Going to miss deadline for PIP form return - what

Hi all,

An update as promised with some surprising developments that I did not expect.

The assessment happened yesterday. As predicted, I was in such a state when the Atos assessor got here, I couldn't speak. Even if I had been able to, my mind had gone completely blank and I would never have remembered everything I needed to say in a month of Sundays. I had one of my support workers with me and she had to answer all the questions on my behalf, while I sat and shook in my chair with tears rolling down my cheeks, trying to remember to breathe. She's filled me in on exactly what was said, as it all went by so fast it was all a blur to me at the time.

The surprising part was the assessor himself. He was a nurse with a background in mental health issues and, to my complete surprise, neurological conditions - and he was familiar with my specific disorder! The first thing he said was that he could see just how distressing this was for me and if there was anything he could do to make it easier for me, just let him know. He made a point of saying that he agreed that I should never have been put through an assessment, and that as soon as he left my flat, the first thing he would do was to get onto his office and tell them so!

He said that the only reason he could see that he was sent out to me was that my letter of diagnosis from my neurologist (which he said was very good!) was now 5 years old and they needed confirmation that I still had the Functional Symptoms. He then said that he could see as soon as he walked in that I clearly did still have the symptoms and there was no question of that, so there would be no need for a physical exam. I was absolutely stunned by this - it was the last thing I expected!

He then said he'd try and whizz through the rest of the assessment as quickly as he could so he could minimize the distress to me and get out of my flat as soon as possible.

He said he'd read through the evidence and summerised each part which he'd read to us and we could tell him if he had it right. I think I managed to correct him about one thing, but the rest of the questions were directed to my support worker and the care package they provide as I just wasn't able to say more than that one thing. My worker was really good and remembered a lot of stuff, but she couldn't possibly have remembered everything. I'll just have to wait and see if it was enough.

So the upside of it all was the assessor himself being so knowledgable and having his eyes open, and the downside was that I wasn't able to emphasis the 'yes but I can't do this reliably' type of thing. I think we also may have forgotten to check that he had the supporting letters from my support workers which were sent later. I also remember the word 'prompting' being used an awful lot in reference to what my support workers do for me, more than I put on my form, but I don't remember the details. In his summeries he seemed to have skimmed the evidence and picked out certain things he thought pertinent.

So there we are. More than I ever could have hoped in one respect, and less than was really necessary on another. Let's see what DWP do with what he gives them.

Does anyone have anyone have any idea how long it's taking for decisions to be reached currently? I have 'up to 16 weeks' in my head for some reason but I'm not sure where I got that from?

Once again, thank you to everyone who's contributed so far, I really appreciate it

Hi Clarissa,

Thank you for updating us about your assessment.

I know you now have the answer to your question, but I will repeat it for anyone else who might want to know -

DWP are currently taking around 8 weeks to make a decision once the assessment provider has made a recommendation. This does vary between areas but the general trend seems to be for things to be taking longer and longer as the year progresses!

Thank you Mrs Hurtyback

I forgot to mention I'm in Edinburgh. I'll post back here to update when I get my decision letter so anyone else in my area reading this will have the info.

Thanks again

Hi again folks

An update and some more questions for you, if I may...

I received my decision letter last Thursday (14th July), 22 days after the day of my ATOS assessment. I've been awarded enhanced care (17 points) and standard mobility (8 points) until August 2020 (although they say they will be in touch after June 2019 to 'see if anything has changed')

Whilst I'm very relieved to get the enhanced care component, I was astonished to see that in their breakdown of how many points I've been awarded for each section, I was awarded no points for communication at all. There may be other anomalies in other sections (I've not been well enough to check it out properly yet) but this one really stands out as ludicrous. I managed one or two words, at best, at my assessment, and I don't think there's one piece of evidence that I submitted that DOESN'T specifically mention my speech difficulties.

This is very worrying if, at some point in the future, the score they gave me in this decision is used as evidence against my next ESA assessment. I know that if I ask for a reconsideration of this PIP decision, it can go for or against me and I can't just ask them to reconsider one part. I don't know whether being 5 points clear of the 12 needed for enhanced care is considered a safe enough margin to be worth the risk. What do you think?

For the standard mobility, I'm confused as to the wording (isn't everyone!?) of the reasons given in the decision letter as to how the decision was reached. The decision maker says she acknowledges that I 'walk with a stick with small, slow steps' but then says 'I have therefore decided it is reasonable that you can stand and then move more than 50 metres but no more than 200 metres'. What ever happened to 'in a timely manner'? Isn't she contradicting herself with those two sentences?

The distance is wrong too. No one has ever said I can go that far, even slowly, in any of the evidence submitted. 50 metres is my top limit (usually it's much less), but only with lots of stopping and resting and only on very good days, and even then I'm too tired to do anything else afterwards - all of which I put on my form.

These details are making me wonder whether she actually had all the evidence I sent in, in front of her. She only named the claim form and a consultant's letter of diagnosis from 5 years ago as written evidence included, plus a phone call made to my support worker 2 weeks after the initial claim was sent. She doesn't mention the Atos report at all.

Is that unusual? Do they usually list all the evidence they've considered, or only some of it? Is it worth asking my support worker to ring and check that they had everything?

Also, is it worth asking them to send a copy of the Atos report? I know they usually send it out if you appeal, but will they send a copy if you ask for one at this stage?

I'll be taking advice from the CAB on all of this as well as here, as I really need for someone to take a look at the whole claim to see how strong it is before I risk anything. I'm just keen to make sure I have all the facts straight first and understand more about how they've reached the decision they have.

Again, many thanks for reading guys, I really do appreciate what you do here

Hi Clarissa,

Thanks for letting us know about your PIP decision, I'm sorry that you are not entirely happy with it.

I will try to answer your questions in order -

The assessor often stops looking at further problems once the threshold form the higher award has been reached. There's little point in them spending much more time if it will not change the award. This might be why you have not scored points where you would have expected to.

We have always told claimants that the assessor is unlikely to have knowledge of prior claims, so not to worry too much about things that are missing on the report. However, I accept that this seems to be changing a little at the moment.

You can ask DWP to look at one component only - but it is up to them, whether they do so. With 5 clear points it would appear that the care component will be safe but I'm afraid there are no guarantees. You would still be able to appeal the new decision and the Tribunal panel have to warn the claimant if they are thinking of downgrading the award.

You can certainly ask for a copy of the assessor's report, just phone DWP.

I hope CAB will be able to talk you through this in more detail. However, it would be in your interest to look at the MR resources yourself in the meanwhile - the PIP guide is a good place to start.

If you have any further questions or comments about your PIP claim, please reply to this message and we will do our best to help.