Worried I've been given the wrong advice

I cant sleep tonight again and I'm now worried I've been given the wrong advice by the disability ritghts person representing my claim. I only went there because I am not able to speak on the phone with the DWP, I have difficulty understanding their procedures and letters and my carer was at the end of her tether and I didn't want to give her anymore stress. She's had to go for emergency counselling since my letter about the PIP refusal and we have both been back and forth to the gp.

Anyway the woman was really nice but not only did she convince me to not seek any points in one of the categories I felt strongly about being in but she had said my evidence was all too old and not to put it in (one of the documents was my care plan which is from 11 years ago that the assessor also refused to look at when I tried to hand it in which still applies to me but I actually face more challenges than they anticipated at the time of writing it) and she also didn't want me to put in my recent neurology letter saying that their was an ongoing investigation into what I was led to beleieve for 23 years were absence seizures but I've recently been told might be something else - it doesn't change the symptoms I'm having or the fact that cooking/bathing/going out etc is dangerous for me because of them but I understand why she didn't want it included because she thought they'd not make a decision till I'd been for another brain scan and then they might use the results against me if.

I know I'm incredibly stubborn and I do lack mental flexibility and insight into other people's view points quite a lot (the last two are a result of my brain injury) but I dont see how they can even be expected to overcome a mandatory reconsideration with no extra evideance and only a copy of my very long and detailed letter of complaint to Atos - which she advised me to write and which is apparently under investigation whatever that means. I got the impression it was all just a points game which makes me very sad. She said she expects it to go to appeal stage but she thought I'd a very good case and that she expected to get at least 12 poiints in each category for me. I scored zero in the assessment. Her actual words were: 'If I can't score 12 points in each category for you then I should just leave my job'.

I got the Dr's letter that she wanted and I've sent it to her to pass on but this is apparently being kept back for appeal and another letter she wanted.

I've not even heard back from her since the meeting two or three weeks ago despite having sent an email and two letters recorded delivery. This is all playing on my mind. And it's probably worse because I constantly lose my orientation in time.

I know I might be worrying about nothing. I probably am. But I have no proof she really did contact the DWP like she said. All I have is the copy of the letter for mandatory reconsideration that she said she was posting to them. I suppose it's because I feel I have no control over my life yet again. My past experience of going to outside organisations for help is that they rarely follow through with what they say they will. Or they blame it on an admin error.

Anyway, Iwas going to ask if anyone knows what will happen if she hasn't posted that letter and no mandatory reconsideration has been asked for on my behalf? I did post a covering letter to the DWP in with a copy of the letter of complaint that I'd sent to Atos (I really didn't trust them to communicate with the DWP) and I said that this disability organisation would be seeking an MR on my behalf.

Will I lose my claim altogether if information hasn't been passed on?

I forgot to add that my mandatory reconsideration time ran out I think on the 4th or 5 of december.

Lynsey wrote: I cant sleep tonight again and I'm now worried I've been given the wrong advice by the disability ritghts person representing my claim. I only went there because I am not able to speak on the phone with the DWP, I have difficulty understanding their procedures and letters and my carer was at the end of her tether and I didn't want to give her anymore stress. She's had to go for emergency counselling since my letter about the PIP refusal and we have both been back and forth to the gp.

Anyway the woman was really nice but not only did she convince me to not seek any points in one of the categories I felt strongly about being in but she had said my evidence was all too old and not to put it in (one of the documents was my care plan which is from 11 years ago that the assessor also refused to look at when I tried to hand it in which still applies to me but I actually face more challenges than they anticipated at the time of writing it) and she also didn't want me to put in my recent neurology letter saying that their was an ongoing investigation into what I was led to beleieve for 23 years were absence seizures but I've recently been told might be something else - it doesn't change the symptoms I'm having or the fact that cooking/bathing/going out etc is dangerous for me because of them but I understand why she didn't want it included because she thought they'd not make a decision till I'd been for another brain scan and then they might use the results against me if.

