PIPS Assessment results

[swifty]

My wifehas a son and daughter from a previous marriage, they are both now young adultswho have been diagnosed with Asperger's.
Her son who is now 22 was diagnosed 3 years ago and her daughter was diagnosedin August this year
Her son receives PIP payments and has done so from the date we contacted theDWP, he has never been called in for a PIPS assessment and was told he won't becalled in at all. but my wife's daughter was called in for an assessment4 weeks ago, my wife went along with her for support.
She took the letter from the NHS which went into detail of her assessment andtheir diagnoses and that she met the criteria of the DSM-5 and ICD-10 due toher difficulties that autism brings.
My wife also took a form pointing out the differences between male and femaleautism, the assessor quickly glanced at it and put it to one side, thequestions asked by the assessor was aimed at someone with a physical disabilitynot a mental disability, for example: she was asked if she can use publictransport on her own to which she answered yes, my wife interjected at thispoint and reworded the question in a way that she would fully understand andasked her would you get on a bus on your own, she said no because they get toofull and that scares her. But the assessor marked her down as a yes to usingpublic transport.
There was many other questions that she truly didn't get the meaning of becauseof the vagueness and my wife had to break down the questions for her before shegot it.

Well we got the PIPS results through the post last week and she scored '0'
Both my wife and I are now convinced that the assessment is set up for you tofail, they didn't take anything into consideration before, during and after theassessment, they disregarded the diagnoses from a professional just to meet thegovernments 20% cut of disability claimants by 2018.
We have lodged an appeal this week and we are now waiting for another date forthat, it's good job she lives at home with us.

Is there an organisation we can contact to help with the appeal? she said thethought of having to go to an appeal is terrifying her and she really doesn'twant to go through it. We need someone to step in and act on her behalf,someone who knows how autism works and is able to get that point across.

[seduraed]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

You will have to apply for mandatory reconsideration. you will almost certainly be rejected at that stage as the staff are tasked to reject 80% of these. so hang on and go to appeal. DATE: 15 May 2017
Annex A
Dear XXXX XXXXX
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request received on 20 April 2017. You asked for:-
Please provide any Key Performance Indicators which apply to DWP around the handling of mandatory reconsiderations of benefit decisions, especially turnaround time.
Please also provide historic performance against these indicators.
DWP Response
The key measures which are used by the Department for Work and Pensions to monitor
Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) performance are:
a) 90% to be cleared within target.
b) 80% of the original decisions are to be upheld.
The performance measures for April 2016 - March 2017 are:
% MR Cleared within target = 70.2%
% MR Original Decision Upheld = 87.5%
Notes:
Upheld - percentage of MRs where the decisions have either been unfavourable to the claimant or where the previous decision has been maintained.
Sources:
RDA/RAA 60209 & 60205 reports for DLA/AA,
Pensions computer system for Pension Age,
SAS Business Analytics software for CMG,
Decision Making and Appeals Case Recorder (DMACR) for Working Age benefits.
The above data sources are Departmental performance management, data capture and reporting tools. This type of internal management information does not form part of the official statistics outputs that are released by the Department in accordance with the UK Statistics
Authority’s Code of Practice.
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number
above.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FoI Team so there you go.

[swifty]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

We are setting our sights on the appeal, they said they will send out some forms for us to fill in but that was a week ago and we still haven't had anything through the post.
We need someone who can act on her behalf to go to the appeal as we don't know enough to fight her corner for her

[warwick65]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

You must apply for the mandatory reconsideration first before you go to appeal

Are you saying she scored 0 for both personal care and mobility?

I believe , and all the evidence suggests that PIP discriminates against people with unseen disabilities. To add to this I believe there was an upper tier tribunal decision that awarded less points for psychological distress when out and about.

Good luck- if you have a welfare rights team anywhere near you , they may be of some help
[MENTION=49370]Kati[/MENTION] - you know I can never remember the names of the other forums

[Kati]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

@Kati - you know I can never remember the names of the other forums

WELFARE CENTRAL and RESPECTFUL BENEFITS

[swifty]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

We applied last week for mandatiry reconsideration, they said they'll get the forms posted out to us. That was last week and we still haven't had anything through the post, we'll git them a call today to see what the hold up is.
As for the score she scored 0 on everything, the assessor didn't take any of the paperwork my wife took in to consideration, and based her assessment on the questions asked directly to my wife's daughter who really didn't fully understand them.
For example the question "can you use public transport" means any forms of transport to her, she thought it included taxi's so she answered yes.
My wife then said would you go on a bus to which she replied "no because they get to full and they scare me", the assessor ignored that answer and marked her first answer.
The thing is with autism any questions need to be more structured and explained, these questions where to vague for her to give an accurate answer. Like I said the assessment is set up for you to fail, I don't know anything about this upper tier tribunal?

She has started an apprenticeship at her cousins pre-school nursery and the only reason she went for that is because she knows her cousin, if it was any other nursery she wouldn't go because she doesn't know anyone there, she's been trying to pass her English and maths for three years now and failed the exams each time until this year.
She pass her English but missed out by 1 point on her maths, the collage has appealed on her behalf and resubmitted her test, we're still waiting to see if they've passed her.
She had to start a new collage with her apprenticeship but was to scared to go so started inventing lies to avoid going, we arranged for the tutor to come and see her first and then meet her outside the classroom and walk in with her. Once that was done she didn't have a problem going.

