Mandatory reconsideration help

Help please. I had my DLA to PIP medical on 5 February. It was horrendous. The assessor terrorised me for 1 hour yelling at me and saying that my answers wouldn't fit into the box and telling me I wasn't co-operating with her when I couldn't perform the exercises she wanted and threatening to stop and assessment and said I would be required to come back and see her again and yelling "is that what you want, tell me tell me over and over again". I was in such a state when I came out of the assessment room where my friend who had accompanied me was waiting and was shaking and crying and terrified. She was shocked when she saw me, took me home and put me to bed. My son was called to come and look after me and when my health had deteriorated to such an extent after a week he took me to my GP who gave me sleeping tablets and arranged for counselling. My son wrote a letter of complaint to ATOS detailing the cruel and inhumane treatment I was subjected to. They sent an acknowledgement back but so far nothing else. He also asked for a copy of the CCTV from the reception area which would show the level of distress I was in when I left the assessment room. The letter to ATOS was sent before I received the Decision Makers letter.

I have had telephone counselling to be followed up with 8 face to face sessions. This counsellor has sent a detailed account of what I told her on the phone and noted my depression is severe. On 24 February I received the letter from the Decision Maker and I had gone from High Rate Care and Mobility to Standard Rate scoring 8 for daily living and 10 for mobility. The Decision Maker said I was relaxed and not anxious throughout the assessment and had been able to get on and off the couch without aid. Also I could cook with an aid although I have been unable to cook at all for years and said this on my form. I realise now that I should have taken someone in with me to the assessment room but because I had had face to face assessments before and the assessor had treated me with care and dignity I foolishly thought this assessment would be the same.

I rang the DWP on 3 March and asked that they send all the paperwork they had made the decision on. They were very rude and said they could do a Mandatory Reconsideration now over the phone. I said I didn't want this until I had seen what the assessor had said in her report and I following this up on 4 March with a written request for the assessors report and asking that they do nothing until I had received this.

Sorry to be so long winded but I don't know what to do now. It is now 14 March and I still haven't received the report and only have a week until I am out of time for a Mandatory Reconsideration. As I asked them to do nothing until I received the assessors report I haven't officially asked for a Mandatory Reconsideration yet. Do I just go ahead with a written challenge to the Decision Maker without seeing the assessors report. My doctor had written a further report for me detailing all the difficulties and challenges I have day to day and the level of care I need. I have an appointment with a Benefits Advisor but couldn't get an appointment until 22 March which will be too late for the MR. I feel I gave enough detailed information, medical reports and prescription list (8 different medications) with my application that if the assessor had been honest I should have received the Enhanced Rate for both care and mobility. Any help on how to proceed from here would be greatly appreciated.

An wrote: Help please. I had my DLA to PIP medical on 5 February. It was horrendous. The assessor terrorised me for 1 hour yelling at me and saying that my answers wouldn't fit into the box and telling me I wasn't co-operating with her when I couldn't perform the exercises she wanted and threatening to stop and assessment and said I would be required to come back and see her again and yelling "is that what you want, tell me tell me over and over again". I was in such a state when I came out of the assessment room where my friend who had accompanied me was waiting and was shaking and crying and terrified. She was shocked when she saw me, took me home and put me to bed. My son was called to come and look after me and when my health had deteriorated to such an extent after a week he took me to my GP who gave me sleeping tablets and arranged for counselling. My son wrote a letter of complaint to ATOS detailing the cruel and inhumane treatment I was subjected to. They sent an acknowledgement back but so far nothing else. He also asked for a copy of the CCTV from the reception area which would show the level of distress I was in when I left the assessment room. The letter to ATOS was sent before I received the Decision Makers letter.

I have had telephone counselling to be followed up with 8 face to face sessions. This counsellor has sent a detailed account of what I told her on the phone and noted my depression is severe. On 24 February I received the letter from the Decision Maker and I had gone from High Rate Care and Mobility to Standard Rate scoring 8 for daily living and 10 for mobility. The Decision Maker said I was relaxed and not anxious throughout the assessment and had been able to get on and off the couch without aid. Also I could cook with an aid although I have been unable to cook at all for years and said this on my form. I realise now that I should have taken someone in with me to the assessment room but because I had had face to face assessments before and the assessor had treated me with care and dignity I foolishly thought this assessment would be the same.

