Recording of Atos Medical Assessment

Currently in Support Group.

Submitted new ESA50 02.04.12

Just telephoned by ATOS 25.04.12. They asked me to confirm some details for security purposes (started with DOB) but I said I wasn't prepared to give that type of information over the phone. They said they will write

This is almost certainly contact for a new medical assessment

1. Would you advise to request that the medical is recorded (can it work against you) & do you get a copy?

2. When do you need to notify ATOS for this? eg. If my letter includes a date for assessment are you able to go back to them to request the recording to take place

3. Will a request for the medical to be recorded result in the assessment appointment being put back to a later date than it would be otherwise?

There's no respite from this is there?

Thanks ......... Stanley

Hi Stanley,

I can only tell you how it worked in my case.

I wrote to DWP requesting that my assessment be recorded after my appointment letter arrived. I then got a call from DP to say that this would be arranged but that my appointment would have to be postponed to facilitate it. I was told that it takes 3 weeks to get it set up as, they claim, there is only one set of recording equipment for the whole country! Despite my protestations, I was also told that this would count as my one permitted postponement. Then someone from ATOS rang to make a new appointment.

I must say that it all went smoothly, the recording equipment was there and set up when I arrived. The HCP seemed very happy with the process and I was given a copy of the recording, on CD, before I left.

Following on from a report on rightnet site it seems that if a medical date needs changing because of needing a recording, then you no longer forfeit it as one of your two chances to attend a medical.

That is good to know, pcm.

In the light of the response P Smith has extracted from the DWP today (at the WDTK site) which states that Atos only have 11 approved recording devices in the entire country at present, it seems to me that confidence that one isn't going to be penalised, - other than through delay - for insisting on a recording, becomes acutely important.

Does anyone know of a link to an authoritative statement about its not counting as a postponement by the claimant - which isn't behind a paywall?