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.

What absolute cunts. You don't deserve all this shit at all.

I'm in Merseyside, I don't drive so not much use getting you places but I would happily come and make notes for you.

What happens if you just don't go, I wonder. If you wrote to say why you couldn't. Would they just close your claim or could you appeal?

Or could you suggest to Atos you will need to hire one of the care people mentioned at £70 a day and they will therefore need to pay for that? And then it is their choice whether they make it suitable for you in this way to attend or whether they would prefer to do a home visit, and you'll wait to hear from them. You could get your MP involved too.

Or could you suggest to Atos you will need to hire one of the care people mentioned at £70 a day and they will therefore need to pay for that? And then it is their choice whether they make it suitable for you in this way to attend or whether they would prefer to do a home visit, and you'll wait to hear from them. You could get your MP involved too.*

They'll just shrug and put it down as a Did Not Attend

Could you take two normal tape/cd recorders and set them both to record at the same time?

The guidance says one device and there's a list of devices not acceptable so it needs to be a dual recording cassette/cd player. They are very expensive and difficult to carry (that was without the problems I have now) - I used one in my job a few years ago when conducting interviews, I struggled with carrying and using one then. Also there's the issue of paying for the CDs/cassettes as well which given that media has moved is likely to be expensive as well.

There's an agreement which must be signed as well about how it is allowed to be used, which very likely means you cannot use it at all except on your own.

IwasateenagePIPassessor what happens then, if they get a Did Not Attend? Is the claim closed and they need to reapply or can the person appeal? Thanks.

The claim is closed but if you appeal immediately they will back date it at appeal.

Issue is if you are Support Group they will only pay you assessment phase ESA so you could drop money I'm not certain of figures this happened to us, was a while ago but I don't think it's changed.

So you could appeal the decision after the DNA? You wouldn't have to start the process again? I wonder if that might actually be a better option for some people. I was turned down on paper alone, and then did a paper appeal, which I won. All after having a home visit in the past and being awarded to top rate. So it could be possible just not to attend and appeal then?

That is exactly why we did it.

The GP surgery refused a to whom letter because they had filled in the requested form from ATOS.

They wouldn't organise a home visit, she couldn't go so we called on the day to say we aren't attending.

They said if a DNA stops the claim then call and ask for assessment rate while you appeal.
You have to call, you don't get transferred.
It's what they told us 18 months ago.

An appeal can take a very long time in some areas (mine (ESA) was over eighteen months) and there have been difficulties getting back pay - I think you only get pay from the date of the decision, not the date you applied, though I don't know that for sure - I heard it's to stop overpayment.

The gov also want to begin charging for appeals as well, I don't know if that's gone through yet or not though it was very popular.

legalist that sounds like ESA not PIP- I don't think PIP has an assessment rate.

Appeals don't take quite as long for paper appeals- however the rate for paper appeals being successful is only around 15% in comparison to going in person (around 65% at present). It could be an option for someone who has lots of medical evidence and struggles to go out, however.

They are supposed to be changing the appeals it said on Benefits and Work site. There is also the MR to think of, that can takes ages as the claimant has a month to request it but DWP no deadline to return it, causing it to take forever before the person even gets to start the appeal. It's a nightmare system.

We still haven't had a DNA or further appointment or decision.

ESA is still being paid at support group rate.

This is killing their family it has already caused domestic breakdown.

She's prepared for the worst case scenario of a gap in benefit and then a significant wait for appeal but they haven't even acknowledged anything.
Now I don't know if what they told us is still current.
Her Mum who does her full time care works full time at Jack Fultons already.
If they keep this up she won't see a backpayment because she will end it.

I asked a friend of mine who works in financial inclusion to read the thread and this is their advice

"My first advice would be to try and find a benefits advisor who can visit her and advocate to ATOS.
She can request a home assessment explaining why she cannot attend the centre. It is unreasonable to expect a severely disabled person to have to rely on an aged parent.
If a person cannot use public transport get to the centre taxis must be organised. She must ask for this ahead of time.
She must have originally been given 7 days notice of the assessment or she could argue that the original date falls and the process of date arranging starts again.
I urge her to get a visiting advisor.
Maybe deafblind.org.uk/what-we-do/information-and-advice/
as a start.
cc everything to her MP.
A GP letter of support when contacting ATOS will help."

