PIP assessment

You need a copy of the assessment report to help with your MR/appeal.  The DWP are obliged to send you a copy if you request one. Get back onto them and ask for one to be sent ASAP and keep nagging them because they have been known to stall until you run out of time to submit a mandatory consideration.  It is your right to see your report and they cannot refuse to send a copy.

There is a lot of talk/comments at the moment as to whether the DWP are actually required to send a copy of the assessor's report along with the supporting documents the DWP have completed. It seems a bit patchy as to where you live if you do get the report.

Having mentioned that there are regulations supporting the entitlement (prior to the appeal bundle being sent out) could you point me/us to them please?

I am havind extreme difficulty in finding such a regulation.

Hi Les. I don't know where you'd find them now because this goes right back to the consultation before the Introduction of PIP.  The final draft stated that all claimants had an entitlement to see their assessment report, but that the DWP were not obliged to send one automatically - you have to request it.  Once you make that request they should oblige and if you are making an MR or appeal they should send it in good time for you to do this.  They should also send any other information used to make the decision, but again, you have to request it.  I think it also appears in the Welfare Reform Act.  I'll have a dig and see if I can find anything concrete.

It's worth noting that the DWP only send you out a redacted version of your assessment (for your own good they want you to believe) You'll notice a page number missing or two. The health professional marks these pages "harmful" so you don't get to see them. This is where they make up a load of rubbish about you, sneaky I know. If you go tribunal ask to see their copy of your assement you get the unredacted version. All in the name of the good of the patients of course. The truth comes out in the end though.

No idea, but here in the south they are inviting those over 65 to claim PIP in large numbers. This started in June 2015. My invite came through at the end of last year (Dec) and by early March this year they had taken my DLA award off me - 10 weeks from start to finish.

Yes, but you did not apply for PIP Les. Your DLA award would have stopped as soon as the time limit for making a PiP claim had run out.  This is a lot sooner than the average wait for a PIP decision.  I'm in the North and I Know people who were assessed three months ago and are still awaiting a decision. Same applies for ESA reassessments.

Hi pam and I am not being picky, but as far as the regulations go, I did everything in my power to be transferred. If the sending of the two letters requesting a PIP1 within the 1 month allowed was in any deficient then I just don't know what else I could have done to comply given that I was exercising my right to fill in a PIP1 instead of having an unrecorded telephone conversation.

I would agree with that Les, just sorry it went so far as to stop any claim for PIP.  You should have made a formal complaint to DWP, but I agree with your previous comments, that you eventually get to a stage when you think why bother ? Once the DWP have made a decision they stick to it like glue. I've seen several very competent MR requests shot down in flames by the DWP, and yet the claimants have all subsequently been successful at tribunal, presenting much the same evidence.  It's costing a fortune to the tax payer and makes a mockery of introducing PIP as a cheaper alternative to DLA.

What's the bets that the decisions are now taking longer due to a consultation the DWP and decision makers had on too many disabled people quality for the benefit. Who cares what the decision maker says anyway as 60% of the time they are wrong. I can see a backlog of tribunals starting from John O'groats and ending in Lands End. They should be called BDM (bad decision makers) not DM or perhaps better still (FPRDM) forty percent right decision makers. With these sorts of figures alarm bells should be ringing out very loudly at the DWP HQ.