ATOS Assessment

[Kevmc]

Re: ATOS Assessment

I presume the template I did get us okay though? Or was the DM correct in stating its a standard letter? Or is the DM wrong?

[bluebottle]

Re: ATOS Assessment

The whole idea was to get about 87% of claimants off Incapacity Benefit, because "Lord" David Fraud decided that only 13% - if that - were genuinely ill.

The reality is that the last Tory government put millions of perfectly fit and healthy unemployed people on Incapacity Benefit so they could fabricate the unemployment statistics and the last Labour government continued with the same deception. Not surprisingly, IDS doesn't mention this because he knows if he spilled the beans on Question Time, the audience would most likely want to rip his head off, drill holes in it and use it as a ten pin bowling ball.

[bluebottle]

Re: ATOS Assessment

I presume the template I did get us okay though? Or was the DM correct in stating its a standard letter? Or is the DM wrong?

Any chance of providing a link for this Rule 35 template, please?

[IsItRequired]

Re: ATOS Assessment

I have just got my Atos appointment,18th march,finaly...I am going to have to beg and borrow in order to get there as its 2 days before my benefit money and things are so tight with food already,could do with a home visit but this thing has taken long enough already and I will (fact)suffer anything from 3 days of pain and discomfort to upto 5 weeks for putting myself through such an event,but food, warmth,being left to fight my illness and not for my rights a day longer are worth it...I have just yet again (i never learn in 2 years of being ill) after 5 weeks of being vertualy housebound and not even able to do housework, I started to feel a bit better...so I started to clean my house and also went to 3 banks,post office,shopping doctors all in 2 days,no more than 2 hours a day of activity...anyway yesterday even with max dose prescibed opiates I was that close to going to A&E as I could not handle the pain anymore...luckerly the pain did not last but I am back to really heavy arms and legs(always do have but not always so bad),struggling with stairs and even struggerling typing this, so its 100% rest yet again so I can get rid of the continuous discomfort...I am awaiting 2 MRI scan results on upper and lower spine,which i get after Atos assesment...and I dont even see someone who can diagnose me until after the Atos assessment...So what ever they think will have to change weeks later once I get diagnosed...But to me any health proffessional should read my file and send me home immediatley in order to not cause me any more pain and discomfort as it is blatently obvious that if i say i have pain then i do have pain,and of course an apolagy for even making me turn up.Every medical website I visit and look at what I have clearly says that anyone who has had my health issues will more than likely never recover.I had significant spinal stenosis for 2 years,that is on file for them to read...and gait problems,dizziness,extreme fatigue,movement related pain which is all permanent after such a time...I waited 2 weeks for refferel to pain clinic and there letter to my GP now 3 weeks and in post,for new prescription of tremadol? and my already codiene and paracetamel.So atleast I can get drugged up to manage the pain to get to the assessment.

[IsItRequired]

Re: ATOS Assessment

Update...Atos has agreed to pay for a taxi for me in order to get to there assesment centre,well I must pay and then they will give me the cash there and then at assesment centre...all £70 of it that i estimate.Also means a loan from a friend in order to pay the one way in the first place...if they change there mind i will be stuck 40mins drive away from home and have a debt ,the guy said its on my file so should be good.They were so easy to say they would pay to,i wonder is it obvious from my file i cannot make it ,and if it is then why the hell am i asked to go in the first place? The hour assesment possibley causing me further permanent nerve damage is another thing,but i suppose if its not going to be stressful it wont be so bad...not stressful lol im not even diagnosed after 2 years of suffering and fighting the NHS in order to get the treatment i so desperately still need,had ACDF already...seen 3 bad negligent doctors and a neuro surgeon who does not recieve enough cash from the NHS to diagnose me.....they at Atos are going to get it all...Im still awaiting a referrel to a councillor at the hos because no one has assesed me health wise correctly for near on 2 years...Now my prayers are answered,my health will be assesed by a health proffessional...yeah, right.

[wales01man]

Re: ATOS Assessment

Being Harsh here but what else do you expect ATOS to do they a agreeing to pay for a Taxi Im sure you will be OK

[IsItRequired]

Re: ATOS Assessment

Being Harsh here but what else do you expect ATOS to do they a agreeing to pay for a Taxi Im sure you will be OK

Erm...I expected someone at Atos to look at my file and think,this guy might suffer from a request to come to us as he may still need surgery for nerve/cord compression,we should go to him in order to asses him...or more wisely they should just put me into the cant work group on ESA until i am diagnosed by a neuroligist,then asses my PIP claim once diagnosed and treated.That is how i see it should work,and what they should do to.

[seduraed]

Re: ATOS Assessment

yes but then they wouldn't make any money from you .

[IsItRequired]

Re: ATOS Assessment

They are like buses...You wait for ever and then 2 come at once...I have another Atos assessment 3 days after the first...I guess its the ESA one,the other says PIP on letter so makes sense that the other to be ESA...I think they are asking too much,I need rest after the first one...its fact that any activity causes me pain and discomfort...I am still recovering from major spinal surgery...The Brain and Spine Foundation has just emailed me regarding my 1st assessment,they dont know of todays letter or taxi...the BSF say "Are they aware you had surgery in December? I think or I hope they will be surprised that you are attempting the journey to see them."
So maybe it will be used against me,my effort and willingness to suffer for finacial gain...but the second assessment 3 days later, I will for the sake of my health have to cancel it...for near on 2 years activity hurts me, I can risk one event in one week but 2 is too much and pushing things, and considering my symptoms and ongoing diagnoses,its just not right to risk my health.