I hope some of that might be of help

thank you everyone. Especially those kind posters who offered to come and accompany me themselves. I am quite certain that you are completely genuine, kind people, but I won't take up your kind offers because I would never want my children to accept help from strangers on the Internet and don't feel comfortable setting that example by doing it myself. But thank you very much.

They have authorised a taxi, but I would need someone to travel with me in the taxi so no different to having someone to drive me, I still need someone.

The woman I spoke to at ATOS on the last call was so harsh and so completely uninterested in my difficulties with travelling that I am afraid of contacting them again. I asked if I could speak to someone else and she said 'It won't make any difference. No-one will change your appointment. If you don't attend, we will send your paperwork back to DWP.'

I am all set up now for my mother to take me. Apparently the assessor is almost certainly going to be a physiotherapist since ATOS's assessment staff are almost all physios. Not really sure what a physio can assess about deafness and blindness that hasn't been covered in my written evidence from ophthalmologist and audiologist ...

I will update the thread after my assessment. I am mentally preparing myself for it to be a difficult experience with negative results.

And thank you jw for the DeafBlind link. I am a member so I will contact them and see if they have any advice. I have contacted some other organisations but none have any concrete help to offer other than information that I already have.

ATOS the CRUEL I am sure the appointment will be difficult and given your disabilities is totally unnecessary but don't despair of getting PIP. My dd's assessment was done by a paramedic and I thought she couldn't possibly understand all her complex difficulties but in fact she got the rates of PIP which I feel are right.

The appointment system though is utterly ridiculous. Dd's assessment fell in the period when she was doing her GCSEs (transfer at 16 from DLA). I sent a list of her exam dates with the application form. Her appointment came for a exam day. I rang ATOS. They hadn't received my list of dates and offered her another date also on an exam day. They then said I would have to contact the DWP if I wanted a different day. I did and was told they would contact ATOS. Two days before the original appointment a friend suggested that I contact ATOS to check that it had actually been cancelled. It hadn't and if I hadn't phoned them it would have been a DNA. They then offered an appointment for a Sunday which I was forced to accept.
We didn't have far to travel and as I was able to go with her we were able to use a taxi. The centre is not on a bus route and has no nearby parking. It also has a difficult entrance with heavy doors and the seating was very unsuitable for people with many types of disabilities. DD stayed in her wheelchair but I and another lady waiting had to perch on the window sill.
The whole system is not fit for purpose and seems designed to make claimants fail.

I've seen this posted on another thread.
It's a programme that was on BBC Wales a couple of days ago about PIP.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080ysnh

Good luck OP. Remember every time you say you can do anything, state clearly whether or not you could do it Repeatedly, Reliably or Safely, and every single adaptation you use to do anything and its limitations (so you might browse the internet but can't access information that's in pictures or videos, maybe can't do it for long as the screenreader requires loads of concentration, need specific expensive software to be configured correctly and trained so couldn't take up a job at short notice.)

Definitely cc your MP into all emails and include your address (so the MP knows you are a constituent). Amazingly ATOS decided they might be able to provide an interpreter for me after I did that.

Wtf is going wrong with the world? I'm so sorry Op

I've just watched that, thanks CM

Very much throws it into contrast with the channel 5 experience of benefits.

I hope it's shown at prime time nationally.

Doubt it will do much good..
Benefits automatically mean scrounging at the very least to some people.
Still more get claimants/scrounger/cheat from the word.

This is awful OP. I feel ashamed of my country when I read of treatment like this.

This is crap and a waste of money. I remember a friend of a friend being called in so they could check his disability hadn't changed. He did tell them over the phone that his legs and arm hadn't grown back but apparently they still needed to check.

lovelybath if the claim gets stopped waiting for an appeal the no PIP gets paid at all during the wait. My friend waited 18 months for an appeal - all they kept saying was "if you win you'll get back pay" but that didn't give her her mobility car back, nor the cash in her pocket to pay for tge help she needed during the 18 months.