Don't require Atos medical

Hi Basho. Sorry to hijack your thread but my wife's in a similar situation. She hasn't had a medical and ATOS made a recommendation based on my wife's ESA50 and paper evidence; this recommendation was sent back to the DWP (from ATOS) along with my wife's file a few weeks ago. However when I telephoned the DWP to enquire about progress they advised that the DM is going to decide whether or not my wife needs to attend a medical? Yet ATOS are saying they have already made their recommendation based on paper scrutiny. I am wondering if this could this be crossed wires due to the fact that I sent a copy of my wife's ESA50 and medical evidence to the DWP as well as to ATOS? Perhaps the DM has the bundle I sent on her desk rather than ATOS's recommendation and doesn't realise that ATOS have already looked at everything and made a recommendation based on paper scrutiny.

Has anyone else been told the same thing (that the DM needs to decide if a medical is necessary) following receipt of ATOS's recommendation that was based on paper scrutiny? I'm wondering if it's a standard response from call centre staff or if the DM has found a problem with ATOS's recommendation.

This situation is very stressful and my wife is distressed beyond words.

I totally understand what you say about being tied to the postal delivery, and there seems to be a backlog.

Snow

Hello Snowbird,

I phoned the DWP about my claim after sending off the form to Atos and not hearing anything for seven weeks. It was a stressful seven weeks and it took much courage to phone but they said they had not recieved anything from Atos and that I should contact them. I dually phoned Atos who said that they had returned the info to the DWP saying that I didn't need to attend amedical. I then phoned the DWP who looked again for my claim, found it and said that it was still in the decision making process, though there was no suggestion that they where questioning the Atos decision. Just how many complicated variations are there in this process?? I don't know much about the role of the Decision Maker or how much weight they give to an Atos medical, it seems a bit shadowy to me. I was assuming the DM would not question Atos. At least I feel reasonably confident I am not going to be sprung into Job Seekers allowance for the moment but it hardly reassuring and I have full sympathy for your partner.

The decision maker is supposed to take into account all the available evidence. However, it is up to him/her how much weight they give to each piece of evidence. Whilst one would expect them to take notice of the ATOS recommendation (otherwise why bother?!) it doesn't always seem to happen!