PIP Phone Assessment (IAS)

Oh Gordon, I have used the Equality Act 2010 so many times already in my letters to IAS insisting that I cannot do a f2f/phone due to being too ill, that they need to do a PBR and they just ignore it all. There is way too much for me to write now to update you - my brain is fried. IAS have completely ignored excellent logical reasoning from me ('if I don't mind saying so myself') - I threw so many excellent points about the whole situation in that 2nd to last letter to the DWP. And in IAS's reply letters they either ignore chunks of what I've written or give slippery answers not actually addressing or admitting or apologising. Although they've said that I have exhausted their complaints process, I still have the right to send a final letter addressing the untruths etc in their last letter - so 'my side' is on their record.

I want to use words like "unfathomable", "flabbergasted", "astounding" to describe how corrupt IAS are and yet I know full-well (as do many on this forum) that it is to be expected.

Your difficulty is that a letter from you may not carry sufficient weight for them to order IAS to do a PBR, these things work best when sent from a salaried Welfare Rights Worker or even better, a solicitor.

Have you involved your MP?

The local welfare rights workers are truly hopeless - I've tried them all and I seem to know more than they do, which frightens me! As passionate as they may be trying to help claimants, if they don't have a certain level of aptitude they are not actually offering any 'help'. The first agency I tried years ago actually caused me to have to appeal by giving me incorrect advice when I first claimed ESA. I went to a local support group for my illness at the time and found another woman who'd also been given wrong advice by another local agency and had to appeal. So we quickly learn that we have to become informed ourselves and rely on the lovely B&W guides and forum mods!

There is actually a solicitor firm a few roads away from me that has a team of specialist benefit advisors. Initially I thought great, then discovered that they charge something like £170+ per hour - which in my opinion is unethical considering the people they are trying to help!??? They also showed no reasonable adjustment for my cognitive disability or professionalism (to be expected at that high rate!) when their filtering reception person ignored/didn't absorb certain things in my e-mail and insisted that the advisors had to phone me to begin with - when my head couldn't do that. I listened to my intuition and thought: all this doesn't bode well for getting the help I need so I'm going to stay away.

I'm really private so no I haven't yet involved my MP. I don't know if I'm well enough to even go to their office to discuss it. The thing is it is such a lot of information to wade through and I really don't think it can be summarised - they would need to spend the time reading through a lot of it. Do you know who they would have a right to share my information/data with if I disclosed it to them?...local Council? Other government agencies?

What would the process typically look like if I got my MP involved?

Have you confirmed with the DWP that your DLA award has been extended? It should be now that a PIP claim has been started.

You still need to avoid a Decision on your PIP claim being made for failing to attend an assessment as this will close your DLA claim as well.

Because I'm so ill cognitively I avoid contacting the DWP or IAS as much as possible and wait for them to instigate changes. So of their own accord, the DWP wrote to me early June (remember DLA was due to end May) saying that they have suspended all new claims for PIP from claimants getting DLA. Then at some point after that they sent my claim back to IAS for assessing.

One of the points of logic I presented to the DWP in my 2nd to last letter was that my GP in his GPFR corroborated my cognitive fatigue/difficulties...and why bother requesting this GPFR if the IAS assessors are going to ignore it?!?! In IAS's latest reply letter she responded with nonsense re that point. Instead of a welfare rights worker or solicitor report, I thought about getting my GP to write a letter with further information. But then I realised what's the point: IAS already have his GPFR and they completely ignore it. I don't want to waste money paying for a GP report or going through the HUGE stress of phoning, meeting with him, explaining what's needed etc when he may not write a comprehensive report anyway. He'd allowed me to meet with him for the GPFR and he commented he was grateful for the info sheets I provided him and then he omitted certain important things in his GPFR when they are already on my NHS record in reports by other practitioners!? See what I mean by going that route again being pointless?!

Grace, several things. An alternative source of backup recommended by an other forum member is
disabilityrights.org.uk/
a gentleman called Kester. My self taught expert friend spoke to him and thought him OK, and he certainly broke the logjam for the other lady on here.
Another is, you come across as much better than averagely educated and articulate. Unfortunately many in the DWP and their contractors do find this intrinsically threatening, hence ignoring your logical points.
Lastly though the full outcome is not yet known, I did at least get our daughter a PBR by getting a GP letter that made it clear that she needed this due to the bad effect of phone or F2F assessments on the anxiety, for which she's been medicated for years [=history]. Yes it cost £42 but I consider that very cheap for being saved in my case not only the distress to her but a 250 mile drive and overnight accommodation!
I hope your GP or other medical professional will cooperate by writing one for you.
Best wishes,
Denby

Forgot to write that I'm also still being paid DLA.