ATOS Home Visit : At my wits end

[kirstyo]

Hi Just rang Atos again, spoke to another robot, she said the same thing, after several minutes she started to become human she told me that they hardly do paper assessments, and that there will not be enough information about my husband? she said that they wanted a face to face so that they can ask him a lot of questions? They can't get all the information and answers to questions they want from his GP. They have contacted the GP surgery 5 times (which I think is a lie) (two years ago, whilst we were going through this with the ESA, and I took it to a second tribunal someone told me to ask for my case file history, and they sent me about several hundreds of pages including asking his surgery questions and getting paid to answer, they never asked the GP anything).

She said that she would see if he could get another home visit, so I told her that he would not speak to anyone, she then said that she could not cancel the 1st Aug appointment, I told her that I was going to see my MP, and phone the DWP, she then said get the GP to ring up and speak to atos, just phone atos no name just whom ever he gets to pick the phone up.

So that is how I have left it with Atos, he still has his Aug 1st appointment?

 

Pretty much exactly what they did with us. we had to leave the appointment outstanding while waiting for it to be changed. Did they give you a number for the GP to call or is he just to call the call centre? Make sure he knows he needs to speak to the medical decision makers.

 

My partner hardly spoke at his home appointment, i was allowed to do most of the talking.

[reallymadwoman]

DWP have the final say over the benefit claim, so they should also have the final say over whether or not there needs to be a face-to-face ...... but (there's always a but!) they are likely to say that ATOS are the medical experts so should make those sorts of decisions. However, ATOS are clearly not following DWP guidance in insisting on a face-to-face assessment before making efforts to obtain the information they need via other means.

 

This is an extract from PIP Assessment Guide which you can find at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/449043/pip-assessment-guide.pdf

 

 

2.3.8. The circumstances where obtaining further evidence may be appropriate include (but are not limited to):

 Where HPs feel that further evidence will allow them to offer robust advice without the need for a face-to-face consultation – for example, because the addition of key evidence will negate the need for a consultation where they feel that a consultation may be unhelpful because the claimant lacks insight into their condition or a consultation may be stressful to the claimant

 Where they consider that a consultation is likely to still be needed but further evidence will improve the quality of the advice they provide the Department – for example, because the existing evidence cannot be balanced or suggests unlikely outcomes or to corroborate findings of other evidence.

 Where, in reassessment cases, further evidence may confirm that there has been no change in the claimant’s health condition or disability.

 

I would be quoting the paragraph number and highlighted bit to DWP, tell them ATOS are insisting that you obtain the further evidence despite having full information already provided on how severe your husband's issues are, and that they keep changing their minds as to where the assessment should be anyway. I would also tell them that ATOS tried to insist that you not contact DWP about the problems you're having with them. The bottom line is that your GP's letter on it's own should be sufficient evidence of your husband's very high level of disability and a face-to-face is never going to provide any relevant information since your husband won't even let them in the house never mind speak to them.

[justfornow]

Oh, thank you for that, I feel that I have just been given a fob off, my husband has lots and lots of problems, but one he did have was throwing his clothes away (not just clothes and shoes, I got up one morning and he had cut my new three piece suites two arm chairs into tiny pieces so that it could fit in the wheelie bin, this is 2002, after he had been sectioned) Since then he has gone through fazes, and now this is making him very very upset, he has started to wash his hands more, and he has started to throw things away( or gets me to do it). And he does not know about all of it, he just thinks that they MAY want to interview him soon. So I have got to do all this discretely, and he knows that there is something wrong.

[justfornow]

What a day, now the DWP lady that I was suppose to be speaking to, has had to go home early???? I stupidly spoke to another woman, and she said virtually word for word what you said they would say.

I then said about section 2.3.8 in the pip-assessment-guide, she then said how do they know it will course him stress ???? I said ask his GP, I was again getting nowhere, so I left it with I will ring back tomorrow, oh and this person said that she was senior to the lady I was supposed to be speaking to.

[justfornow]

Just been to get his letter from the Dr, £16.50 to pay it said on the envelope ?

 

To Whom It May Concern

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Then my husbands name and DOB and address.

 

Mr ---- ------ suffers with severe anxiety and due to this will not be able to undertake a home assessment.

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact myself.

Yours sincerely

 

Dr name and medical number

 

Do you think that that might be enough ???

[kirstyo]

Just been to get his letter from the Dr, £16.50 to pay it said on the envelope ?

 

To Whom It May Concern

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Then my husbands name and DOB and address.

 

Mr ---- ------ suffers with severe anxiety and due to this will not be able to undertake a home assessment.

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact myself.

Yours sincerely

 

Dr name and medical number

 

Do you think that that might be enough ???

 

I would have liked to see the dr go into more detail but at least it opens up a line of communication between the gp and atos. Send it off and follow it up with a phone call a few days later

[justfornow]

Yes, I will do that.

Thank you

[reallymadwoman]

Don't forget to keep a copy!

[justfornow]

Yes I have made 4 copies of each.

Now I just need to get the GP to speak to them tomorrow, it took him four days to do five lines, so he wont be talking to them any time soon I think.

I will ring DWP tomorrow, and see what happens, then I will send the letter off, Recorded delivery.

[justfornow]

Yes I have made 4 copies of each.

Now I just need to get the GP to speak to them tomorrow, it took him four days to do five lines, so he wont be talking to them any time soon I think.

