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I've spent all day on the phone to ATOS and the DWP with my friend who is going through the mortal agony of a PIP application. He is hearing-impaired and they want to do a phone assessment, he's been so stressed about this because he's simply not capable of it.
So he walked round to my house, slowly and painfully, so I could, he hoped, sort out a face to face assessment some time in the future. He understands it wouldn't be immediate but, though he desperately needs the extra money, he'd rather wait.
When I finally got through to ATOS (on my first try their system was down and they couldn't access anything at all) they told me that they couldn't reschedule or put his case on hold, but that it would go back to the DWP and would most likely be cancelled.
I asked the ATOS guy, who was very helpful and quite sweet as it happens, what he recommended, and he said we could arrange with the DWP for an "appointee" to take a phone assessment on his behalf, but that it would take a long time to sort out.
Apart from the extra delay, that doesn't really help; my friend has had some bad experiences with the DWP, it's important to him that he make his own case, understand the process, and be involved in decisions made about him. He's hard of hearing, not of thinking.
Eventually my ATOS buddy said he could put me through directly to the DWP, and that I should explain the situation to them. I spent another eternity on hold, but again, I eventually got through, which was a result because all my earlier calls ended in an auto-disconnect.
Again, the guy I spoke to at the DWP was very helpful; once he realised that my friend's hearing impairment was mentioned in his documentation, he realised that ATOS should have identified this problem and sent him a paper-based assessment.
However, he told me that ATOS would still phone my friend and ask for the assessment, because it was a "process" and it couldn't be amended. Usually, if he couldn't/wouldn't comply, the claim would have been referred back to the DWP and cancelled.
He made a note of the circumstances, and the claim will be sent back to ATOS with a recommendation for the paper-based assessment he should have been sent in the first place. It will take much longer, of course, during which time my friend will carry on going to food banks.
What I'll take away from this, apart from the monstrous inhumanity of it all, it's the words "I'm sorry, it's a process". No matter the suffering, the people going hungry in a deadly pandemic; it's a process. I talked to kind, helpful people carrying out a process that kills.
I'm off to lie down now, the hours I've spent banging my head against this ridiculous, intractable steamroller of a process has given me double vision and a thumping migraine. I just wanted to say, the benefit system is disgrace and a misery to anyone trapped inside it.
