PIP Review, UC Health Assessment, shocked!

Hi dawn

Your claim will not stop just because you recorded the assessment. DWP state that you can record the assessment: see Audio recording of PIP consultations from gov.uk

Covert recording of consultations
1.6.64 A claimant may make a covert recording of the consultation without the HP being aware. If the HP notices that a claimant is covertly recording their consultation, the restrictions above should be explained to the claimant.

Now you have the assessment report you will have a better understanding of how the DWP Decision Maker has come to their conclusions and you will now be able to argue against them.I usually use a highlighter to highlight any inaccuracies, once you have gone through the report you then set out why you are applying for a MR and go through each descriptor one at a time why you disagree with the assessor and try and match it with any supporting documents you may have sent in.

Understand that the assessor is offering an opinion when they say 'in my opinion' you can do the PIP activities, tackling these head-on is unlikely to be successful, you need to show that the basis of that opinion is founded on incorrect information, so try and refer to your evidence to undermine what they have said., remember they are just an opinion which is not based on fact.

Also, try and stick to issues that lead to your scoring points, I often hear members referring to the assessors spelling, as an example, whilst it may show a lack of professionalism, raising it as an issue isn't going to help you get an award.

Your primary task is to show that you meet the criteria, there are many reasons you may have failed, you need to address each of these but don't get bogged down in criticising the assessment report unless you can clearly show that it is incorrect, it is a lot easier to argue the facts of the situation.

Lastly, make sure that you understand the criteria that you are being assessed against you can put the best case forward that is possible but you won't score points if you do not meet the PIP Descriptors.

The first stage to challenging a Decision is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our PIP MR & Appeal guide, half way down the page for details of the process, the PIP area also has template letters that you can use to make the request with. www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/pip

When you have a better idea of the issues with your claim, come back to the forum and we will do our best to help.

Gary

Hi dawn,
You can certainly use the recording, even though it was covertly recorded. If you can, try and record the assessment discussion onto a cd. Please make a back up copy first so you don't risk losing it. In addition, you may wish to make a transcript. A friend may be able to do this for you, or there may be software you can get to automatically convert speech to a written document. Then just check for accuracy - you may have to format it to show who is speaking and eg if there is any overtalking.
Send the cd/transcript to DWP as part of your MR. (If time is too short then I suggest put the MR request in now, and follow up with the cd etc later.)
As Gary has said, don't contradict everything, as then all DWP will see is a load of criticism and they will get bored reading it! You can pick out the major flaws, and/or simply say eg under eg mobilising ' I did not make any of the comments alleged by the Assessor' (rather than go through loads of comments.) Refer to the relevant part of the recording. eg say ' mobilising was discussed at 3mins 26 to 5.59 on the recording'. You can go through each descriptor this way. If you are correctly awarded the points for any descriptor, be this zero or another amount, don't bother to criticise the comments.
Make a strong case and reiterate what you actually can not do and why. If you wish, you can suggest the correct points' values for the relevant descriptor.
Good luck.
I hope this helps.
LL26

Hi Dawn

The best way to do things like that is to go to youtube and type in your question - eg how to transfer a recording from X to PC. You are sure to find a video showing you the steps you need to take.

BIS