To think this is just cruel of ATOS (PIP assessment related)

[ATOStheCRUEL]

So, I have to go for a PIP assessment to somewhere 40 miles away. I am blind and severely deaf. I can't get there by myself and I don't have many options for people to come with me.

They sent an appointment for a random day of their choice. I telephoned to change it to a day when my husband could take me. Since I'm deaf, it was quite hard to understand the person I spoke to, but I got it changed.

Now my husband's work can't give him the day off due to client pressures. I telephoned to change the appointment again. The woman I spoke to said that the rule is that you can only change your appointment once. They won't change it again and if I don't attend 'then the decision about whether to award you benefit will be made on that basis' (i.e. they won't give it).

I nearly cried over the phone. She was really unsympathetic and kept saying 'well that's the system'.

Isn't that just cruel? The whole reason I need PIP is because I have very little mobility and can't travel without help. I can't just get a taxi because a taxi driver won't hold my arm and take me into the building and see me into the room with the advisor, and wait outside the door for me and bring me back and see me back into my house. Let alone take me to the toilet if I need it during the several hours.

I am going to have to ask my 80 year old mother to drive up from her house 200 miles away in order to take me to the appointment.

I think the people running ATOS and the politicians aiding and abetting them are wicked.

Find your local Red Cross Transport - I've used them, and they are very good, will come into the hospital or whatever with you, and wait to take you home again. You have to pay by the mile but it's less than a taxi. Ask your GP or local hospital. I had no idea they existed until I needed this kind of help.

I don't blame you not wanting them at home.

One assessment we had consisted of a female assessor (requested a female) and her husband waiting in the hallway

Very unsettling.

Try and make a plan for the worst case.
It's the only thing that helped us.
Having it written down in bulletpoints (assessment step, who to and how long for an appeal, what Interim benefit to apply for etc)
Made us feel a bit less helpless.

No help OP as I don't fully understand the system but lurking because I'm taking a friend to one of these soon and want to know as much as possible. She has severe anxiety among other things.

If home is off limits, which is perfectly understandable, can you request they come to your GP surgery or local community centre? I don't know if that's allowed.

Yes, that is very cruel and you should complain and maybe go to your MP too.

In the meantime, this is the very helpful thread on PIP assessments.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2764894--to-give-people-assistance-with-claiming-PIP?noti=1#64504800

I am pretty certain you would be entitled to a Home Visit but if you don't want a stranger in your home you could ask a local support organisation such as CAB if you could use one of their interview rooms for this. Or could you not ask a Support Worker to sit with you in your home and you might not feel so vulnerable?

Legotits - an assessor brought her husband with her?! That is absolutely dreadful, I hope you complained.

Her husband was lurking in the hallway?? WTAF?!

It makes me think you need a solicitor present at these things.

They made me travel a long way from home too. OP. My husband had to take me.
Then the assessor manipulated my joints in a manner that caused mr considerable pain and made me cry. It was painful and humiliating.

They're bastards.

I shit you not.

My relative was in the first group to be moved from IB to ESA and it was the very early days of assessment.
When I complained they blamed an oversight in a chaperone being arranged.

It was unreal.
And they came on the bus with brief cases.
They stood at the bus stop after.

Doctor cases.
Not brief.

Like Doctor Fucking Foster.

Please don't go to the assessment, they will assume if you get there you can get to work.
I've got a friend who works for the DWP who says turning up for the assessment at all will prejudice your case. They are deliberately designed to be challenging to get to so that your presence counts as evidence you are fit and well to work, as you managed to get to the assessment. (He hates it there and wants to leave but can't find another role, he is sickened by the things ATOS do and they are all done under pressure from DWP to reduce benefit payments).

Please get someone else, your dh or GP if possible, to contact them and say you cannot attend. It doesn't matter if you aren't permitted to change it again, you aren't going because you can't. Then when you appeal, they will not be able to use the fact that you attended an assessment against you.

Your appeal is the thing to concentrate on.
ATOS reject a huge number of people and 75% of pip appeals are successful, so you are unlikely to be successful before appeal even given that you are unarguably disabled. One ATOS trainer was secretly filmed telling assessors a one armed person could still pack bags, so should be judged fit to work. Another woman who had had a double lung and heart transplant received a letter telling her she was fit to work four days after she died in hospital, 12 days after her assessment.

