Sent request for PA4 which i got today. Not good.

Hi Boomer
This link takes you to the guide for assessors
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/upl...assessment-guide.pdf

You can see the requirements for assessors to read the file and make initial decisions on whether further info is required, whether a paper review can be carried out or whether a f2f is required.
You can see they record their decisions on PA1 which you could try requesting a copy of.
You can read further what they are supposed to do all the way through.
Good luck.

Thank you for the reply Gordon.

After a few calls to ATOS today it became more apparent they had no idea where the cassettes were.

I was given various theories:

One CS guy thought I was supposed to have sent it to ATOS...

Another said they simply didn't know and there were no managers available to take the enquiry to as they were all on the phone. However, after much insisting a manager did indeed have time to talk to me.

He said the tapes were stored in a safe in Stockton-on-Tees.... but he didn't have the code to open it.

To the managers credit he promised to let me know the situation before he finished work at 5pm.

I got an email as promised which confirmed my a suspicion I had by this point.

The Health Professional still had it at the assessment centre and will be posting it tomorrow, Recorded delivery.

So basically, if I hadn't chased this up my extremely personal medical recording would have been languishing in a rather run down assessment centre for goodness knows how long and for anyone to stumble upon.

There is more to it than that, but it certainly calls into question their ability to to deal with Data Protections requirements, not to mention their own charter.

Have emailed them for clarification of their policy as it appears anarchic to say the least.

Regarding the transcript of the tape, they appear willing to do so and would be part of a wider SAR anyway. If there is a £10 so be it.

As always, thanks for the continued help and input guys.

(Oh, to answer my own question and if it helps others, the DWP Assessment Guide does indeed stipulate that the questionnaire/ medical evidence should be read by the "Disability Analyst" BEFORE the assessment. Not after.)

foss27 wrote: Hi Boomer
This link takes you to the guide for assessors
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/upl...assessment-guide.pdf

You can see the requirements for assessors to read the file and make initial decisions on whether further info is required, whether a paper review can be carried out or whether a f2f is required.
You can see they record their decisions on PA1 which you could try requesting a copy of.
You can read further what they are supposed to do all the way through.
Good luck.

Sorry Foss, dont think your post was there when I replied a moment ago about the whereabouts of the tapes etc?

Huge thanks for the continued help and support. Genuinely appreciated.

Gordon wrote:

Boomer wrote: A quick bit of help please?

Is there anywhere online detailing that the HP at the assessment should have already read all the evidence provided *before* the assessment for PIP?

Thanks if anyone can help with this. Just writing up a complaint letter to ATOS.

I'm not aware of anything beyond the instructions in the PIP Assessment guide for the assessor to read the PIP2 and attached evidence, there may be details in the file that is moved from the DWP to the AP and back, but the assessor would have to be pretty stupid to not indicate that they had read the information, whether they had or not would be another matter.

Gordon

Sorry, I seem to have missed some replies, this being one of them.

Thanks for the info Gordon.

Believe it or not I have the assessor on tape saying openly he had "only read as much as I can this morning, in about 20 minutes"

He started stammering a bit after that and obviously realised it wasn't the most prudent thing to say whilst being recorded.

My questionnaire was full on every page apart from the Reading and Mobility section I think. Add to that a further 11 pages of hand written additional info that tied into the relevant sections in the questionnaire. Additionally he had another 209 "documents of evidence" as he called it on his computer screen.

So, yes, saying he'd only had 20 minutes to read what he could was not prudent really.

It also goes onto explain why most of what I told him was already on the questionnaire, I was basically just repeating what was already written down.

Im pretty amazed he heard anything I said in honesty, he was typing almost constantly, rarely making eye contact, just staring at the screen facing awway from me, constantly stopping me mid sentence and even checked a text or two on his mobile during the assessment.

Just a small update.

Got a standard (I assume anyway) letter from DWP saying they had received my paperwork etc and were sorry for the delay in processing it.

Words to that effect anyway.