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Finally WE Get A TASTE Of What SOME DWP Medical Assessor’s Think Of Clients And There Illness Diease’s

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5 years ago•7 Replies

Miserable trap; some good friends made amongst absolute sharks

Disability Assessor (Former Employee) – Ballymena, County Antrim – 28 May 2019

I was briefly a DA - it is a job of extremes, with about 10% thriving on it and 90% being in the most miserable place mentally and emotionally they've ever been in their life.

Training is a little hard but fun, with a cohort starting at the same time. You make some friends, and it is paid - a good salary. 5 weeks easily passed.

There are essentially 3 variants of the job.

1) Paper-based, where someone's dependence is obvious, from records and medical notes. Boring, but easy money if you're IT literate.

2) Mainly clinic-based - you stay in clinic and people come to you. You listen to their tales and look for EVIDENCE of what they tell you. Their diagnosis is irrelevant in and of itself; independence, or specifically evidence of it, is what is assessed. This is not pleasant, basically because nearly everyone lies though their teeth to you and is clearly obvious, but you can bear it and write the report and be home before typical working hours would usually allow. HOWEVER very few areas allow you this - 90% are not this lucky.

3) Mainly (read, almost always) home visits. This is mental, physical, and emotional torture. The day is not 9-5pm. Read, 7:30am - 10pm to assess and submit reports. Some of reports will be returned to you by daily audit for 6 months (!), so next day you will have 7:30am-10pm PLUS amendments. Rinse and repeat. The actual assessment will be 5% people who ought never to have required an assessment, i.e. terminally ill or not compus mentis. >90% will be blatant, ill-informed liars who attempt to emotionally blackmail you - as a AHP, this is so, more...

Pros

Salary, some good friends who left same time as me

Cons

Aggressive lying clients, unreasonable management, physically impossible hours, mental health, poor equipment, no help

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-s...

indeed.co.uk/cmp/Capita-PLC...

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7 Replies

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skischool5 years ago

So this is the opinion of one disgruntled former employee who thankfully no longer works for that organisation.They obviously didn't have the right empathy and attitude in the first place and were not suited to their position.

On the very site you referred us to.i also found positive reviews from one current employee who stated that they were trying to do fair and honest appraisement for clients who they had empathy for and they were entirely happy with their positions.

So as alarming as that one person's comments are you have once again failed to draw our attention to any positive side to the equation and i for one was impressed with both the fairness of my assessment and the attitude of the assessor and the outcome of my claim.

There will always be bad eggs in any organisation,that is the nature of our society.

I have the deepest sympathy for genuine people who have received injustices within the system and i hope they are rectified on appeal.

Just my opinion.

• in reply toskischool5 years ago

Hi scischool I read reviews too .. even one about assessors getting incentive bonus you failed to mention.

Also read your personal experience guess like person doing review did he’s

In my experience even tho post is not about me ASSESSMENT’s are luck of the draw and how intrested is asseror is in chasing bonus or incentives

Badbessie5 years ago

I have some experience of the PIP assessment system. I think you must remember that receiving PIP does not exclude you from working but can provide the means to help you to carry on working. From the experience of both myself and my wife the assessments where both fairly accurate. The assessor only as an hour and deals with both subjective and objective information. They may have a number of professionals reports but any assessment must include a nurses own observations and very often the consultants reports only give a quick overview of the condition not how it affects the person in the activities of daily living. If you are like me and are under the care of a number of consultants these reports can often be conf!Lifting. For example my respiratory consultant wrote that on a six minute walk test I completed 850m. Looking at that on its own you could say that I was fit for work. What it did not say was that was achievable only when the pain from my arthritis allowed. The rheumatologist report painted a different picture due to the fact that I was in flair when I saw him. He listed a long list of problems from limited joint movement to pain and falls. My pain teams letter then stated on examination that my pain was severe at times but on good days I could function normally!

Over the years I have helped a number of people fill in forms to claim PIP. Some continue to work after getting the award. Remember PIP is exactly what it says it is. A means to facilitate independence not a total disability payment to do nothing. Without PIP a number of people would not be able to work. Do not confuse it with ESA which does concentrate on work capacities.

Tetrazzini5 years ago

I find it difficult to feel any sympathy for your perpetual rants. Be grateful for what you have.

• in reply toTetrazzini5 years ago

Hi tetrazzini am I missing something POST was not about me

Clearly bias in comment BUT getting back to post we all have different experiences of medical assessment’s AND it’s clear assessment’s assessor are given incentives bonus for what

Clearly you need to get over it being about me AND subject of post.