It is utterly horrendous and you have all my sympathy for being in this situation, someone who is certified blind and with hearing problems should have a lifetime award, and dragging you through an assessment is utterly cruel.

I know why they do it though; I have a neurological illness and am not able to work, but the assessment process is so demeaning and cruel I will not claim what I am entitled to for fear of it.
And that's the whole point.

Also take a look at the Benefits and Work website: www.benefitsandwork.co.uk

Membership, which costs about £20 per year, gives you access to all their guides in applications, appeals and assessments. But even for free you an subscribe to their newsletter and access the forum, both of which had really helpful info.

Good luck - it is s*it, i agree.

You need to contact your local Disablity Advice Service - can you get your husband to google for your local branch? They're better than CAB because they specifically deal with disabilities and benefits all the time - whereas CAB is more general.

They will be able to give you advice and they may be able to intervene for you.

They may be able to get around the one change issue by the fact that it was totally inappropriate to ask you to get to an ATOS centre in the first place and a home visit should have been booked.

Get a GP letter ready.

PIP is not a work benefit so they shouldn't be assessing people on work capability. ESA is a work related benefit and based on capability.

Disability fraud is extremely low and the hoop you need to go through to get the award in the first place is hard work.

I can't see how paying for all the accessors and renting/buying places to use is saving any money. I suspect it cost more than the 1-2% of fraud.

Hi op, I used to work for Action for Blind People, have you been in contact with them at all. They may be able to offer you assistance either advice or maybe even practical. Most of my work was helping people claim Pip/ESA/AA

Also contact your LA to see if your ROVI can help at all.

Leanback

Capita are bad, but ATOS are the absolute pits.
You've provided some great evidence there, you've got a good chance of scoring enough points to get PIP. I agree with PP about not getting to the assessment under your own steam; it will probably count against you if you did. It's also very difficult to get home visits from ATOS (you'd get one from Capita, I think), but I see that you don't want one anyway.
Whatever you do, don't tell the assessor during the 'what do you do during the day?' section that you use the computer or Mumsnet; the assumption will be that your eyesight is ok. Don't give them the ammunition.
Bit arseholish of your husband's company to deny him the day off too. Some things should trump 'client demands'. Flexibility works both ways.

Plus 7 out if 10 win their case on appeal. In the long run, I think you've got every chance of getting PIP. Good luck.
By the way, have you got a local paper looking for a story? Might be worth a try.

I am so sorry you are going through this. I have a blind relative. They sent him an appt miles away and helpfully sent it to him in large print. Not helpful as he is in fact blind. He also has mobility issues..they are utterly terrible tossers.

OP - my son didn't have to attend (he is severely autistic, non-verbal & severely learning disabled - I did tell them that if he became anxious the people around him might get lamped - I didn't actually know they did home visits, but they assessed him via a big pile of paperwork instead).

But anyway the ramble is because a friend with a similar son was called & she was able to email a manager (think she rang first) - set out the situation (I would cc the MP as well at that point - just as a FYI - with your address, phone number & 'I am a constituent of X MP' at the top of the email - you need the address & phone number to get the MP to read the email) & they accepted he could not attend.

I cc my MP for information into quite a lot of disability related correspondence - especially when people aren't doing their jobs properly - it makes them behave.

RNIB have specialist advisors who have experience in sensory impairment claims for benefit. It is well worth getting in touch with them.

I'be heard so many stories like this and they disgust me.

Please write to your MP to complain. It's so important every one does when they have this sort of experience

If you make the request to atos you will be allowed to record using 2 x ordinary cassette recorders (your ability to operate these will be noted). Atos need the consent of your actual assessor to allow you to do this and so if the individual assessor declines you will be unable to record as you cannot have any more appt changes.

You are legally allowed to record in secret but if you are discovered doing this the interview will be stopped and your claim will be stopped.

Whatever you do you must attend this appt (or your claim will be cancelled) and you must take someone with you (or they will decide you are capable of flying rockets to the moon)