Medical Assessment Report Full of Lies

Hi Ava

If you don't get satisfaction from a Mandatory Reconsideration - most appeals are being done on the phone at the moment so there is no need to attend court, or you can ask for a paper-based decision - which they may or may not agree to.

advicelocal.uk/ - You could use this link to see if you can get some help in your area. A lot of advisors are still helping people over the phone or through zoom rather than face to face.

BIS

Hi Ava

I was at a Tribunal on Monday (telephone Tribunal) my client was initially awarded zero points , applied for MR and was awarded zero points again. The client was initially on Std daily living only.

We put in a submission, I thought the client should be awarded 26 points daily living and 10 points mobility, the Tribunal awarded 13 points daily living and 10 points mobility, I thought it would be backdated to March this year, the Tribunal backdated the award to January 2020. I worked it out that the client would receive just under £19k in back pay as they were on IR ESA and therefore ESA disability premiums are also backdated.

My client told me today that she was going to cancel the Tribunal due to stress but now glad she did not, so don't give up, the beauty of the forum is that you will get encouragement from fellow members to carry on, if you want any inspiration check out pranks posts.

When going through an assessment report, I usually use a highlighter to highlight any inaccuracies, once you have gone through the report you then set out why you are applying for a MR and go through each descriptor one at a time, why you disagree with the assessor and try and match it with any supporting documents you may have sent in.

Understand that the assessor is offering an opinion when they say that you can do the PIP activities, tackling these head-on is unlikely to be successful, you need to show that the basis of that opinion is founded on incorrect information, so try and refer to your evidence to undermine what they have said.

Also, try and stick to issues that lead to your scoring points, I often hear members referring to the assessors spelling, as an example, whilst it may show a lack of professionalism, raising it as an issue isn't going to help you get an award.

Your primary task is to show that you meet the criteria, there are many reasons you may have failed, you need to address each of these but don't get bogged down in criticising the assessment report unless you can clearly show that it is incorrect, it is a lot easier to argue the facts of the situation;

Lastly, make sure that you understand the criteria that you are being assessed against you can put the best case forward that is possible but you won't score points if you do not meet the PIP Descriptors.

The first stage to challenging a Decision is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our PIP MR & Appeal guide, half way down the page for details of the process, the PIP area also has template letters that you can use to make the request with.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/pip

When you have a better idea of the issues with your claim, come back to the forum and we will do our best to help.

Gary

Hi Ava,
Please don't give up! At MR or possibly later at tribunal many zero point scores have been turned into actual PIP awards, sometimes to enhanced level! There is a really, really good chance of success, even though it may be a bit of a struggle to achieve.
I know that you will currently want to rant and vent. By all means do it on the forum as we all understand! However, however frustrated you feel about the assessor, your 4000+ word rant may not be the best way to achieve an award. (Sorry!) Sit down with a fresh piece of paper, and perhaps a highlighter pen or two. See if you can group the errors together. The highlighter can help by using a same coloured dot for each topic. List them. So, you might have one list you might call lies, but I am going to call inaccuracies, there could another spelling and grammar mistakes, another could simply be illogical comments 'you can drive therefore you can cook' (yes it is a common comment'), there might another problem in that the questions were confusing or some other irregularity with the manner of the assessment. There might be another group of different problems, if so, list that too.
Now you will have a set of headings you can use, with a series of examples.
Inaccuracies - I'll discuss how I think- OK, it is possible that the assessor lied, but this is very confrontational and will get the DWP decision maker cross! Recent forum info from other claimants saying there were lies simply get a cut and paste response saying that assessors don't lie, why would they etc. at which point the decision maker are already cross, and won't be bothered to read the remaining 3900 words in your letter. Much better way (even though you might feel this is a dumbed down response) is to say the report is very inaccurate, and it appears that the assessor neither understood me/or he was getting me confused with someone else. Then you say, for example (because you now have a list!) There are 56 inaccurate statements within the report. The most serious of these are as follows
(and use bullet points - pick 4 or 5 of the worst examples which might be)
• The assessor claims that I do not have any specialist input and I have a mild condition. This is not accurate -I have a monthly appointment with the psychiatrist- due to the severity of my X condition which is explained in the psychiatric report which was enclosed with the claim form, and has has clearly been ignored
•I have never been able to drive a car, therefore I can not possibly drive to the various places suggested by the assessor
•I do not have a shower at home, therefore it is not possible for me to be able to use a shower unaided
Then you could say that there are many other inaccuracies, cut and paste repetitions and poor spelling, which all indicate that the assessmentcreport is of exceedingly poor quality and should not be relied upon.
By all means make a separate complaint about the assessor but I encourage you to use the same style as above, and then you can say in the MR that you have made a separate complaint.
Then, go through each descriptor and be very critical and see how many points you think you can score. Ask a friend if they agree. Use the guides on this website to help.
Now write on your MR letter the points scores and here you can be more specific about the problems with the assessor.
So eg
Preparing Food
The assessor says I can drive and therfore prepare food. ( It will be noted the analogy with driving has been used within 4 separate descriptors to suggest I can do the activity.) However, I am unable to drive, my GP has said that it would be unsafe for me to attempt this, due to poor eyesight.As a result of the poor eyesight, and severe arthritis in the hands I can not peel vegetables, read packets or know when food is cooked.....I can not cook I should receive 8 points 1f.
Do this similarly for all the descriptors.
I hope this helps.
LL26