ATOS and PIP process for 16 year old

Hi Terrified

Thank you for your advice - it means a lot. The dad phoned ATOS today since my last post. The outcome: the call handler has arranged for a manger to phone the dad within 48 hours.

Thank you for the following advice - "What additional evidence do you require to enable a paper- based assessment.?" I like this and we will put it like this to them.

The dad has contacted the MP via email today but is waiting for a reply. Obviously they are going to be quite busy with other matters right now so we will attempt to speak to their office tomorrow.

From my understanding, the lad is back in the queue for an assessment centre so I totally get the need to act urgently. The dad will also be contacting the boy's GP again tomorrow following your advice.

ATOS are acting disgracefully. There is more to say on this but I will leave it for now. I don't want to be too specific on an open forum at this moment in time. Hopefully the family will get a favourable answer when they have the conversation with an ATOS manager.

Thanks for your sound advice - many thanks.

Buster

Dear Buster,
Pleased to hear you've kept on fighting for the family. The phrase is one of Gordon's pearls of wisdom! There may be a discrepancy between the form & evidence that ATOS has picked up on or misunderstood. As you say it's entirely likely the assessor hasn't read all the evidence. Perhaps best not to overthink it. The assumption is everyone has to have a F2F. I think this is a human rights violation. It is an outrage that young people should have to have an assessment at all - there will be plenty of evidence from the school/tutors & medical history. There are some very good posts on the Forum about autism & related distress but I can't remember how to search for them. Perhaps the Mods can help?
We can only hope & pray that the election brings an end to this torture for all of us.
Best wishes
Truly Terrified

Hi everyone

This is still a stalemate situation. Waiting for a stronger worded GP letter. But her original letter and the child consultant psychiatrist's letter should have been enough to exempt an assessment centre. ATOS are acting very unprofessionally. We are not looking for preferential treatment just fairness for a vulnerable young lad. Assessment is fine - but he cannot get to a centre - so we need it to be done at home. They are refusing to budge on this. They have sent out a further appointment to travel to another city BEFORE NEW AND RESENT INFORMATION WAS EVEN SCANNED IN TO DWP SYSTEM, citing his behavioural problems as being an issue to prevent seeing him at home. As I have said already, the boy vary rarely leaves the house (unable to) and would not be able to function if he was forced to.

Unfortunately, his MP has not responded to emails asking for advice yet. However, she is obviously kind of busy right now.

A couple of questions. We will be making a complaint about the ongoing process. Who do we complain to? ATOS or DWP?

From my understanding it should be to the DWP as they have a duty of care and are the ones ultimately in charge of this bloody process and who should be ensuring things are done lawfully in accordance with Equality Act 2010 - is this correct?

Just want to know to which organisation and to which person and best way of communicating this - to whom should the complaint be made to?

Many thanks for your help.

Buster

Hi moderators and all.

Do you happen to know a precise address and named person at the DWP regarding where to send in a written complaint about their unlawful procedure (my opinion) in relation to them and their assessment providers not complying with the Equality Act 2010?

The DWP during a taped phone call have told me there such an address. The call handler (he came across as being quite useless rather than deceptive) could not give out an address because he was not sure where to find it - after checking for 5 minutes as I waited. He told me to phone in again with a complaint and wait until end of next week - just before this lad's scheduled face to face at a centre funnily enough. Yeah Right!

Obviously not going to do that as things would be too late by then.