I rang the DWP on 3 March and asked that they send all the paperwork they had made the decision on. They were very rude and said they could do a Mandatory Reconsideration now over the phone. I said I didn't want this until I had seen what the assessor had said in her report and I following this up on 4 March with a written request for the assessors report and asking that they do nothing until I had received this.

Sorry to be so long winded but I don't know what to do now. It is now 14 March and I still haven't received the report and only have a week until I am out of time for a Mandatory Reconsideration. As I asked them to do nothing until I received the assessors report I haven't officially asked for a Mandatory Reconsideration yet. Do I just go ahead with a written challenge to the Decision Maker without seeing the assessors report. My doctor had written a further report for me detailing all the difficulties and challenges I have day to day and the level of care I need. I have an appointment with a Benefits Advisor but couldn't get an appointment until 22 March which will be too late for the MR. I feel I gave enough detailed information, medical reports and prescription list (8 different medications) with my application that if the assessor had been honest I should have received the Enhanced Rate for both care and mobility. Any help on how to proceed from here would be greatly appreciated.

Hi An,

I am sorry to hear of your awful experience at your F2F, and it sounds very much like a complaint against The Assessor is called for !!!

You should not miss your one month deadline to submit your written MR request.

See the generic advice below for further information :

You have one month from the date of the PIP Decision Notice letter to make a written request for a Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) of the PIP decision.

Sending Documents to the DWP.

You could also ring the PIP Helpline :

Telephone: 0345 850 3322
Textphone: 0345 601 6677
Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm

To request a copy of The PA4 PIP Medical Report compiled by the PIP Assessor at your face to face and sent to The DWP PIP DM to be used when the DM came to their decision.

If you have any problems obtaining The PA4 with a verbal request, you can make a written request which should be done as a separate issue to any MR request :

You can do this using a SAR Form :

SAR Form Download

From this page :

DWP Data Protection Policy

Or you can make the request in the form of a letter, as long as you make it clear that you are making a formal SAR under The Data Protection Act 1998.

Address the envelope : FAO The Data Controller, at the Benefits Office dealing with your PIP.

Write DPA 1998 SAR in front, top, left corner of envelope.

Once received, they have 40 calendar days to comply.

You should not miss your one month deadline if The PA4 or any other supporting evidence that you may be awaiting has not arrived.

You can make comment that you have requested this and will submit further evidence if applicable when you receive it.

Once you have The PA4, you can then pose any counter arguments to the PIP Assessors recommendations.

e.g. If they are stating that you can carry out a particular PIP Activity, has it been taken into account that to be classed as being able to carry out a PIP Activity, you must be able to do so Reliably and Safely for The Majority of Days

If the Assessor has stated that they witnessed you Walking a set distance have they taken into account the above, the time it took you to do so, and any pain, discomfort and breathless, etc that you may have suffered whilst doing so ? etc, etc, etc !!

You should be aware that when you request an MR, any current PIP Awards, Daily Living and/or Mobility, that you might have, can be increased, reduced or taken away altogether, as they will look at the whole PIP Awards afresh.

Obviously if you have no current PIP Award, there is no risk involved.

See : PIP MR/Appeals Guidance.

Disability Rights UK Factsheet - Appeals and Mandatory Reconsiderations.

Once you have gone through The MR Process, if you are still unsuccessful, you have one month from the date of The MR Decision Notice Letter to appeal directly to The Tribunal Service. (TS)

You should do this using one copy of The MR Notice letter (keep the othercopy) and the : SSCS 1 Form (Download Link)

All this is explained in our PIP Appeals Guidance

You should concentrate on reiterating where and why you should have scored the extra points with respect to the applicable PIP Activities and the appropriate scoring PIP Descriptor for that Activity, whilst cross-referencing to any medical evidence that you have, or may have already provided which indicates that you should have.

See also : PIP Self Test

PIP Points Scoring System

&

PIP Claims Guide. (2nd Link down the page)

You should Bookmark/Favourite this page in your Internet Browser now.

That way you can return to this topic easily to pose any further queries that you may have by replying to the topic.

See : This Topic also !

Thanks in anticipation of your future co-operation in keeping all your PIP related queries to this topic !

bro58