[IsItRequired]

Re: ATOS Assessment

Just had a sobering phone chat about my recent MRI scans with the hospital that done them, its a private hospital paid by NHS.I see there neuro surgeon on the 1st april for results, he has already said its not his place due to funding to diagnose me tho...so I for the first time ever see a neuroligist on the 24th at a NHS hospital to start diagnosis ect...I rang private hospital just now to ask that MRI results go to the NHS hospital so the new neuroligist can diagnose me and save money time for everyone...She said no, the hospital itself has to request them otherwise i must pay...I then was asked my DOB and name ect..."Okay I will send them for you" such a change in attitude once my results came to her screen/attention ,scares me now,and heightens my fears that I am not medicaly fit enough to be assessed by Atos as i do need further spinal surgery.I am already sueing the NHS and with recent lack of care from my neurosergeuon even I should be pursueing him too,and might once my treatment does not require his services no more...and Atos by the look of it if there actions can be seen to cause me harm,as medical proffessionals they have a duty of care,so i thought.No medical professional has looked at my file,I would put money on it, they have just sent out the apointment without regard for my well being or health.
I want to turn up and stress to them that I am a nice resonable guy but that I will take this to court if as it would seem blatently obvious that such an assessment would cause me pain and discomfort ect and as there is a good chance that i am currently suffering from compression of the spinl cord or canal I should not be made to do anything other than rest...I am not even having physio because it seems to do me more harm than good,until mri`s its not worth the risk, physio guy agrees and said i need a diagnosis before i start important physio.The whole thing is a joke, I also feel as if they have pushed my assessments as its getting so close to exactly 6 months since the ESA/PIP claim...maybe there will be compo for after a 6 mnth wait? so they just rush it through without assessing your state of health first.

[wales01man]

Re: ATOS Assessment

Can I ask are you Housebound?
If you can make a Hospital appointment is there a reason you cant make an ATOS appointment Speaking to them face to face with the Medical evidence you have will do more good than not going

[IsItRequired]

Re: ATOS Assessment

I am housebound, in a way, I know its complicated but I can do things but dont unless i have to,and then suffer for them, I can like yesterday clean my shower cubicle...but last night I felt high ,dizzy and my arms were so heavy i did not have the energy to type or even stroke my cat.Headache with movement and recent bad tinitus,stairs were difficult and was knackered from it.Could not get comfotable on sofa or in bed, woke up feeling like i have just done 13 hours at the hard graft factory for supermen...and up at 4am due to being so knackered from yesterdays activity, it knocks me out in the evenings.
So I can not be housbound if i want but i must be willing to suffer for it...I will suffer for a diagnoses (going to hospital and GP apointments) and for food and just a bit of fresh air...but suffering in order for the Atos clowns to assess me when I am not even diagnosed , I am not all that keen...and as it should be an automatic home visit due to my syptoms/condition...I worry for all those who dont kick and shout, at least I will warn them of possible endangerment to my health that the assessment may bring.
And, I must admit i am very bitter about my treatment regarding my health already by health proffessionals...being told to exercise and push myself further each time by a GP for a year+ when I should have been 100% relaxing and getting surgery has already caused me the permanent spinal damage I suffer from...I dont want to suffer more because of more negligence, and as I am just capable of doing things now i dont want to be pushed to the edge of not being capable at all anymore just to suit Atos.

[loulouxx]

Re: ATOS Assessment

You have more chance of flying to the moon. Atos from what I know will never come out to a claimant. My Brother's mother in law has Diabetes type1 and has been in hospital on a constant dialysis machine. She cant walk as the bones in her feet are crumbling and she has constant ulcers because of it. She is also blind in both eyes and she cannot get a home visit. When I went for my assessment my assessment room was upstairs and supposedly the lift wasn't working. The guy at reception literally had to carry me up 2 flights the pain was unbearable so I took 2 tramadol which didn't help as I spent the whole time up and down. In my opinion the reason they rarely if ever do home visits is to see how you are in a different environment and if you refuse to go they cut your benefit.

[IsItRequired]

Re: ATOS Assessment

I am going to go...and immediately inform them before anything else that...A physiopherapist who specialises in the spine will not give me physio until i am investigated/diagnosed as any body movement causes me pain,discomfort and other symptoms...and then yesterday I get a letter from a multidisiplinaery pain management team I wass refered to recently saying they will not treat me/assesse me until i am fully diagnosed...My neuro surgeon has suggested i may need further op`s ,2 MRI scans awaiting results,he is still assessing me...a neuroligist begins assessing me after Atos assessments...So will be inetresting if Atos think they can assess me, cant wait to hear why there needs outway my own,and why they insist on causeing me more pain and discomfort when other true NHS employed medical proffessionals wont touch me until diagnosed for fear of doing me more harm than good.PIP assessment is next Tuesday 18th,will post here what they say,do.

[bluebottle]

Re: ATOS Assessment

You have more chance of flying to the moon. Atos from what I know will never come out to a claimant. My Brother's mother in law has Diabetes type1 and has been in hospital on a constant dialysis machine. She cant walk as the bones in her feet are crumbling and she has constant ulcers because of it. She is also blind in both eyes and she cannot get a home visit. When I went for my assessment my assessment room was upstairs and supposedly the lift wasn't working. The guy at reception literally had to carry me up 2 flights the pain was unbearable so I took 2 tramadol which didn't help as I spent the whole time up and down. In my opinion the reason they rarely if ever do home visits is to see how you are in a different environment and if you refuse to go they cut your benefit.

When I appealled a decision to deny DLA, ATOS sent out one of their doctors. Within four days of the ATOS doctor calling, DWP backed down and reversed their decision.

You have a legal right to ask for a home visit if attending an assessment centre would be detrimental to your health, is impractical or would endanger your health or safety. ATOS are not exempt from health and safety legislation. Refusing to allow you a home visit then claiming you did not attend is Negligent Misrepresentation at the very least.