I will ring DWP tomorrow, and see what happens, then I will send the letter off, Recorded delivery.

 

Hi,This is what has happened today, I can't get an appointment with GP till Monday 8.40am that's ok, give me time to ring dwp and see if there was anyone there he could talk to.

Phoned DWP, spoke to the first robot, he put through to a second robot, they sounded like they were reading from a script, did not matter what I said they said the same thing which was .-

DWP make the final decision, BUT it is ATOS that do the report, that they make the decision from. They said that Atos must not have enough information on my husband to do a paper based assessment? I told them about the Gp writing a letter, they said that that does not matter, as the GP will not be able to answer all the questions that they want to ask.

I will be putting a complaint about they way I was spoken to, Oh and the DWP informed me that "there are so many horror stories of people who say that they are very ill and then it is proven that they are not" I said yes there are, but I bet there is a lot more horror stories of people who said that they are ill and DWP say that they are not only for it to be proven that the person was ill after all but it is to late then, they are dead, but lessons will be learnt. He then just wanted me to get off the phone.

Oh and neither one of them took his name or national insurance number, which is the first time ever, the last one said that they are the supervisor.

So I will have to give this some thought over the weekend.

Thank you all for your help

[justfornow]

Hi,This is what has happened today, I can't get an appointment with GP till Monday 8.40am that's ok, give me time to ring dwp and see if there was anyone there he could talk to.

Phoned DWP, spoke to the first robot, he put through to a second robot, they sounded like they were reading from a script, did not matter what I said they said the same thing which was .-

DWP make the final decision, BUT it is ATOS that do the report, that they make the decision from. They said that Atos must not have enough information on my husband to do a paper based assessment? I told them about the Gp writing a letter, they said that that does not matter, as the GP will not be able to answer all the questions that they want to ask.

I will be putting a complaint about they way I was spoken to, Oh and the DWP informed me that "there are so many horror stories of people who say that they are very ill and then it is proven that they are not" I said yes there are, but I bet there is a lot more horror stories of people who said that they are ill and DWP say that they are not only for it to be proven that the person was ill after all but it is to late then, they are dead, but lessons will be learnt. He then just wanted me to get off the phone.

Oh and neither one of them took his name or national insurance number, which is the first time ever, the last one said that they are the supervisor.

So I will have to give this some thought over the weekend.

Thank you all for your help

 

Hi,

I have now got an appointment to see the CAB on 28th, I will be seeing the GP tomorrow morning, but I can't see him sitting there and phoning, (I may be just panicking).

The person I spoke to at the DWP said that they would speak to CAB, then Atos said that they would not, as it would be atos that they will be ringing, who is correct?

I will also chase up the MP, as they have not got back to me yet.

Thank you

[justfornow]

Hi,

Bit of a mixed day. Went to see the GP, he is all about the money, he firstly said he would ring up, and even asked which number to ring, then 50 seconds later as he was reading what they wrote, he said :- they can ring him directly, he has filled out loads of pip forms, that is private work and he needs to get paid. When Ii eventually picked my jaw off the floor I did not know what to say, he said they MUST ring him. So that was that.

 

I left and did not feel like phoning atos, but I did, I spoke to a really nice human, she was very warm and understanding and put me at ease. She was surprised that they have treated us like this, and she said that they have probably just generated the letters again. She also went on to say that they have never contacted the GP ( I had only just found that out via the GP that morning) she said that she would not cancel the appointment, because that would generate more letters. She told me that they have an internal email system that in some case's they can put a rush on the medical team to give a answer as to if you can get a paper based assessment, she said that they make this assessment within hours, but they tell the customer 10 working days, she took all the information about my husband and read it back to me, she said that they now have notes to work with, apparently no one wrote anything about my several previous phone calls.

I presume I will receive letters on Wednesday, she also said if I did not hear anything I must chase it up.

So that is how I have left it till Wednesday.

[justfornow]

Hi All,

Received a letter today saying that my husband does NOT need to attend a face to face....

It says that they now have enough information.

 

Well I don't know what the outcome will be, but that is a big relief to us.

 

Thank you for all the advice I have been given, and I will do letters of complaint as I agreed that I would.

 

If anyone else is going through the same thing (dealing with the robotic system that is ATOS) then from my experience it was all about who I got to speak to on the end of the phone line, seven times I spoke to different people (robots, who all seemed to be reading from a script) until Monday when I spoke to a nice lady, who listened and did what she said she would do, she also said that she would chase it up for me.

And I believe that this is the only reason I have got a paper based assessment.

So my advice is to ring and ring and ring again until YOU feel like you are speaking to someone who is listening, because if you don't think that they are listening, then they are not, and they wont be taking notes either as in my case.

 

Thank you again for helping me, I really needed it.

[kirstyo]

I am glad you got the right result in the end. I am still to do my complaint too, life keeps getting in the way but I am now about to start the whole thing over again as my mum is being transitioned from DLA to PIP and she is in such a state about the whole thing.

 

I had a similar experience to you, most people I spoke to just read off their script and werent really that helpful but i got one person (who would you believe i spoke to twice randomly when i called) who was really willing to help, told me exactly what i needed to do and made sure the notes on the file reflected what was happening.

[reallymadwoman]

Only just seen this, my first day sitting up. Really glad it's turned out well and the offer to help with your complaint stands.