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PIP Telephone assessment disregarded by DWP after I complained.

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3 years 19 hours ago #268323 by jasongriff106
Good Afternoon,

My wife recently had a telephone assessment with IAS (Atos) for PIP which from the start showed incompetance, i will explain....

Telephone assessment booked for 9am on the 28th Feb 2022 by ISA.
At 9:01am a call was recieved, but not to begin assessment They rang to inform that the person allocated hadn't turned up for work so they were going to see if they could find someone else that was free in the office to hopefully forefill the telephone assessment today.
At 10:15am phone rang again from a nurse they had found to deal with the assessment she stated she had just been handed my wifes forms and was going to quickly read through them and will call back asap.
At 10:39am the nurse called again to now begin assessment

ALARM BELLS ALREADY RINGING....

Even before the scheduled assesment time my wife was suffering severe stress, anxiety and heavy depression having to do it, this unexpected and confussing delay just made matters so much more worse....

The telephone assesment took 3hrs to complete!!!
She informed us her assessment will now be forwarded onto the DWP decision maker.
A copy of the assessment report was immediately requested and arrived in the post today 9th March 2022.
My Alarm bells were RIGHT to be ringing....

At this time the DWP confirmed the decision maker had not yet looked at the assessment.
N.B. I recorded the telephone assessment for verification purposes to ensure the assessment matched the report. So glad i did now.

So here are just a few of the MAJOR failures i personally found in the assessment report.
I would list them all but it would take me hours.

I was present throughout the assessment and had to on well over 90% of the time provide her with support, understanding & ecourgement to answer the questions which were all asked in some very confusing ways even for me.
The report states i was present but offered little to no assistance.
The report contradicts itself so many times i lost count.
The assesor has not noted down at least 95% of what was discussed during the assessment.
The assessor has suggesting that because my wife was able to do certain activities some 20-30 years ago she should be reliably capable to complete then now (which for the record, she cannot) !!!!

Is this acceptable ?

I wont yet go into full detail regarding the assessment here but wanted to ask for guidance.

I called the DWP regarding the awful practice undertaken and misinformation of this assessment report, explaining everything i found wrong with it from start to finish.
The very nice chap called Keith at the CALMS department (think thats what he said it was) took details and put me on hold so he could speak with his line manager. After about 5mins he returned, confirming (via his line manager) that the assesment was not completed in an acceptable manner and took the decision to fully disregard it, making an instruction on file for an all new assesment must be done.
He also informed to immediately put in a complaint with the (Third Party) assessment organisation IAS, which i have done.

Is this normal practice?

We now have no idea what is going to happen regarding my wifes application for PIP which she first applied for back in 1st October 2021.

Can anyone offer guidance?
Would desperately love to speak with someone directly in more detail if possible.

Regards
Jason Griffiths

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3 years 14 hours ago #268331 by BIS
Hi jasongriff106

I'm sorry that your wife and you have had such a poor experience. Well done for taking action on it straight away. As awful as an experience as your wife had, it is good and unusual for them to admit instantly that the assessment could not be used. When this happens it is common for them to say that another one has to be done. It's not nice for your wife to be put through the stress once more. Clearly asking what she could do 20-30 years ago was ridiculous and not relevant and they must have realised this.

What to expect next? They should contact your wife with a new date for an assessment.. How long will she have to wait? No idea, but I would hope they would contact her within the next two weeks.

Sorry, you can't actually speak to anyone - we are all volunteer forum moderators who can't offer specific advice.

BIS

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

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