Mandatory Reconsideration - Computer says NO :-(

Hi all

Sent in my MR on 22.11.2017 and rang for the decision last week. Was told that the decision letter had been sent on 12.01.2018 and she could tell me that the award had not been changed from Standard Rate Mobility only, no Care at any level. Written confirmation arrived on Friday.

I had already had doubts that my evidence (lots of clinical letters from my Liver specialist, scans, biopsy results etc.) had not been considered as the assessor told me when she arrived that her computer system was down and she had not been able to access them. Also, when the original report arrived, it only listed my original application form and "GP Factual Report" which had been considered. There was no GP Factual Report, it was a report from my Occupation Health Advisor, from when I applied for retirement. I queried in my MR whether all my written evidence had been considered, and the reply was "In your letter requesting a mandatory reconsideration you have mentioned on the assessors report mention is not made to all your medical evidence that you sent in. This does not mean that the assessor has not looked at all the evidence, it means the evidence that they have taken into consideration when compiling the report. The other evidence may be more of a clinical rather than functional nature so was not considered when compiling the report" . However, under the "My decision" section from the MR letter, it states, "I looked at all the information we have and find the descriptors chosen are correct. I made my decision using information about your health condition or disability including details of any treatment, medication, test results and symptoms. This information is the best we have available and enough to decide how much help you need." I am confused, were the clinic letters looked at or not? do they matter or not?
The main condition which leads to my symptoms of fatigue, brain fog and itching, is quite a rare one, and I understand that at my GP surgery, with a list size of 10,000 patients, I am the only sufferer. I documented in my MR that I felt that the severity of my condition had not been considered, as the disease is a rare one and therefore it would be difficult for the HA to have knowledge of how I am affected. The response is that the Health Professional is a trained disability analyst and assessed my functional ability based on their knowledge of the medical conditions, clinical findings and formal and informal observations. I am genuinely puzzled by this. The Health Professional was a nurse, and I doubt that she had ever even heard of my condition, let alone "have knowledge of the medical conditions". My own GP had no knowledge of it when I was originally diagnosed!

It really seems that the MR letter has just copied and pasted the original decision, word for word, with a bit of free text regarding my queries added on at the end.

Also, in the "How I made my decision" section it states: "I looked at all the information available to me, including: the "How your disability affects you" form and the information provided in the report from your General Practitioner. This told me the type of help, and how much help you need. I am 99.9% sure that a report was not requested from my GP (I am going to check again tomorrow). If, as I suspect, a GP was not requested, shall I include this fact with my appeal?

I am going to appeal, and am aware that 1 week has already gone by in the time it took for the letter to get here to me. In my original MR I put a paragraph for each descriptor stating why (If) I disagreed with the points awarded, my reasons, and the points I felt I should have got. There some areas where I agree that no points should have been awarded and I have included this.
Shall I go into even more detail in my appeal?

Apologies for the length of this post, I am just trying to my thoughts in order, and get the best advice I can.

Thank you

C

Very similar to my dad's MR we just got back. New rulings have come in since his original form and f2f. I did a really good MR included case law. They seemed to have only looked at his original form and GP letter no other evidence I provided. I rang to speak to a decision maker who just kept givig me the original HCP reasons. None of what I wrote in my MR has been considered!!!!