, bless his heart. Best lad in the world.

Assess took about 90 minutes, pretty gruelling to be honest.

He (incorrectly) only asked for one item of ID. It should be two. Not a big deal, but erodes confidence if I know the guidelines better than him.

Assess was recorded, the 2 dictaphone (tape ones) were allowed to record the interview.

Signed recording agreement legal letter but not offered my own copy. Have called ATOS for them to email me a copy so I can fully digest just what I signed. Was weas too flustered to take it in at assess.

Health professional stated he was a physio but was trained in disability assessment, I didnt even need to prompt, he said straight away.

He also stated he had only spent 20 minutes looking at my questionnaire. (I sent the questionnaire, 10 pages of hand written "Q15 additional info" sheets and around 250 pages of printed out medical letters from a previous FIR request I had made to my doctors in the recent past. He should, in theory, have had all my info for around 5 days or so.

The assess was extremely clinical. By that I mean to the point, totally lacking in even faked empathy and exceedingly thorough on the points he felt merited it. Points he did not were covered fast or not at all.

Out of curiosity I googled the assessor once home. He is actually well known in his area of expertise (physiotherapy), owning businesses and having a high profile job in the recent past. Obviously I wont go into more detail. Suffice to say, he didnt become a physio via the NHS route. His polished but emotionless technique now makes much more sense. Clearly the ATOS assessing is simply extra money on the side shall we say.

Contrary to how I expected the questions to go, ie. in a semblance of the PIP questionnaire, the questions seems quite disjointed and randomly placed. Meaning it was hard to use my copy of the PIP questionnaire to refresh my memory on how I answered the questions all those weeks back.

He did a huge amount of typing, lots. To the point where I wonder just how much of what I was saying he actually acknowledged. He asked me to continue talking as he typed however.

I had a thorough physical assessment. Being asked to stand on one leg, arm movements etc etc. Interesting in only that almost all my illness relates to mental health issues.

On a couple of questions (preparing food etc) it was obvious that the answer I gave, though thorough, was not really what he wanted to hear. He very gently, using very measured phrases (I was taping remember...) tried to "steer me" into changing my replies. I declined to do so.

Questions I felt needed addressing more thoroughly were politely dismissed if I carried on. Saying he has enough info on that, words to that effect anyway.

My money/ financial capabilities were tested by asking me how much change I had left from £1 if I spent 45p. That was that.

Cognitive abilities (im guessing) were tested by showing me 3 objects. Asking me to name them, then hiding them for a few minutes. I then had to name them from memory.

He informed me that I would be contacted via a text message to prompt me to call ATOS to find outcome. Odd, but partially correct I later found out.

As we were literally leaving the room, he matter of factly said words to the effect of, " Oh, you can appeal the decision of course"". I replied, "oh, that doesn't sound too good". His reply, "Its nothing to do with me, the decision is made by a Case Manager at ATOS".
I need to check the tapes to make sure he said ATOS, not DWP, but pretty sure he did. More important was the obviously ridiculous statement that he does not make the decision. Im sure he doesn't on paper. However, his observations and assumptions will only be rubber stamped Im sure. In fact I think I read on this forum that the next person "up the ladder" from the Health Professional has no medical training so invariably goes with what the assessor said?

OK, thats my experience of today. If I had to sum it up I would say it was like a game of Chess. Some questions were deliberately leading, attempting to unwittingly make me contradict myself. An example, I think that mentioning I said hello to our neighbours on either side of our terraced house (on the rare occasions I leave the house) is going to be interpreted as me being the epitome of a man about town. Mixing freely and attending dinner parties to my hearts content. Apologies for my sarcasm but but his feverish typing after I mentioned I say (literally only) "hello" to my immediate neighbours on either side and his further "pushing" on that subject leads me to be pessimistic. A good example of the methods used to attempt to trip people up however. I can retrospectively think of some other answers I gave that he has the potential to interpret to his own purposes.

OK, questions.......

1 Does the report go from him to ATOS or directly to DWP after he has completed it?

2 The fact he had only read a tiny percentage of the information I provided to ATOS prior to the assessment and him professing that he "will read it later, as I have to read it". All of this admitted on tape recording. Does that breach any guidelines?? It certainly breaches common sense. To do an assessment BEFORE reading the the details of my condition?

3 Ive requested a copy of the consent form I signed about recording. However, Im hoping that I didn't sign away my right to use the recording at a tribunal if it comes to that... if a Mandatory Reassessment fails? Yes, I'm a pessimist.

4 Is my assumption correct, that though not official DWP stance, he in reality DOES decide if my PIP application is granted?

Lastly..... I must confess that I feel genuinely upset to know that there are going to be people attend these assessments with no prior knowledge of what they are walking into or without the mental or physical abilities to be able to basically stand up for themselves under what I found to be a mentally gruelling hour and a half.

I await the text now I guess. However, his de meaner combined with his parting statement about the appeal leaves me feeling pretty pessimistic. I genuinely thought I was well prepared for this assessment too. My heart goes out to those attending on just a wing and a prayer.

Apologies for any spelling mistakes etc. just cant bring myself to go back through this. Will head back to bed and try to get some sleep.

As ever, thanks for help with the questions above.

Thank you for the info Gordon.

I had assumed (well, thought I had read it?) the DM basically just rubber stamps the assessors claim, and rarely over rules it?

Again, being rather pessimistic here, if an appeal goes all the way to Tribunal, is the actual assessor required to attend? Or is this only if the TS ask him to attend?

Thanks so much for your help. Find myself sitting here yet again in the early hours not able to sleep over a claim that I haven't even hear back about yet.

Just find things like this extraordinary difficult not to worry about. Simply cant tell myself to wait till I hear the decision first. And the more and more I think about it all the more I get into a flap.

Hi
The assessor does not attend the tribunal.
If you have to appeal you can literally take words from the tape and quote verbatim. The decision maker and the tribunal members cannot argue that there is no proof anyone said anything because there is a record.
The decision makers were just using the report in the vast majority of cases and this was picked up in a review and they were told to look at all the evidence and not just rely on the report.
It is a requirement that the assessor has read all the supporting evidence before the face2face. This can negate the need to go over stuff which has been proven by supporting evidence. If the report contains errors that were covered by the evidence you will be able to use this if you need to appeal.
I, too, often find myself going over and over things in my head. I found some free relaxation recordings on the net and use them to relax and clear my head.

Thanks for the additional info foss, much appreciated.

Can I request the report the HP made from dwp/atos before I even hear from the dwp to say a decision is maden.a.

Thanks once more.