I know I'm incredibly stubborn and I do lack mental flexibility and insight into other people's view points quite a lot (the last two are a result of my brain injury) but I dont see how they can even be expected to overcome a mandatory reconsideration with no extra evideance and only a copy of my very long and detailed letter of complaint to Atos - which she advised me to write and which is apparently under investigation whatever that means. I got the impression it was all just a points game which makes me very sad. She said she expects it to go to appeal stage but she thought I'd a very good case and that she expected to get at least 12 poiints in each category for me. I scored zero in the assessment. Her actual words were: 'If I can't score 12 points in each category for you then I should just leave my job'.

I got the Dr's letter that she wanted and I've sent it to her to pass on but this is apparently being kept back for appeal and another letter she wanted.

I've not even heard back from her since the meeting two or three weeks ago despite having sent an email and two letters recorded delivery. This is all playing on my mind. And it's probably worse because I constantly lose my orientation in time.

I know I might be worrying about nothing. I probably am. But I have no proof she really did contact the DWP like she said. All I have is the copy of the letter for mandatory reconsideration that she said she was posting to them. I suppose it's because I feel I have no control over my life yet again. My past experience of going to outside organisations for help is that they rarely follow through with what they say they will. Or they blame it on an admin error.

Anyway, Iwas going to ask if anyone knows what will happen if she hasn't posted that letter and no mandatory reconsideration has been asked for on my behalf? I did post a covering letter to the DWP in with a copy of the letter of complaint that I'd sent to Atos (I really didn't trust them to communicate with the DWP) and I said that this disability organisation would be seeking an MR on my behalf.

Will I lose my claim altogether if information hasn't been passed on?

Hi L,

Personally, I would not advise claimants to hold back any evidence that they may have at the MR stage in anticipation of using at the appeal stage, why would one do that ?

The idea is to get an adverse decision changed ASAP, without the need for an appeal.

May be you have misunderstood your adviser, or they have a specific reason for doing so, you could ask them.

What makes you think that your adviser wouldn't post your MR request ?

Why wouldn't they ?

If that scenario did occur, you can request a "late" MR and/or a "late" appeal up to 13 months after the date of your adverse PIP Decision Notice letter as long as you can show "Good Cause"

ATOS have nothing to do with the MR/Appeal process, DWP deal with those !

If an MR was not requested at all, your current PIP decision would stand until it was reviewed when the time comes, or a fresh claim was made.

Your post was very long for quite a short query !

Please try and keep you posts to a briefer format, long posts make it difficult to pick out the actual query and there is the danger that your query may be missed.

bro58

Lynsey wrote: I forgot to add that my mandatory reconsideration time ran out I think on the 4th or 5 of december.

Hi L,

An MR request should arrive back at The DWP no more than one month from the date of the PIP Decision Notice letter that you should have received.

See my : Other Post regarding "late" MR requests.

You need to check with your adviser whether or not they have posted your MR request to arrive at DWP by the deadline.

How could we possibly know whether they had or not ?

bro58

Sorry the length of the post. I thought that when i tried to read it back just now and could hardly follow it myself.

The advisor probably has done what she said but the lack of communication is making me worry. I just have had enough of people not doing what they say they are going to do or losing my paperwork.

Since September I've had to deal with my medical notes being missing because of someone else not doing their job, I've had a brain injury project that I attended for 8 years not sending my notes on that I wanted to use as evidence (ended up being too late) because of an admin error and then a referral to another brain injury thing not happening because someone went off work and forgot to pass a message. I've now got a new social worker and she's actually said there is no historical record of me ever being involved in social work - but she at least believes something ihas gone very very wrong and was going to liaise with my gp.

As for Atos, I was told by the advisor that they have to tell the DWP a complaint has been made and this complaint would be taken into consideration with regards to my claim - I'm not sure if she meant with regards to the MR or the appeal or both.

Thank you for reading the ridiculously long post and thanks for telling me about the possibility of a late MR. That's really helpful and has set my mind at ease somewhat.

.

No of course you wouldn't know. I have asked the adviser in both my email and letter and didn't receive any reply. This is the problem I have with communicating with people. I need to communicate through writing mostly and people dont respond at all a lot of the time. Or they take weeks to respond and by then it's too late.

I will have to ask someone to phone for me.