ESA - question regarding most recently dated evide

Hi

Atos appear to be holding on to my claim.
The ESA was sent in Sept 2013 with fresh evidence.
Further evidence was supplied in December 2013 which should have secured a pass-on to the decision maker and an award for 12 months as has previously been the case.

I am concerned that Atos will call me for a medical nowish (6 months on from Sept. 2013) to generate evidence which then becomes the "most recently dated evidence".

My concern is that i understand that the decision maker will make a final decision based on the "most recently dated evidence". Am i wrong in thinking this ? Will the decision maker have to assess all evidence aquired during the time the ESA is processed or will they take into account dates and favour evidence which is most recent ?

I feel Atos is stretching the time frame for processing the ESA to possibly undermine my submitted evidence by staggering to a significant degree when they create their own evidence which then undermines my submitted evidence.

Does any part of this fear have validity or am i just over anxiously paranoid ?

thanks
n

Just because your paranoid doesn't mean their not after you! However in this case I think it's far more likely to be incompetence and disorganisation on their part. In theory all evidence should be taken into account and a decision made on the balance of probability. However in reality the DWP prefer to take Atos recommendations. Not necessarily because it is most recent, although this maybe used as justification, but because it is usually advantageous to them to do so.

Hi n,

I'm afraid that both DWP and ATOS are working with huge backlogs at the moment. Claimants seem to be waiting many months to hear anything else after submitting an ESA50 , it is not just you!

The only thing we can suggest that might speed things up is to get your MP involved

Contacting your MP

Where are the words, "most recently dated evidence" ?

MW

Hi again,

Ok i get the issue re: delays processing ESAs.

I would like confirmation ie: the rule / law regarding evidence - that the decision maker still has to take into account all the submitted evidence where processing of an ESA is delayed for many months and not just the most recently dated. i.e. in the case where they have obviously made a decision based essentially only on the most recently dated in this context, and ignored important aspects of the earlier dated submitted evidence - is drawing attention to the fact during a review or appeal something that works in my favour legally ?

The above replies didn't quite clarify what the determinating rule is. I need clarification about this, in case i need to take the case to a review.