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What to do with (unfair) PIP assessment recording?

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7 years 8 months ago #167445 by benion
I wanted to start a new thread.
I had F2F yesterday and due to notes the assessor was writing down I am fairly sure I will score nil. What I read upside down was "university educated, no cognitive impairment".
Now I have had Asperger's from birth (only diagnosed 2 years ago) but my work as a doctor made me very ill with bipolar. I will be the first to admit I functioned at a very high level PRIOR to the bipolar, however once I got ill I was unable to continue as a doctor (this is the opinion of the General Medical Council). I would say I was unfit to continue as a human being for a while. Multiple sections of MHA and now I function at a far lower level than before.
It is this combination of autism and bipolar which is very disabling.
I have been thinking about what she wrote and I think it contravenes the Equality Act. If a paraplegic came in after suffering a horrible accident, would they write "ran in school cross country team, no evidence of any problem with legs". No they would not.
I feel what has been written about me to be at best ill informed and at worst disablist and a contravention of the Equality Act.
Another problem is their failure to follow their procedures for dealing with vulnerable adults. The DWP guidance says seek extra evidence before booking a F2F. This has not been followed, nobody who cares for me has been contacted, and their cruel assessment procedure has caused a deterioration in MH I am only now beginning to recover from.
My question now is what to do next? I have the whole thing recorded. They were made aware beforehand they were getting recorded. They tried to stop me recording as apparently you need one recording device with 2 tapes or 2 CDs in. I had bought 2 identical tape recorders and they said I was not allowed to record!
I went Def Con One in the waiting area. I pulled up the ATOS guidance on recording devices on my smart phone and asked where the hell does it say one unit because it did not say this. When they still said I could not record, I agreed to return but only AFTER they could find me a suitable device on eBay as such a device has not existed since the 1990s. I then phoned head office in front of them! Eventually I was making such a scene they backed down and let my recording devices in. I am so glad now I have it all on tape.
So what to do? Send them the entire transcript or the bits I think are relevant? I am doing SAR requests with both ATOS and DWP and then considering my next move. Tribunal is the least of their problems right now, I am more interested in taking this to court over the Equality Act.

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7 years 8 months ago #167456 by Gordon
Benion

You are obviously not happy with the assessment, but we have seen worse result in an Enhanced award for both components, so I would not leap to any conclusions about what the Decision might be.

I am glad to hear you persisted with the recording, two machines is a perfectly acceptable solution to the requirement for dual recording, although for any body reading this, I would be cautious about the level of fuss you make, claimants have no legal right to record their assessment and the DWP have said that they will not accept a failure to record as Good Cause for not attending.

Whilst it is obviously your decision to pursue the matter further, I am afraid I don't agree that the issues you raise are covered by the Equality Act. This was a functional review of your ability to carry out the PIP activities and it is reasonable that any cognitive impairment is considered as part of that review. You might not agree with the opinion of the assessor and I would probably agree that a university education does not mean that there cannot be any cognitive impairment later, but this is something to raise with the DWP if you don't receive the award you are hoping for.

In a similar vein, there is no legal requirement for the assessor to contact the claimants medical support, the guidance may suggest that they should, but it is exactly that, guidance, not an instruction. You can certainly argue that failing to contact your GP, etc., means that the report is weakened as a result and again I would agree wit you, but again I fail to see where your rights under the Equality Act had been contravened.

I think it likely that this is not the support you are looking for and I am sorry for that, but I have dealt with 100s, perhaps 1000s of claim om the forum and yours is not significantly different from anybody else's.

Gordon

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems

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7 years 8 months ago #167460 by benion
Wow that is odd, ATOS kept saying to me that I could reject the appointment and there would be no consequences from DWP.

A whole system set up to fail people.

Please advise all your other forum users that you need one of these 1990's dual recording devices as I had no idea and ATOS never told me about this!

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7 years 8 months ago #167462 by Gordon

benion wrote: Wow that is odd, ATOS kept saying to me that I could reject the appointment and there would be no consequences from DWP.

A whole system set up to fail people.

Please advise all your other forum users that you need one of these 1990's dual recording devices as I had no idea and ATOS never told me about this!


I did say that your two cassette recorders were a perfectly adequate solution to providing a dual recording facility!

Gordon

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems

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7 years 8 months ago #167465 by benion
I know you did Gordon but I had to raise hell before they would let me take my two cassette recorders in!

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7 years 8 months ago #167501 by benion
I have calmed down a bit since the assessment and realise now it was not enough to sue under Equality Act (if I could, I would), but still annoyed someone with no MH training did the assessment. She did not seem to understand my problems at all.

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