Quote:
Originally Posted by GrimUpNorth
Only January 2nd and already a contender for 'post of the year' 
Cheers
Grim |
No examples have been provided, which is telling in itself.
Have you got anything relevant to contribute to this thread?
Nearly 2/3 of people transferring from DLA to PIP who were initially turned down are allowed it upon appeal, so I strongly urge those refused PIP to appeal.
It is believed that the bad attitude and lack of training of those sent out to assess people is playing a major part in this.
Some examples are:
- Fiona Ensall's 16 year old daughter Abigail has clear complex physical and learning difficulties One of the questions was "do you wear incontinence pads?". The girl did not know what an incontinence pad was, so said "I don't know". The inappropriate response was "surely you know if you wear incontinence pads dear". The girl began to get confused, to which the assessor started saying "come on, we need an answer to this"! This was despite her going blue/grey due to the effects of oxygen deprivation due to one of her conditions.
- A man who suffers from Huntingtons disease was giving incorrect information as part of his condition. His doctor wrote a letter to Susan Fletcher (his wife/carer) stating that Huntingtons is a very life limiting condition, that people are likely to say that they can do things that they can't and that it would be better to obtain the information from his wife/carer.
The assessor was asked and confirmed that she had knowledge of Huntingtons disease at the start.
The man incorrectly stated that he took the dogs out in the car the week before, which the woman wrote down as fact! The doctor's letter appears to have been unilaterally ignored.
An ex assessor (Occupational Therapist) has told Radio 4 that she "failed the audit test" because she took too long in trying to find out the true way that a persons disability affected them (which was supposed to be the whole point of these tests).
After four and a half months she left because she could not work in the way that they wanted her to eg changing her reports.
Assessors are also under pressure and can make more money by doing more and more assessments, so the quality goes down, for example checks about conditions weren't done to speed things up.
This whistleblower also said that many assessors had a "all sick/disabled people are slackers" attitude, referred people to fraud based upon the most flimsy evidence and prejudiced attitude.
Often, those who don't normally go out are simply regarded as liars because "they are here today in the assessment centre aren't they"?