Quality of medical assessment

Had a very sub standard ATOS PIP medical where questions were asked about what I could and not do but when I went to say if I could do things safely, to standard, repeatedly and how slow etc the Nurse doing the interview stopped typing and asked no questions like if I got breathless, was fatigued, motivated, got nausea or had pain. I had sleep logs, daily diaries, lists of illness, medication and side effects and many examples of limitations. She refused to look at, or accept my evidence, saying it didn't count. I was in distress and had phoned ATOS and told them the medical would be psychologically distressing and was snubbed twice. She asked me to do two or three leg movements to test severe right hip damage. I asked het to get me to do more physical tests but she said no. She didn't ask about pain, etc. My sister was with me and took notes. Where do I go next? She also admitted she had not read my original evidence but could see it on the scteen.

rapidrabbit wrote: Had a very sub standard ATOS PIP medical where questions were asked about what I could and not do but when I went to say if I could do things safely, to standard, repeatedly and how slow etc the Nurse doing the interview stopped typing and asked no questions like if I got breathless, was fatigued, motivated, got nausea or had pain. I had sleep logs, daily diaries, lists of illness, medication and side effects and many examples of limitations. She refused to look at, or accept my evidence, saying it didn't count. I was in distress and had phoned ATOS and told them the medical would be psychologically distressing and was snubbed twice. She asked me to do two or three leg movements to test severe right hip damage. I asked het to get me to do more physical tests but she said no. She didn't ask about pain, etc. My sister was with me and took notes. Where do I go next? She also admitted she had not read my original evidence but could see it on the scteen.

Hi rr,

Welcome to Benefits and Work Forum

Yes, they do not like responses any other than "Yes or "No", as they enter your response to each question into The PIPAT software programme that they use for the assessment.

They are supposed to have read your file before they carry out the assessment and they should take any additional evidence off you that you provide at the F2F and take that into account also.

See : The latest version of : The PIP Assessment Guide which was updated on 28th July 2015.

You could make a complaint to ATOS :

Contact ATOS PIP (Top right of page)

This would need to be done as a separate issue to any potential challenge to the actual PIP decision that you may need to make.

You could ring the PIP Helpline and request a copy of The PA4 medical report that the assessor would have compiled and sent to The PIP DM :

PIP Helpline :

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

Some members have managed to obtain copy before receiving the final decision whilst other have had to wait until after receiving the decision.

In the mean time if you feel that you have evidence that may be crucial to the making of the final decision and the assessor refused to take it off you to include in your file for the PIP DM, you could post copy of it with a covering letter FAO : The PIP Case Manager (DM) at the address of the DWP Benefits Office/Centre on your most recent DWP PIP letter.

Sending Documents to the DWP.

There is little else that you can do until you receive the PIP Decision Notice letter from DWP through the post.

Please keep us updated !

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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

Hi rapidrabbit

Just read your post as my husband has just had the same kind of substandard ATOS PIP home visit medical and even though my husband has not yet received a result from the DWP Case Manager (they use to be called Decision Makers), I am already preparing for the Mandatory Reconsideration based on a similar point as yours, namely the HP was reluctantly prepared to receive the further medical evidence that I had acquired for my husband (because I was so insistent that he did take it), but not to read it, as there was too much.

bro58 is right. Read the link that he provided The PIP Assessment Guide... which was published by the DWP for all HCPs.and I suggest that you pay particular attention to Section 2.8 and especially 2.8.11 to 2.8.14 (on Page 49 of the Guide starting at the title Evaluation and Analysis of Evidence) as this is what I will be basing my husband's Mandatory Reconsideration upon if his application for PIP for both components ADL (Activities of Daily Living) and Mobility are refused by the DWP Case Manager.