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PIP Interview - Atos are NOT listening!!!

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8 years 11 months ago #166942 by Kiki1st
Please could someone advise, i'm writing this on behalf of my mum. She has suffered with acute mental illness for nearly 6 years now and has solely been under the care of our local Community Mental Health Service. She has Bi-polar disorder and various conditions affecting her memory and communication, which can at times cause her severe anxiety as well as self harming and aggression. As well as all this she has the following diagnosis' PTSD, Fibromyalgia, Meniere's disease,Asthma, Raynauds and PCOS.

She has been in receipt of DLA for the past 5 years at various rates, but for a year now she has been receiving both higher rate Care and Mobility. The dreaded time came 3 months ago for her to now claim PIP. Therefore i did her application and collated as much medical evidence as possible. We did not tick the box for a home visit after reading previous posts stating "it can be a bit of a gamble as such", therefore left it blank.......low and behold the interview letter came for her to attend on the 10th August 2016, she was unwell, so i called to cancel and request a home visit after again expressing her circumstances.

The person on the phone at the time said that he would put the request through for a home visit instead. Low and behold a letter was received a few days later, saying that there wasn't sufficient evidence for them to do a home visit???????? So a new date of the 26th August 2016 was made for a F2F at the centre. Therefore I contacted my mum's team and have asked them to take over. Her social worker called ATOS to say she wouldn't again be attending due to illness, and requesting for them to write to her psychiatrist (which hadn't even been done previously???)

Now this is the joke......out of all this we have just received another letter (appointment No 3!!!!) asking for her to attend another F2F assessment at the contact centre on the 2nd September 2016.
However i have just found out that they have not even bothered to contact her G.P who obviously deals with her physical illnesses and they haven't even bother to contact her Mental Health Team at all, so how can they make any judgement about her health when neither services have been consulted??????!!!

This is disgusting, anyway I am now letting her team deal with it, and will fight to ensure she does not have to attend the PIP Centre. Even when she had her hospital appointments many of these had to be cancelled on more than 1/2/3/4 occasions until she could cope, so they will have a fight on their hands.
Just wondered whether anyone else has experienced this?
Also it seems that if you dig your heels down far enough, 2 set appointments then your "out" is not the case. Don't Give Up!!! Even though there are those who have made "genuine" cases unbearable, just keep going and Appeal Appeal Appeal!!!! :) Thank you!

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8 years 11 months ago - 8 years 11 months ago #166963 by Gordon
Replied by Gordon on topic PIP Interview - Atos are NOT listening!!!
Kiki1st

A couple of points;

The Assessment Providers are not required to contact the claimants doctors and rarely do.

You and her support team are talking to admin staff who have no authority to grant a home assessment, they really need to write to them explaining why she cannot attend at their offices.

One last thing, although you are on your third appointment, don't assume that they won't return her file to the DWP for failing to participate, we warn members about the two "strikes" because this is the policy that the AP's operate.

You might want to involve her MP.

Contacting your MP

Gordon

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems
Last edit: 8 years 11 months ago by Gordon.

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