[swifty]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

My wife phoned up PIPS on Friday to ask if they have come to a decision on the mandatory reconsideration and as predicted their original assessment still stands, so we now have to take it to tribunal.
They gave us a phone number to call to arrange the tribunal and we will be calling that number tomorrow, unfortunately my wife's daughter is now having panic attacks because of the prospect of having to go to a court.
She is now trying every which way she can to stop it going that far, we've explained to her that they can't make her do something that terrifies her and we'll try to arrange someone to speak on her behalf.
Our only hope is that we can find somebody who knows the tribunal system and can spare the time and effort to fight for her, it would help if she would talk to the judges because then they would see for themselves how much her Asperger's affects her but we know she will be physically sick on the day.

[enaid]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

This may help you understand the process https://www.scope.org.uk/Support/Tip...le/PIP-appeals ,as for someone 'to fight for her' I do believe advocates are allowed in the tribunal but are not allowed to speak for the claimant as the judge will direct questions at them personally.
You may also find a local support group helpful https://www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/Au...tionSearch/310
Good Luck xxx

[seduraed]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

The tribunal is not in a court. Just a room in a office. Usually there are three members. A medical practitioner, a judge who chairs the tribunal,and a lay person. It's more like the original assessment than a court which have been seen on TV . Just the claimant, you and the panel. They will be formally dressed,as the tribunal has the status of a court, but no wigs no gowns etc.

[des8]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

To assist her daughter has your wife considered trying to becoming an appointee for her?
She will be able to play a greater part in her appeal/
https://www.gov.uk/become-appointee-...iming-benefits

More guidance from http://www.autism.org.uk/benefitappeals perhaps

[Alchemy22]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

Is it really such a bad idea to sue the DWP?
I have a friend who says he has had 3 assessments. All recieved '0's. All these decisions were reversed by the HMCTS tribunal.

My asked him, if he were to receive another summons to attend an 'examination', would he go. He said he would have to.

My point is, in any other area of life, would you continue to play ball and deal honestly with people who are so inept/ downright decietful in the way they work. Knowing that they have been wrong so often.

An analogy. Imagine you are a specialist in heart surgery. A doctor working under you comes to you and says I've examind 'Mr. A' who claimed to have problems with his 'ticker'. I examined him and am sure he does not. What do you think? The Senior Doc looks at his juniors assessment, and decides the junior was clearly wrong in how he assessed the patient. "You mis-read the test results" he says. "No harm done though. Anyone can make a mistake."

A year and a half goes by and the Senior Doc is contacted again by the junior with the same request for overview. Senior checks juniors work and junior is found wanting again. Senior fiddles with his beard in a thoughtful kind of way and says to himself, "is there a bigger problem here?"

Two years go by and the same junior needs his seniors help again. This bloke, he says, who claims to have a dicky heart has come to me again. I've run more tests and can see no evidence of there being any heart problem. What's your opinion. Senior looks at the test results and is convinced his junior has made a mistake again. The senior, being a normal kind of guy who has at least a passing respect for his own profession, asks himself "what exactly is going on here?"

Whilst all this toing and frowing has been going on patient 'A' has grown steadily worse. He is confused about what exactly his condition is. He is in continual pain. He is in debt from going to other healthcare providers in the hopes they might know what's wrong with him. He wonders whether he can cope with more unnecessary damaging delay.

My point is, (though my friend didn't see it the same way), is it logical to believe in and comply with a process which has proved itself such a 'busted flush"?

As is probably obvious, I know very little about the law but we, but I don't believe Magistrates, Justices of the Peace etc would be happy to be included as a supporter of such unjust dodgyness. They normally have a problem with proven incompetants and liars.

We are all told that we must be honest when applying for this or that. But it's not being honest to continually rely on the assessment of people who are clearly not up to the job.

Comments please

[des8]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

Hi and welcome
First point is that you should have started a new thread and not hijacked an existing post, as it is not helping [MENTION=10721]swifty[/MENTION]
Secondly you can only sue if there has been a particular offence and you can prove losses.
If you are concerned about the legality of DWP process you could seek a judicial review
The claim is that the decision - now found to be wrong at Tribunal - is one which no reasonable decision maker could have come to.
I think there is a three month time limit.

Another avenue of complaint is via your MP to Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman, which can (but is unlikely) to end in £10000 compensation. (I think that's the max anyway but can't be bothered to check!)

[swifty]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

Thank you for all your help and advise guys, the links help us out a lot and we'll be making some phone call tomorrow.

Little bit of an update: We had to phone PIPS back up to find out why we haven't had our letter regarding the mandatory reconsideration results, they said that there is no information on their system regarding the original assessment "it has just disappeared?"
They can see that it has been through reconsideration and declined but that's all the information they have on screen, they admitted it was a failing on their part and they will get a letter out to us as soon as they can.
This bit of info will be used at the tribunal along with the length of time it's taking, 17 weeks Monday gone since we applied for PIPS

[swifty]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

Phoned the DWP today to see where our letter is that they said would be sent out to us last Friday, they said that it was assigned via email to a member of their staff to ask them to resend the letter out as we hadn't received the first letter.
They said that the emails are dealt with in date order and then post second class which could take up to 10 days for delivery, so even if it was sent out today by the time we get the letter it'll be in the new year and our months reply time would have expired.
It looks to me that this is another tactic by both DWP and PIPS to avoid any claim being overturned, we're at our wits end now and can't see how we can possibly progress to the tribunal

[des8]

Re: PIPS Assessment results

You have 30 days from the date the decision is communicated to you ie the date on the letter (and I don't think they try backdating the letters!) but of course it does delay matters
The new letter should bear a current date